Tuesday 9 October 2012

I am a Christian


Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those angry people who hold up signs depicting aborted fetuses or with “God Hates Fags” scrawled across it. Those people, Christian though they may be, are clearly doing it wrong. (Matthew 5:43-48) A true Christian should seek to make brothers (and sisters) of those with whom they disagree, or else live in such a way to show how Christ living in you makes the world a better place. I personally don’t think anyone holding up a sign of any sort in this day and age makes the world a better place, only a more distracted one. Nevermind the thousands of very misguided people who do hold up signs which either insult or alienate the very people they seek to help. Good god, people, will you give it a rest?

Nor am I one of those people who are too “kind” to tell a person what they really think. Letting someone go out of the house dressed like Wil Wheaton from the mid 80’s for fear of hurting their feelings isn’t kind, neither is letting a friend who’s being uncharitable continue just because they’re mad, even if they are rightly so. We do not have a right to screw someone just because they screwed us. We do not have the right to let someone continue in ignorance of their failings just because it might cause a little bit of pain or anxiety to point them out. We have to speak up and say “Look, I love you, and you’re being foolish.”

Notice I didn’t say “but”. I said “and”. Just because someone’s being a fool doesn’t mean we can’t still love them and wish them well.

Anyway, if anyone’s out there reading this, you can be secure that I won’t be discriminating against you based on some misguided religious grounds. Everything I know about christianity tells me that God gave us intelligence to be used for the betterment of the world. Notice I didn’t say the furthering of our personal goals, or our cause, or our religion the way we see it. I believe we’re here to make the world a better place, to save our brothers and sisters from damnation, and to become as close to perfect (humble, charitable, and gracious, not proud, judgemental, or vindictive) as possible.

I realise that I haven’t said anything about Jesus here, nor about why I believe Christianity is true. I have no intention of preaching religion to anyone at the moment, but I did have to write about it as it’s a pretty big part of my life. I’m sure there will be more posts on the topic of God, church, and religion, but it’s not going to be my main focus here.

If you want to know more about Christianity, I suggest you start with Lee Strobel and C.S. Lewis, then maybe dig into the Bible. Oh and by the way, neither of those authors are religious authorities, nor are they perfect beings, so feel free to take what they’ve written with a grain of salt.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

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