Are there are any real Christians out there?
In an earlier post I had mentioned my inability to understand how religious fanatics cannot leave personal and religious prejudices at home when they go to vote.
This reminded me of just how much these Christian zealots bother me. I would consider myself a Christian (if more in the way I conduct myself and treat others than in the dogmatic beliefs I hold to be true): I think most Christian fanatics in this country behave in a way that is so utterly un-Christian that I'd like to be right there during the Second Coming just to see them get a disapproving "tsk tsk" from Jesus Himself.
Fanatical Christians in this country do not "love their neighbor as they love themselves," they do not "do unto others as they would like to be done unto them," they "judge though they be judged" (OK, that last one was hard to rephrase, but you get my drift). An outsider to the faith would be hard-pressed to understand how these fanatical Christians could consider themselves to be Christians at all, and how they could possibly pretend to draw people to their faith if their most salient representatives seem to be divise hate-mongerers.
Reading the New Testament you should get a warm, fuzzy feeling about Jesus and, thus, His followers. You should feel that you would be embraced and loved by them, just like Jesus said He'd embrace and love all of us. Why isn't this so? Why can't these so-called Christians follow their Master's teachings, and love everyone equally, including those they personally find unpalatable? Loving cute little kids and embracing your best friend is easy: loving and embracing those who behave in a way that is contrary to your own is what's hard, is what separates the wheat from the chaff: it is, in fact, what should theoretically separate a Christian dilettante from someone who truly leads the life Jesus said we should lead.
To wit, I pose the following question: how would have Jesus reacted if one of His Apostles had been gay? Would He have shunned His follower, calling him a sinner, denouncing his lifestyle, ensured that he would be treated as an outcast, and if possible, have less rights as a citizen? Or would Jesus have embraced him, told him that he would be loved anyway, and furthermore told the rest of His followers that "he who is without sin cast the first stone"?
I know which one I would like to believe... but I guess everyone, including myself, writes in his or her head the version of the Bible that he or she finds more palatable.
What do you think Jesus would have done?
This reminded me of just how much these Christian zealots bother me. I would consider myself a Christian (if more in the way I conduct myself and treat others than in the dogmatic beliefs I hold to be true): I think most Christian fanatics in this country behave in a way that is so utterly un-Christian that I'd like to be right there during the Second Coming just to see them get a disapproving "tsk tsk" from Jesus Himself.
Fanatical Christians in this country do not "love their neighbor as they love themselves," they do not "do unto others as they would like to be done unto them," they "judge though they be judged" (OK, that last one was hard to rephrase, but you get my drift). An outsider to the faith would be hard-pressed to understand how these fanatical Christians could consider themselves to be Christians at all, and how they could possibly pretend to draw people to their faith if their most salient representatives seem to be divise hate-mongerers.
Reading the New Testament you should get a warm, fuzzy feeling about Jesus and, thus, His followers. You should feel that you would be embraced and loved by them, just like Jesus said He'd embrace and love all of us. Why isn't this so? Why can't these so-called Christians follow their Master's teachings, and love everyone equally, including those they personally find unpalatable? Loving cute little kids and embracing your best friend is easy: loving and embracing those who behave in a way that is contrary to your own is what's hard, is what separates the wheat from the chaff: it is, in fact, what should theoretically separate a Christian dilettante from someone who truly leads the life Jesus said we should lead.
To wit, I pose the following question: how would have Jesus reacted if one of His Apostles had been gay? Would He have shunned His follower, calling him a sinner, denouncing his lifestyle, ensured that he would be treated as an outcast, and if possible, have less rights as a citizen? Or would Jesus have embraced him, told him that he would be loved anyway, and furthermore told the rest of His followers that "he who is without sin cast the first stone"?
I know which one I would like to believe... but I guess everyone, including myself, writes in his or her head the version of the Bible that he or she finds more palatable.
What do you think Jesus would have done?
posted by El Rata | 7:38 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Rafa! Its been a while since I visited your blog (its eli btw). You bring a very good point about many Christians in this Country (and all over the world for that matter). I agree with you completely, a true Christian should love others even when the other person is different (race, culture, religion, opinions, etc). The world would be a very nice place if everybody followed Jesus example of love and forgiveness. If you think about it, would people go hungry or be homeless if people followed Jesus teachings?
Another funny thing about Christians in this Country is that they believe in the death penalty and in having guns. I'm pretty sure Jesus wouldn't approve of those!
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/29/1054177665090.html
I think the fundamentalists are borderline sociopaths that have no internal concept of right and wrong. They need someone to tell them what to do and what not to do because they wouldn't have a clue otherwise.
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