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Much Ado...
Ya know, I do my level best to maintain a positive outlook on the human race. I really do want to think there's a genius in every one of us, if we'd only just try harder. Then I read something like this, and I realize 400 years of rationalism is nothing compared to ten thousand years of superstition.
Most "reborn" fundamentalist Christians in the US really do just want you all to share in the ecstatic warmth, confidence, and empowerment they felt when they "found Jesus". Like fanatics everywhere, the vast majority of them are genuinely surprised, and then alarmed, when the rest of the world doesn't see the obvious truth in their message.
If all your faith does is make you feel comfortable, make you feel loved, make you feel like you belong, I'm here to tell you your faith is weak and worthless. If you're really paying attention to your religion, thinking about it critically and not just listening to charmingly mad preachermen froth and spit, it should challenge you at every moment, puzzle and confound you in ways that make you question every assumption, think about every decision, and break you out of habits of hate, greed, and lazy ignorance that mark all our lives.
Real religion is hard. Want to know how hard? If the god you worship is love, if you are a true Christian, why do you support the death penalty? Why do you pass by beggars on the street? Why do you support war? Why do quest for big houses and fancy cars instead of using that money to help the poor? Why are you not using all your money to help the poor?
These are hard questions, yes. Some don't have good answers; others don't have any. But, as a Christian, they should be questions you ask yourself every day. It sickens me to see enormous churches so new they sparkle in a muggy Sunday dawn next to parking lots filled to overflowing with colorful metal waterbugs with names like Cadillac, Lincoln, and BMW. Whenever I drive by one of these places I'm always reminded "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money - not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them."
I am especially fond of big black Cadillacs, Lincolns, etc with a license plate that says"CLERGY" on it. Those who can do, those who can't preach. I think Billy Graham is just about the only "Preacher Man" I would trust with my wallet or have any respect for at all. There was an article yesterday about Jim Bakker and his new wife starting up his ministry again. Sometimes I think people get what they deserve.
Posted by: Pat on October 3, 2002 12:35 PMYou ask some hard questions, and some easy questions. And you make some good comments next to some "I feel dislike Christians" comments.
1. The God I worship is not Love. He is Love, Justice, Truth, Creativity, and every good thing that could possibly exist. He is a Person, not an abstract force; one element of his personality is love.
2. To help you out a little bit, "How can I support the death penalty and be against abortion?" is your real question. Easily enough. I am against the murder of innocents. What is murder? The unsanctioned or improperly sanctioned killing of a human being. You have the right of self-defense; the state has the right to punish murderers which is delegated to it from the individual and God; and the state's right to make war is strongly supported by example in the Bible(Remember King David?).
3. Why do I support war? Self-defense, and just war doctrine. Is it better to let a dictator enslave and torment than for a nation to invade. Innocents will die either way.
4. The sister of the runner in Chariots of Fire asked him, I am told, why he did not give up his running, and go to work as a missionary right now. Leading the lost to Christ is seemingly a vastly more important task than shaving seconds off a record on a race track. He replied that he could feel the pleasure of God when he ran. If all God wanted us to do was to be little ants running around going "Get saved now!" then he added a lot of unneccessary software and hardware into the design and internet downloads of Human 1.0.
That said, this is your best critique. Yes, materialism and greed are probably the two biggest sins of the American church. Do preachers preach against them? Against worshipping your TV set rather than God? (I have heard variants of that line many times.)
In some ways, you might do well to go back to your American manifesto, and reread it. This time insert, "He is a Christian" in place of "I am an American." Yes, we have our faults, to be sure, Christians are saved sinners and not angels on Earth, but you seem to expect that before you will listen.
Posted by: Tadeusz on March 4, 2003 01:05 PM