On behalf of my fellow believers, I would like to apologize for everything we've done wrong for the past two thousand years. We have done a fantastic job of making Christians look and become bigoted, ignorant, hypocritical, stupid and condemning. No Christian can honestly claim innocence in this regard (including myself).
More specifically: I apologize for being so uptight about our beliefs regarding the origin of the world. These stem from the refusal of many to understand that God may have created the earth in a way that agrees with science (though His role in the whole business, I am not willing to refute). We have made evolution seem like the words of Satan himself. In all honesty no Christian can claim with certainty how God made the universe, we can only claim that He did, and here we are. Our attempts to vilify those who offer theories as to how are pointless. I know I specifically am guilty of this ignorance--forgive me. I also have no intention of attacking those who believe God did create the world in seven literal days with no evolution whatsoever--I merely hope that those people do not use their beliefs as a reason to hate those who disagree.
I apologize for our actions towards those whose lifestyles and values conflict with our own. I believe that homosexuality is wrong, do not get me wrong. But I think it is just as wrong to publicly damn them, and it is just as wrong to create a website called godhatesfags.com in the name of God. I apologize for those who practice other religions (or none at all) whom we have vilified and slaughtered. We have been judgmental, condemning and arrogant--none of these are attributes of the Lord and Savior we claim to serve. I apologize for the disunity within even our own church. I can't blame anyone who calls Christians hypocritical--we want everyone to come to Christ, yet we can't agree on how we're supposed to do that, and in some cases we killed each other over these decisions!
I apologize for our political failures. So many Christians have made the Republican Party an extension of God. We've rejected liberal ideas as ungodly. Let me set the record straight: God is not a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Communist, or fascist. To live and believe that He has any political preference is foolishness. (Certainly there are Christians who honestly have more conservative political preferences. I find no fault there, I would merely like to acknowledge that those who think left-wing ideas are somehow sinful because they are left-wing are in the wrong.)
To make a long post short, my fellow Christians and I have tacked on so many superfluous things to the Gospel. What began as a message of hope and freedom has become one synonymous with ignorance. Christianity deserves every stereotype it has been given. So I would like to take the opportunity to try to bring it back to basics.
I believe God made the world and everything in it...somehow.
I believe God gave man the choice to serve Him or the self, and man chose the latter, bringing sin into the world. I believe that blood must be shed to pay for these sins.
I believe God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life and bear all the sins mankind had ever committed or will ever commit. I believe he died and rose again, defeating sin and death once and for all.
I believe that all it takes to enter heaven is to accept that the above is true. I also believe that I could never give this idea the explication it deserves.
I believe that true Christianity makes caring, charitable, kind, loving individuals. I do not believe that Christianity makes life perfect, but I do believe there's a certain peace in knowing a loving Father God is watching my back.
I do not believe that God will be standing outside the gates of heaven with a checklist, making sure all who enter are judgmental, ignorant and unloving, as the stereotypes have made Christians out to be.
Why am I writing this? Not because I'm the perfect Christian or because I have some delusion that I can undo our errors. I'm writing this to help non-Christians realize that the Christianity they rightfully hate is not Christianity at all.
I believe Christianity is both so much less and so much more than we have made it out to be.
--Mike.
(Yes, I know you know that I wrote this. But I started this like a letter, so I have to end it like one. Yes, I'm a dork.)
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Now playing: Project 86 - The Sanctuary Hum
(How appropriate! http://www.allthelyrics.com/song/1052861/)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
To every person who hates Christians for any reason,
Posted by Mike at 7:22 PM
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11 comments:
I love this. You can always say exactly what I'm thinking, but with "more precise diction."
*goes back to reading Lit*
Christian apologists are among the most dangerous of hypocrites. I hope you take the next logical step. The westboro baptist church is right in at least they are unapologetic about what they declare, and can't be reasonably expected to be reasoned with. But you, you are a reasonable and rational thinking person. Why is it that you can say that "yes homosexuality is wrong, but we shouldn't demonize them," when the bible clearly states otherwise: 'If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13).' At least the westboro bigots are consistent in their hatred.
And if you say, "well that was written for an earlier time period," then what stops you from picking and choosing any biblical passage to discount. Why trust any of what it has to say?
You can't have it both ways. Either the bible is full or misogynistic hatred, or unending unconditional love. How can a God who loves everything in his creation, also condemn parts of it to eternal pain and anguish. What kind of moral code says that when you sin, someone who is better than you has to come and take your punishment and bleed to appease an all loving and omnipotent God. That's a really effective way of preventing further sin... and lastly, what kind of sacrifice is dying, when you know you're the son of god and will be raised again in only 2 days? Yea I'm sure it was painful, but that's fleeting. Who wouldn't offer to sacrifice themselves to save the whole rest of the human race, if you knew that you would come back to life 2 days later and spend the rest of eternity in paradise.
