by James Glaser
December 12, 2005

You never have to prove who you are in church, God already knows. Almost every place else you go in America, you check your pocket to make sure you have some sort of ID with you.

Try buying an airline ticket without ID or renting a car. Cash is no longer enough, you can't just buy a ticket, now they need a record of who you are and where you are going.

When you step into God's house for services on Sunday, many times people will come up to welcome you and shake your hand. When you introduce yourself, nobody says, "Prove it."

If a policeman stops you on the street, the first thing he wants to see is your driver's license. You're not even driving a car, but it is so routine in America today, that the driver's license has become the universal proof of identification. You lose that and you stop everything to get a new one. A person without identification in the United States today is in trouble.

It is no longer enough to present your credit card when you make a purchase; they now want to see a photo ID. With so much identity theft in the United States, this can be a good thing, but it also shows us that trust is gone.

At one time, not that many years ago, an American citizen could travel the length and breadth of this country and never worry about proving who he or she was. If you obeyed the laws and had the money to travel around, nobody made you prove who you were. Today renting a room at a hotel or motel requires a photo ID and a description of your car. Many places no longer take cash, but require a credit card.

I don't care where you are in this country, and it doesn't matter which Christian Church you stop in, you are still accepted as a child of God. Your word is your bond, and people treat you with respect. If you need help or just someone to talk to, most churches will go out of their way to help you.

It used to be that way all over America, but we have lost the trust that churches still hold dear. In America today, who you are matters most. If you have fine clothes, a great car, and can run up debt on a credit card, you can fit in anywhere. If you are down on your luck, and are tattered and torn, most people in America will ask you for some sort of ID if you ask for help. The fact you are a fellow human who needs help has become secondary. Now the powers that be here on earth want to know your race, gender, place of birth, and a long list of other private data, before they can even think about if they are willing to help you or not.

Our churches are a place of refuge from the need for identification, the requirements to prove that you belong to one group or another. In God's house all men are created equal and Christ died for everyone's salvation. You don't have to prove who you are when you need help, want to rejoice, or just give thanks. The Church is still a haven for us all to find a bit of peace, a place where we can truly feel that we are free of the rules of man, and can contemplate the love that God holds for each of us.

It really wasn't that long ago that the church was a place of "sanctuary." From the 4th to the 17th century, under English law, a person could be safe from arrest in the sanctuary of a church. Today that law is no longer in force, and even the freedom from civil law held for over a thousand years by churches has eroded down to what small freedom the church can give us today.

Sometimes though it is nice to walk to church with nothing in your hand or your pocket, but your Bible and any amount you feel you would like to tithe. That time spent in church with the freedom to think whatever you want, to be yourself before your maker, gives you a bit of the sense of freedom that our country was founded on.