The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

It’s a mystery how far apart engineering and common sense can be. For years we have been perplexed by how many products for the household are designed with everything in mind except cleanability. Surely there is a happy medium somewhere that could be reached. Until then, there is a fortune waiting to be had as a cleaning consultant for manufacturers, home builders, civic planners, landscapers, and gadget makers. Such a person would have the power to make like easier for millions of people.

For a nation that spends untold millions on allergy relief, it seems there is scant thought given to avoidance of rough surfaces that collect all manner of allergen, fixtures with acute impossible angles, or components of furniture that cannot be easily pulled apart or reached in order to clean. Once one begins to inventory how many items are near impossible to adequately clean, it becomes easier to focus on alternatives. Cabinets with square inside edges and corners are out, as are most designs that cannot be easily reached or dusted. Smooth finished woodwork with rounded profiles is now preferred. Hardwood flooring with area rugs is getting new consideration, and open shelving is, well, being shelved in favor of enclosed cabinetry.

How often do we let dirt and dust accumulate in unhealthy ways when it comes to approaching scripture? There are the perceptions we grew into or were taught, the kind that have needed a deep cleaning for years. As children, we didn’t question whenever a trusted parent or friend declared, “The Bible says…,” all the while assuming that what we heard was completely trustworthy. Those three words might be the most dangerous words in all of western Christianity. As is the case with much Biblical knowledge, elements of time, wisdom, and experience tend to alter our perceptions of the Divine and give us new ways of viewing scripture without always having to contend with accumulated unhealthy layers of dust.

As adults, our tendency is not to question or query; after all, if it was good enough for our forebears, it is good enough for us. What we discover instead is the living, dynamic, always changing revelation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Harsh corners and impossible places to clean are now seen as more accessible, rounded, smooth-edged and easy to approach. What strikes us as fearful and intimidating - stoked in large measure by the fears that we have given such a prominent hold in our culture - becomes a journey of expectation and discovery, one that beckons and invites without intimidation.

What will it take to clean up Christian understandings that are too often based on fear and misleading or inappropriate evangelistic fervor? Christianity is far more diverse and welcoming than the narrow identity that current politics has reserved, promoted, and embraced on its behalf. We all should be ashamed for sitting idly by without comment as we allow religion to be politicized by our leaders and by the church itself. It’s time for a deep cleaning, one unhindered by the past, one that is open to fresh visions of a compassionate future.