Oscar Romerso was martyred 25 years ago tomorrow (March 24, 1980). He was the archbishop of El Salvador and lived a truly remarkable life. He rose through the ranks of the Catholic hiearchcy mostly because he was safe and El Salvador was going through some pretty rough times and safe seemed best for the church. But once he was promoted to Archbishop he had, what I would call in a way, a conversion experience. He started sticking up for the poor and oppressed and no longer tried to just keep things calm. One of my favorite lines from the movie "Romero" (which I higly recomend to any and everyone) is when he tells a rich lady he will only baptize her kids with all the rest of the kids, including the poor kids, and she gets ticked off because she realizes he is standing with the poor in solidarity and she says "do you know what that will cost us?" I'm not sure if he knew what it would cost her, but he knew what it would cost him... his life.
Thinking on his life, makes me think about mine. Am I just playing it safe, or would I be willing to risk it all for the sake of the Gospel. I'm always playing it safe. I never want to offend anyone, or challenge anyone. I'm scared of leading our church to really being the people of God. You read about people such as Romero and then your read the Gospels and you see so clearly how you are just living a watered down faith.
I was reading an interview with Ron Sider in Christianity Today about his new book where he rips the church in America. He said he wrote the book with tears in his eyes, but also with hope in his heart. I hope that's how I write this entry today.
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