When one attends a sheltered Christian school their whole life, it becomes easy to spot who really has that “inner light”. Christians can be sorted into two groups:
Christians and Christians who think. From this view, Christians are defined as a basic cookie cutter pattern that reads what they are told, and never questions their faith. This kind of Christian tends to be very limited, because their views are very narrow-minded.
Many of the Christian people I know have gone to church and lived in religious households their entire life, but never seemed to have “the spirit.” It’s funny to me that the populace fills up today’s churches, while many wonder why there is an epidemic of unenthusiastic worshippers. Most Christians are very judgmental. For example, I have known a group of “Christian” teenagers that spent ten minutes gay-bashing lesbians, while my girlfriend sat beside them and just listened, amazed that her friends could be so hurtful towards a person because they are different.
Now, America is Christian. We have many different cultures and religions, but the US was founded on solid Christian morale. The question is, though, who really understands what it takes to be a real Christian? If we could take these ideas I have introduced, and America could actually THINK about why they wake up every Sunday and go to church, I think America could improve. Blind religion is no religion.
Christians who think are the most remarkable people. They are incredibly strong in their faith, because they simply ask “Why?”. This is the biggest difference between the groups; also, these people always seem to be more open-minded than other individuals. They strive to find out more about their religion and the world around them. Sadly, I have only known a handful of “true” Christians that put down the alleged “stones of judgment”.
Although opinions may differ, fundamental beliefs remain mostly the same. However, we, as humans, are imperfect. No matter how developed our beliefs become, it still does not change sense of self, no matter who we have faith in. No matter how many theories are offered for religion, there is something that will always prevail: Everyone is equal in God’s eyes.
hallelujah! lol
i totally believe it, i spent many years in a private school, and whats sad is that alot of these Christians want to be missionaries and feel sorry for people and donate and all this great stuff, but how many Christians sit down and really feel out these people who are different from them?
"There's No Gender in Sports, Just Players"
I am completely amazed by your wonderful word choice - I couldn't have said it better, though I have tried. I was going to write a blog about this, but you so aptly covered the problem. Both my fiance and I are ashamaed on an almost regular basis of the narrrow-mindedness of many Christians. In fact, last night I was discussing the fear of moving from a Sunday school class that I practically grew up with to a "married couples" class. I have always tried to look out of the box in the sense that I battle certain "christian" beliefs that in all rights, are not truly Christian. There are things that "fellow christians" say that I find simply apalling. Like you said, many seem to forget the whole hate the sin, not the sinner aspect of the religion.
Thanks again for the blog.
Your reference to 'inner light' and everyone's equality in God's eyes makes me wonder if you are a Quaker. If by some chance you aren't it's something I would highly recomend learning about, as it lines up with many of your beliefs.
I think what you're getting at here is the difference between following the letter of the law as opposed to the spirit. Our society as a whole, not just Christianity, functions in a way that does not promote thinking for one's self. Jesus of Nazareth was an anti-authoritarian communist whose two main teachers were 1) love God, and 2) love your fellow human beings, and anyone who has read the gospels and thought about them for themselves could at least see merit in that conclusion, yet that is rarely what gets taught in mainstream Christianity.
(I would however, caution against generalizing about all of Christianity, because there are still many radical Christians as well as a handful of sects (like Quakers) who remain true to Jesus' teachings.)
Myself I am a god fearing man. I am what they would call Christian, but I don't really like the title as it associates me with many other religious Chrisitans. Religion at it's root, including religious Christianity, horrible. Christians can be very judgemental. One of the few words I hate in Chrisitanity is the term "fellowship."
"We're going to fellowship tonight", they would say.
Fellowship? So we're just going to have fun together beacuse we're all good ol happy Christians? Why can't we just "hang out" or "cruise." I hate the term fellowship as much as I hate the term "networking." Where people have networking parties just to do business.
So I'm with you. I personally think religion is killing Christianity.