A few years ago I attended the wedding of a friend of a friend. It was held in a prominent mega-church a few miles down the road from us.
The wedding was a large gathering, in the smaller second chapel hall in that huge building. Within the walls of that monstrous structure was a coffee shop, an ice cream parlor and a book store. In the front lobby, was an immense fountain in the shape of a cross modeled after modern art, standing about ten feet tall. This cross could be transformed into a baptismal.
The lobby was so large that it could easily hold a couple of hundred people milling around visiting with one another.
As I looked around me I wondered what kind of people would love coming to a place that would have caused Christ to wield a whip in protest.
The main pastor of the church, also a radio personality, performed the ceremony, in which the entrance music was of the sixties rock vintage, the ending music was the "Snoopy" theme. As I watched the bride and groom come down the isle, I didn't see a bride and groom, I saw the Snoopy Dog, I was used to seeing on television when I was growing up.
Upon entering the reception for this couple, who claimed to be believers, I witnessed this celebrity pastor wearing a long black woman's wig. The groom asked him to do it as a joke while he greeted the 300 guests that came through the line.
YES! This wedding was a joke and in a building that was supposedly dedicated to Christ and His Work. I milled around for a short time at the reception mostly out of curiosity. I saw young women in very short skirts, no coverings on their shoulders and much silliness happening in groups all over the huge reception hall.
There were two short verses from the Bible mentioned in the wedding ceremony and none in the reception hall.
My heart was very heavy as I walked out the front doors of that church. The family of the bride had raised her to only wear dresses and she was chaperoned everywhere she went to protect her reputation and virginity.
The rules they had for this young lady protected her, but did they bring spiritual maturity? Not one bit! Sometimes our rules on our children are really for our own reputation rather than their spiritual well being of the child.
Why were the parents not mandating what was to be done in the wedding, after all they were paying for it. My belief is, since the young woman was still under her father and he was paying for it, she should have been directed the kind of music that was acceptable, as well as the goings on at the reception.
Too often we are more concerned about being liked and how things look rather than what God thinks about matter. This was the most unholy wedding I had ever attended, orchestrated by those who uphold themselves as godly people, at least morally and outwardly. But where is the holiness?
Welcome to our world of apostate Christianity.
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