I read this blog post by Ben Irwin today. click to read here
I share it with you and encourage your thoughts and reflections in the "comments" section.
Here are some of my reflections:
While I was not raised with the "sinner's prayer," I have been influenced by people who did pray this prayer. I may not have even been 20 when I attended a tent meeting with a friend when an altar call was made. My friend told me they would go up with me so I could be "saved." I responded by saying I was baptized as a baby and I was saved. I did not need this altar call to change that.
It is a deep, pivotal memory for me.
I would much rather tell people they are beloved Children of the Holy One than tell them to first think of themselves as sinners. We make mistakes. We struggle with ethical decisions. We live in a world where we are bombarded with images of indecency, with impropriety, with lies, violence, and indiscretions. We can blame or point fingers, shame or ignore. But when we see that each is a child of the Holy One, when we raise our young to understand that they are beloved, then we can have more hope for the world. There is no rule that we have to like the behavior, or that we shouldn't try to change the behavior. But we are each first born in the image of God. We are not born sinners. We are born beloved.