It's your choice, but you're taking the steps towards truth. Religion and critical thinking can't stay together for too long.
"But you, you are a reasonable and rational thinking person. Why is it that you can say that "yes homosexuality is wrong, but we shouldn't demonize them," when the bible clearly states otherwise: 'If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13)."
Christ freed us from the law in that we don't get stoned for every sin we commit. However that doesn't mean every action is good. I can't condone everything, otherwise God becomes meaningless. I'm not picking and choosing what passages to follow--the arrival of Christ changed things.
"How can a God who loves everything in his creation, also condemn parts of it to eternal pain and anguish"
Read The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis. There's your answer.
(In short, if there was no pain in the world, God would be ignored, and no one would turn to Him, thus increasing the damnation quotient.)
"and lastly, what kind of sacrifice is dying, when you know you're the son of god and will be raised again in only 2 days? "
He was also fully human. And no matter who you are, crucifixion sucks. I don't recommend trying it.
"Who wouldn't offer to sacrifice themselves to save the whole rest of the human race, if you knew that you would come back to life 2 days later and spend the rest of eternity in paradise. "
He'd been in that paradise before. He LEFT a paradise of incredible perfection to save humanity. That has some merit, I think.
Matthew 5: 17-18. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
That certainly seems to say that all the old laws still hold. He says that everything in the law (law of the old testament) still holds and if you break them, you will have sinned as before.
The problem of pain is its own world of crazy contradictions and rationalizations. God the father, the almighty, but not almighty enough to know what we are going to do from day to day, and so needs to invent pain to make us seek him. That works in the real world, where a parent says, "don't touch the hot stove." and you touch it anyway and hurt yourself. That assumes that the parental figure doesn't know exactly what you are going to do and that you will need to learn it yourself. But if God is omnipresent and omniscient and all powerful, he knows whats going in your head right now. He knows that little baby shawanda in east kenya is going to have her mother and father hacked to death before her at the age of 9. He knew at every point in history that it was going to happen. And what then of shawanda's faith? When she asks why god didn't help her and turns from the church, he will say oops, sorry shawanda, and condemns her to a fiery eternity because of something which was a natural response to something she had no control over. Pain on earth is one thing, but when that pain can make some people turn away from you, and condemn themselves to eternity of torture, I fail to see the loving kindness.
Yes crucifixion sucks. I agree completely. But it is only temporary pain. In eternity, what is a comparative moment of intense pain worth? Hanging out in heaven since the beginning of time. Head to earth and spend 30 some years waltzing around. 3 hours worth of one of those days is hanging on a cross and suffocating to death, so your dad, who is also you, can forgive humanity, of the sin which he himself convicted them of. I see your point, totally worth it.
Yes it has some merit, but merit enough to say that if you express any doubt about it, you will be thrown into a lake of unending fire, torment and torture? Try Prometheus. He gave humanity wisdom in the form of fire, and he was condemned to be chained to a mountain for eternity, where every day a bird would come and eat out his liver, only to have it regrow at night for the bird to eat it again the next day. That sounds like punishment worthy of saving the entire human race. Jesus drops down for a few years, hangs out with some guys, gets tortured for three hours, and then that's enough to bear the sins of every bad thing that any human has ever done? That three hour act of anguish is enough to absolve Hitler of killing 6 million Jews in the eyes of God, but not enough to absolve someone born in India and raised Hindu, of unending torment and torture since they worship Krishna? You sir, have a twisted sense of justice and morality.
First of all, who are you?
Second...(Apologies for the sloppy formatting.)
Romans 5 12-21
"12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
"God the father, the almighty, but not almighty enough to know what we are going to do from day to day, and so needs to invent pain to make us seek him. "
If the world in which you lived was utterly perfect aside from the fact that you died after 70-80some years, would you find any reason to think there was a higher power? You'd have no need to search for peace or solace. You'd deify the world around you. You'd become Epicurean, effectively. And God's not in the business of forcing worship out of his creation--without alternatives to worshiping Him, the worship is meaningless.
Also, God does not cast people into hell. Those who do not want God will not have Him. How God decides where to send those who've never been taught one iota of His teachings is a mystery, yes. I personally believe there is an age at which someone becomes responsible for their faith. Our Shawanda, I think, gets a free pass into heaven if she dies before that age is reached; if entrance to heaven requires acknowledging God in some way, for God to deny anyone the entrance into heaven because they are physically/mentally incapable would be contradictory to His mercy. And if she was old enough? Those who seek God in one way or another will find Him. I think Shawanda would search for justification as to what happened to her parents, and I think there's almost an instinct to look at a higher power for that sort of thing. (Read more CS Lewis for that.)
