I read a lot of blogs and a lot of Facebook posts. In the last two or three years I’ve added more fellow Christians to my daily reading simply because I found fellow Christians who also like to talk about books and movies and stuff in addition to the Bible. Not that I don’t love talking about the Bible, because I do. But all Bible all the time leaves you stilted and narrow. The Bible can turn into that Bushel you hide your light under, you know? So easily, too.
The one bad thing about reading more Christian blogs is that I’ve encountered more Christians with opinions and many times those opinions make me want to slice open that coffin where my old self is lying dormant and let her out to be violent.
Nothing. Not one thing. No single thing makes me angrier than this. Ever since Christians decided that turning the other cheek like Jesus told us to wasn’t necessary because we are fighting a culture war and that kind of fighting is somehow good and if Jesus knew about the Culture War he’d agree for sure…ever since then there have been a great number of us who have decided that it is our responsibility to God to be rude to other people.
Somehow the directions about loving neighbours and turning cheeks and sharing coats and feeding the hungry just seem so uncool. After all, people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and they either kill or love the wrong people. (We want them to love babies and kill gay people, apparently. Not the other way around.) So it’s been deemed fine to pick or prolong these fights.
Time and again I see those who adopt this take-no-converts stance also justify it by quoting Luke 6:22-23.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
This is pulled wildly out of context. There are people who hate Jesus and hate Christians. That’s no secret and I’m not going to pretend they aren’t out there. I’m friends with some of them, actually. And it does hurt to have people treat you badly because of your religion, I won’t deny that either.
That does not mean that we have permission to aggravate, harass, bully, and abuse people to the point of getting them to hate us back. If you’re turning the other cheek and forgiving seventy-times-seven and all of those other things we’re supposed to do and people still hate you, then okay. Blessed be you and have a little dance. But if you’re calling people abominations and hacking away at their self-definitions and exploiting their weaknesses to the point where they break and lash out at you? You’re no hero. You’re no martyr of the faith.
You are an ass.
Oh, and one other thing to consider. As an American you do have freedom of speech. That means the government can’t tell you what you can and can’t say.
But as a Christian you do NOT have freedom of speech. You answer to an authority higher and purer and righter than our government. And that authority has made you its ambassador, has called you to be a light on a hill and a salt to bring flavour. That authority has told you to love and not judge. That authority has told you to turn the other cheek.
You don’t have the freedom to beat others down, no matter what a 240-year old piece of paper says.
Oh, and someone is going to come here and tell me that this post is all judgy mcjudgerson and I’ve broken my own rule by judging THEM.
God gives us one exception to the judge thing. If we are Christians in a bonded relationship we are expected to confront other Christians with what we think is a problem.
Wow- that was awesome!!! Ill tell you I cant wait until this election is over, my facebook is insane with the rants, bullying, name calling and threats from both sides. There has been so many times Ive wanted to lash out and say something but that little voice inside me says ignore it, ignore it, ignore it….Ill have to remember that line about freedom of speech and remember that Im held to higher standard and can’t by any means get my f-bomb cannon fired towards fundamentalists spewing hate, or the other side who blanket stereotype all Christians.
You have freedom of speech. What you do not have is freedom from consequences. You cannot be arrested for saying “Your dog is ugly.” But your neighbor can call you a twerp in return without infringing on your freedom of speech.
Actually, you are told you will be judged by the same rules you judge others. That’s not a blanket “don’t judge,” just a warning that if you do, you’d best be living spotless in that area.
I refer you to Kipling’s poem “The Disciple.”
http://www.online-literature.com/frost/913/
“God gives us one exception to the judge thing. If we are Christians in a bonded relationship we are expected to confront other Christians with what we think is a problem.”
So if that’s true and I agree that it is then what do we as christians do when the trend in the church is to accept or even celebrate sinful lifestyles and not judge. If you are not a believer then i can accept your lifestyle..but if you call yourself a brother/sister then that is another story. And if we are going to accept the “trendy sins” then we had better start accepting the sins we think are an abomination as well otherwise we are hypocrites in the worst way.
Ask God. I have a feeling you’ll get an answer better than anyone else can give.
How do you treat Christians of other denominations who disagree with you on any other issue?
And, there was a time when southern christians were pretty darn sure that God intended the races to be separate and were happy to get their judginess on for anyone who disagreed with that … maybe seeing how the church got past that one could provide instruction on how to get over this equally ridiculous position.
Uh, Jennifer? Hate to have to tell you this, but for the majority of Southerners I lived amongst for the better part of the past 20 yrs, IT’S Still like that!
Oh, – and they still burn any gay bars they can find.
Ah, a voice of reason in the midst of madness. Thank you!
Thank you, Katherine! Well-spoken. Would Balaam’s ass be an exception?
Balaam’s ass is always the exception.
It’s so often said “hate the sin, love the sinner” but most of people saying it devote so much time and energy towards hating the sin (whatever it may be) that they leave little to nothing left to love the sinner with.
But I’m reminded of a time in college when we were discussing the work of a certain “artist” (whose name escapes me now) who’s work was pretty much just mocking religion. So far as I could decipher his work had no worthwhile critique, no deeper message nor anything beyond merely being offensive for the sake of being offensive. So one of the things we were discussing was the “appropriateness” of offensive art, and I recall saying that everybody should have the right to make whatever statement they want, but if the statement your making is merely being offensive for the sake of being offensive, it doesn’t make you some noble champion of free speech, it just makes you a prick.
And once you start seeing others taking offense as justification of your offensive behavior, that’s a cycle that leads no where good.
I love the part about freedom of speech! Well said!
Loved this. Thanks for speaking what so many of us are thinking.
I hopped over from Facebook expecting controversy, but I don’t see any.