Déardaoin, Aibreán 21, 2005

Messy Christianity

One of my best friends here on campus is Josh Morton, you'll find a link to his cite off to the right here. I highly suggest that you read his most recent blog on "quitting Christianity." This is a topic that we talk about often here, what it means to be a Christian and where we as Christian's are going awry. Reading through it all I could do was nod my head in agreement. Both Josh and myself have grown up in in the church and both of us to differing degrees have been hurt or dissolutioned by the entity that we love. Someone who is, I'm assuming, Josh's friend made a comment, citing James 4:11-12. This text basically says that you should not slander you brothers (fellow Christians) and that you should not judge against the law because you are then are not keeping the law. My friend I don't think that you reading the blog as carefully as you could. We are simply stating the discrepancies we see in the church today. We are a hypocritical people and I'm sure josh would echo me here, we include ourselves in it. We don't want to, but we have to. There is no judgment being spoken here, just a simple statement of what is happening. And no it's not everyone, and we know that as well. But I'm with Josh on this one. If I can't walk into a bar, have a drink, and start a conversation with someone just so I can ask them if they'd like to come to church with me on Sunday or Saturday night, and I can't still call myself a Christian while I do it. Then fine, I'm not a Christian, and I'm ok with that. Christianity is not the religion, it's not the legality, it's the relationship, and how dare you say that I can be a Christian and be in a bar at the same time. If I am to be judged for being real in my life, God will judge me. I believe that there is a God, and I believe that He is the God, but sometimes I have to remind myself of that fact.

Besides all that, I want the chance to stand up and say, "I feel like crap today. I'm not happy, I don't want to be happy, and no amount of devotions will make me feel happy. In fact, reading the Bible today makes my head hurt." I don't understand why being a Christian makes people feel like they have to be super human. The have to be stoic in their happiness. Because if you aren't happy then you are defiantly not doing something right. "Here let me pray for you, that the evil spirit of unhappiness will leave you, and the bla bla bla." Last time I checked, the Bible said nothing about being happy all the time. It never says that I won't be angry, tempted, melancholic, or depressed. It never says that I'll be happy all the time, that life will be cherries and roses, and sweet candy gum-drops. Anyone who thinks so needs to spend some more time out of there house dealing with everyday people, and stop inserting their own ideas into the text. I love life, I love the chances and opportunities that I have and will have, but I know better than to think that everything will always be nice and happy. It's called joy my friends, and peace. Faith, hope and love. Happiness is a component of all of these, but not a requirement. Faith and hope indicate that things may not be going the way we would like them to go. We are told to be ready to face trial of may kind (James). Back to my original statement, we were created to have the full range of emotion. We didn't become angry, melancholic, or depressed at the fall. The ability was always there to have a bad day, we're just more likely to have them now. Emotion is not sin, though I believe suppressing them may be. We are told to not let the Sun go down on our anger, not to not get angry. We are emotional people, we were created that way, and that is why I think to suppress them is a sin against the one who created us.

So Morton, are we leaving Christianity behind? In away, yes, but then again maybe we are just striving to become the Christian's we are supposed to be. Maybe it is our lot in life to show those who have stopped believing in Christian that there is more to it than what they where shown. Gandhi once said that Christianity would be wonderful, if it weren't for all of the Christian's. I think he had a good point, maybe it's time to start listening to the fallen world around us and realize that maybe we're as broken as they are.

A.T.H.

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