I think you don't understand how exactly huge of a jump it is from omnipotent deity in a place beyond your wildest imagination to getting crucified on Earth. Christ became fully human. He had to experience every single pain that you or I would in the situation. And he also had every sin ever committed or that would ever be committed on his shoulders. That's guilt and mental trauma beyond measure.
"That three hour act of anguish is enough to absolve Hitler of killing 6 million Jews in the eyes of God, but not enough to absolve someone born in India and raised Hindu, of unending torment and torture since they worship Krishna? You sir, have a twisted sense of justice and morality."
Hitler would only get into heaven if he sincerely (and I mean absolutely honestly sincerely) repented of everything he had done and accepted Christ as his justification. I find this rather unlikely. But if he had actually done it, yes, he'd be forgiven.
All sin is equal in God's eyes.
Let's look at it from His perspective. Let's say you create everything that exists. Let's say you're utterly perfect in every possible way. And the tiny little creatures you create and love have the gall to claim that some deity that's not you made everything. They flagrantly violate every law you lay down simply because they can and because they enjoy it. Even some of those who claim they are still Your children use Your name as an excuse to slaughter and exploit. Tell me THAT'S not twisted. Humans are guilty of rebellion on the highest possible order, which makes God's grace all the more remarkable and praiseworthy.
Dear Anonymous,
No one can claim to have all the answers about God. Scholars have spent lifetimes speaking in circles, and coming to no conclusions. Sometimes you must step out in faith. Yes, sometimes that just kills logical people (me being one of them), but it seems to be the only answer. There are some things which just cannot be explained. As to your arguments, there are responses I have to them, and things that I could say. But that would just heat up the debate, and I try to limit my 'hot-button topic' discussions. Either you are searching, in which case you will eventually find a conclusion, or you are disagreeing, in which case you will have a comeback for everything (logical ones, too) and any words anyone has to say will fall on deaf ears. I am guilty of this myself, being one who's always up for a good debate. But this one I will (try) to pass by.
God bless.
Mike,
You sure have a knack for starting up discussions! But as to your blog post; amen, brother! So much hypocrisy is killing the Church today. You put it so eloquently, so I'm not going to repeat your words back to you, but I agree with you all the way. One book you might want to read re: hypocrisy in finances would be Irresistible Revolution. I don't agree with quite everything in there, but the basic premise is good. I'm praying you keep this faith and (most of) your ideas as you head to the big, bad world of college.
Well Mike, you seem to be quite good at angering people. It's good stuff, honestly. I wish I myself could me more confrontational.
I also like the content here. I find it nice that Christians have something to believe in, but not that they think that others are completely wrong or evil. I myself support many things that the stereotypical Christian does not.
Evolution is a natural and irrefutable process until science proves otherwise. We came from apes, people!
Being gay is perfectly okay. It's just the other side of the coin.
The government helping people is perfectly okay. I have no problem with the government helping me in my life. As long as the money is not being wasted, I'm all for liberal ideals.
I find it silly that Christians consider different denominations different religions. Guys, it's the same God! I mean...who besides the clergy is really so concerned about the little details of communion and all that. I like to think that different churches are just different means to the same end.
I am pro-other religions. Because no one really knows what life after death is like, everyone can claim truth to their religion. Those who get to find out about life after death don't get to tell us about it, anyway. Also, does one group of us have to be "right?" Suppose we all have the same after-death experience. I'd hate to think bad things will happen to people with good morals and good faith who happen to say "Allahu Akbar" a few times a day.
TL:DNR =D I'll let you be as a Christian if you let me be as Godking Gillmer, deal?
You're correct that we won't solve anything by arguing more about it. You can cite bible verses that support your point, and I can cite those that support mine. One would think the inherent incompatibility would be enough to sow some doubt among the flock of the faithful, but I digress. If you think that faith is a virtue, and that believing in something that you've been indoctrinated with is what what you want to make of your life, then so be it. You are making rationalizations to defend your faith, because you think it gives you meaning. What would life be like, if there were no god? Would it be any different than what you see around you? The burden of proof is on those who make extraordinary claims, not those who refute them. I think that faith in something that you can't smell or taste, or touch, or in any way feel, or sense is silly. I think that what you call your god is your mind playing tricks on you. Think about what happens when you pray. "Dear God, please 'x'." If x happens then he answered your prayer, yay! If x doesn't happen, then it mustn't have been in his plan for it to happen and you should be happy that he is guiding your life. You can't reason with that sort of logic. Like I said before, you seem to be a smart and rational thinking person, having recognized the failings that exist in the christian structure of religion. Epicurus indeed. When you understand why you dismiss the thousands of other gods, worshiped with equal zeal as you now worship yours, that have 'existed' throughout history, you will understand why I in turn dismiss yours.
Anonymous, did it really take you that long to agree to disagree?
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