Today I was randomly flipping through this blogging community we have here and a post caught my eye. The post was about how some people give Christianity a bad name. This thought caught my eye and stayed with me all day. The scariest part of it all was that I agreed with the statement and I am a Christian.
I have been a Christian my whole life. I grew up in the church. My father was a pastor and there wasn’t a week that went by I wasn’t in church on Sunday. As a kid this was something that my family did and so I did to. I didn’t know any different. I wasn’t just going through the motions though. I had a real faith in Him. But I never really challenged these beliefs.
During and after high school I went through some challenging times that really tested what I believed. I held on to the faith I had but I let go of some of the “rules” Christians have. (I’ll explain the quotes later.) I challenged a lot of what I had grown up just believing because it was said in church. These challenges shaped the rest of my life.
The reason this post affected me the way it did is because I have felt this way for a long time. It’s nice to know that some non-Christians feel the same way. I look at it as another challenge to shape my life. I look at it as a goal to not be one of those people that gives Christianity a bad name.
My experiences have taught me that what God wants is for us, as Christians, to be the examples of His love. He has only given us 10 “rules.” (Bet you thought I would never get here.) Look up the Ten Commandments and tell me which one of these “rules” would change the way you live your life. The only reason that I put quotes on this is because these aren’t things that prohibit your life in any sort of way. I’d love to hear the reason anyone thinks breaking one of these “rules” will make your life better. I bet that most anyone will contend that they are abiding by these rules without being a Christian.
Back to the topic at hand… It is my opinion, as the author did not state this as fact, that what she was implying was that these people that give Christianity a bad name are the people that are condemning others and intolerant of others points of view. What I consider to be a typical closed-minded Christian. This type of “bully evangelism” totally turns me off. I would never want someone to be scared into their beliefs by someone who tells them stories of fire and brimstone if they don’t believe in God. Gimme a freaking break! In all of my experiences I truly believe that God wants us to experience a relationship with Him through faith, not religion.
I could go off on a rant about relationship vs. religion but I will save that for another time.
I will try to wrap this up. I guess the whole point of this is to challenge the thinking of a lot of Christians in the world. Take a good look a Jesus Christ’s life and example to us. Look really hard. It is clearly laid out that he hung out with the people of the world that didn’t believe in Him or his teachings. He was frequently around the people society cast out. The sexual deviants, the drunks and addicts, the prostitutes and people most Christians of today wouldn’t be caught dead near. God asked us to be “like Christ.” If you are challenged by one statement in this collection of random thoughts, let it be this, Take a good hard look at who Christ was while He was on this earth and try to emulate that in your own life. Give it your best shot and don’t give Christianity a bad name.
Song of the day…Come and Listen by David Crowder Band
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