I used to live and work in Colorado Springs when it was inhabited by a lot of military people, a small service industry sector and a few non-profits (one of which employed me). This was before the invasion of dozens of not-for-profit corporations, many of them self-described "Christian Organizations," changed the complexion of that once sleepy town. The change was not for the better if you ask me! I’m afraid the migration of these organizations concentrated too much money and power in religious hands. Too much certainty about matters left unsettled in the biblical text. Too many people communicating a sense of spiritual entitlement. For a while, locals favored a bumper sticker that read: "Jesus, Save Me From Your Followers."

I haven’t often said this out loud but I found myself emailing a friend who moved from Colorado Springs to the East coast, "Boy, be glad you moved from there!"

"I AM glad I don’t live there," he wrote back, "but I’m curious about why you think I should be."

I said there are a lot of reason’s . . . really best discussed over a glass of wine. A lot of it was summed up in the May 2005 issue of Harpers magazine. There, among other things, you’ll find a spiritual leader defining Christian faith saying, “They’re pro-free markets, they’re pro-private property,” he said. “That’s what evangelical stands for.” I’m enthusasitic about the transformative potential of capital working from biblical worldview but I certainly do not define biblical spirituality in those terms. Look it up: The gospel Jesus preached was good news about the Kingdom of God . . . both present and to come . . . which means I am on this planet with a passport from the Kingdom of God . . . and a temporary worker visa for this kingdom.

Beyond all the patently spiritual issues are the aesthetic and cultural results.

The town has come to have a dis-organized look and feel . . . full of "clutter" . . . dirty . . . and unappealing to the senses. The "blandness" to everything leads me to speculate that there must not be much in the way of intellectual discussion, creative pursuits or unique thought.

I actually wrote those things, then typed, "Enough . . . before God strikes me down for my judging. I am just glad that I am "out of there."

This is a strange thing to me – to be so disaffected about a place I once enjoyed quite a bit. More than a few of us have heard longtime residents of Colorado Springs bemoaning the arrival of all those Christians. One of my colleagues listened while a business person ranted about living there since 1963 and being really tempted to move away because the town had become so "mean-spirited. But I decided not to move," he told my coworker, "because that would mean the bastards had won."

What an awful thing to say. What an awful feeling to have. Not wrong; just awful.

There’s a remarkable letter from the prophet Jeremiah to the survivors of the exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Here it is in part – help yourself to rest:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. — Jeremiah 29:4-10 [New International Version]

Build. Settle. Plant. Eat. Marry. Increase. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

If they carried out those commands, I have trouble imagining the natives of Babylon complaining about what unpleasant and stingy neighbors they were.

When the Colorado Springs business owner declared that he had decided not to move – to keep the bastards from winning – my colleague says he nodded sympathetically and replied, "I just have to keep reminding myself that Jesus wasn’t a Christian." That took the edge off the conversation and led to an interesting exchange about what it means to need mercy so much that being judgmental is out of the question.

I’ve already admitted that I’m completely capable of judging people, so you can see I don’t live up to my own standard. This is one of the many reasons I need mercy and one of the reasons why, on my best days, I’m mainly about encouraging people to believe God finds us where we are, not where we’re supposed to be, and loves us that way (and loves us too much to leave us there – but that’s another chapter in the story).

• What kind of neighbor is your business? How do you know that?
• Rate your company leadership on a scale of one to ten in each of Jeremiah’s action steps:
• Build
• Settle
• Plant
• Eat
• Marry
• Increase
• Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile
• What can you do in this quarter to solidify or turn that around for good?