Earlier, Gibby – a Facebook friend – posted a quote by George Carlin. Now, if you’re not familiar with George Carlin, he was a stand-up comedian who was famous for his criticism of American society and culture.

(No, he’s not the sledgehammer guy… that’s Gallagher.)

Anyway, one of the cultural icons that Carlin often lampooned was American religion and American Christianity in particular.

For example, consider this quote (the quote that prompted this post):

Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money.

Now, granted, as a comedian Carlin is taking “religion” to the extreme to be funny. And, granted, no one thinks they are proclaiming this message.

But, apparently this is the message that Carlin – and probably many other people – are receiving. If this is the message that people are receiving, then perhaps it is the message that many are actually proclaiming – whether they intend to proclaim this message or not.

Why do you think so many think this (or something similar) about Christianity? How can we make sure that this is not the “gospel” that we are proclaiming?