Spaghetti Spirituality

… an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:5)

That quote (that Paul wrote to Timothy) exactly fits what’s happening in our world today.

Like those who organized the spaghetti religion.

Yes, I said the spaghetti religion.

Seriously.

The focus of the religion is to stomp on creationism/intelligent design … or anything else that has to do with God and the Bible.

They have a “thing” that they worship – a monster who flies and (is made from spaghetti.) They have Christmas courthouse displays (to rival nativities) mugs, t-shirts, a website and (as I saw on a car yesterday) an icon that models the Christian ichthys. The have quotes that blatantly twist the Bible and turn the worship of God to the worship of their monster. They have had floats of their monsters in a parade and one member was voted into a state senate – taking his oath of office with a colander on his head.

This can all sound crazily funny and you might think I’m making it up, but the truth is – I’m not making it up and it isn’t all that funny because people are joining and supporting it with their money … and bumper stickers.

This is the world where we live.

This is the world where our children are growing up.

As we look at the children in our homes or in our ministries, we might have an idealistic view that we can protect them from knowing about such things.

But we can’t isolate them from everyone and everything. That icon yesterday was on back of a car and the people in our car wanted to know what it meant. The children in your life might be curious too when they see the wacky creature glued to someone’s fender.

I had read about this “religion” a few months ago and planned to write a post about it then, but kind of forgot it until seeing the icon. A quick look at their website shows that they’re growing in recognition.

So what do we tell our kids?

1. Be aware. None of us can keep up with all the wacky things that are going on in our world, but we have to at least have the awareness that they’re out there and be prepared to respond to our children’s curiosity with the truth of God’s Word.
2. Speak the truth with clarity to our kids. When we say that God is the only true God and encourage them to believe in Him and then add on all the other things we want them to believe in like the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny, we’re watering down the aspect of truth.
3. Teach children how we know that God is the one true God from an early age. Even very young children can be taught that God is the Creator, that He loves us and that He is truth. They need to know the character of the true God. (If you have T&T aged children, the following might sound familiar.)

1. God is creator. (Genesis 1:1)
2. God is eternal (without beginning and end). (Revelation 22:13)
3. God is holy (without sin). (Psalm 99:3)
4. God is true. (John 17:17)
5. God is everywhere. (Psalm 139:2-3)
6. God is all-powerful. (1 Corinthians 2:5)
7. Christ is the Son of God. (Matthew 14:13)
8. Christ came to earth to provide for our salvation. (John 3:16)

1. Explain that people who don’t believe in the true God, can sound very appealing and enticing.
2. 1 Peter 5:8
3. Matthew 24:4-5
4. 2 Corinthians 4:4
5. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

We cannot get lazy or grow content in some kind of isolated bubble, we need to be aware of what’s going on around us and we need to teach our children to be aware, helping them develop a strong, biblical foundation … a foundation that won’t be shaken by some upstart belief system.

Spaghetti … or otherwise.