Politics and Christianity, and the Problem with Christianity Today

Congrats, blackout. A few months ago you inadvertently (or maybe intentionally) showed me that the foundation of my faith could use some work.

I'm working on that. I'm doing my research. I'm doing some thinking, some praying. I promise, I'm seriously looking into this, because there's no excuse for basing your whole life around a belief that you haven't spent a lot of time thinking about.

Actually, that's the point of this post. I think the parts Christian community in the United States (and possibly the rest of the world) are really, really going about this the wrong way. I think parts of the "Christian" community need to stop pretending and figure out where they stand, and I think parts of the community that might very well be Christian are NOT living it out in several areas.

I'm kind of saddened at the number of Christians who think that the Bible stories they learned as kids are enough to carry them over into a strong adult faith. If you're interested in a biblical take on this, check out Hebrew 5:11-14. A lot of people, it seems, are stuck on the "follow the ten commandments, say you love Jesus, go to heaven, everyone else is going to hell" mantra. Problems that this causes:

1. Quoting the bible to justify your own prejudices. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, and Romans 1:26-27 are usually the scriptures referred to, (though this site promotes the idea that these scriptures are being hotly debated and that some believe that they are being interpreted incorrectly.). If some one only throws verses like these at you when attempting to explain their stance on homosexuality, you can bet that they are about as spiritually mature as a six-year-old. This verse warns against remaining spiritually immature--you are EXPECTED to explore the scriptures and think and pray about this stuff. Make sure you know what you're talking about, that you're not just taking stuff out of context or parroting what your parents told you when you were too young to think more critically about it. My stance, which is a synthesis of what I've read in the Bible and what I've decided among my own spiritual journey, is that God first and foremost loves everyone and will forgive anyone that accepts it. We're expected to treat others the same way God would treat them. Therefore, it is MORALLY WRONG to do what Westboro Baptist Church or any uninformed, hateful person does toward homosexuals. I believe that homosexuality is against God's design for humanity, but I will love anyone as God loves them as long as they aren't actively hateful, evil, and corrupt toward other people.

2. Passivity. Too many people believe that Christianity is about all the things that believers CAN'T do, and trying to force other people not to do those things as well. Jesus NEVER said: follow my laws, make everyone else follow them, and you're good. This is actually from the old Testament too--superficially it seems to be full of rules, but it was NEVER about passivity. However, if you're living by what you learned in bible school as a child, you're probably going to live that way (and by the way, that's okay for a child who is still learning right and wrong, but it is NOT a sustainable way of thinking for an adult). Living what people perceive as the inhibited Christian lifestyle (not sinning, etc) is actually a CHOICE that comes from the freedom of being released from sin and having a secure future. The point of this is that instead of being known for freeing the oppressed, caring for the helpless, and defending the weak, Christians are known for trying to pass laws against gay marriage and not having sex all the time.

3. Belief that nonbelievers should be subject to a Christian moral code. This is probably the most relevant point for this site. There's no reason for the Christian community to assume that nonbelievers are going to want to follow their moral code. They have no reason to, and if they did it would be MEANINGLESS. Morality COMES from faith, since human nature is sinful. Christians should of course be subject to this. But I don't think prop 8 is a moral victory. There's a lot of complicated sub-issues that go with this that I don't have time to get into right now--which is actually another thing that spiritually immature Christians fail to realize. It's not "homosexuality is against the Bible, so NO ONE should practice it". It's a complicated issue and there are debates among theologists, among churches, among scholars.

There are more. This is what I'm talking about now.

As there is a very strong atheist community on this site (I'm not making any judgements here, I'm just making what I assume to be a fair assessment), I fully expect some critique here and I am prepared to handle it. I would strongly, strongly ask, however, that you think about what you're saying before you say it, and try to make it constructive criticism on the ideas presented here rather than an attack on Christianity in general. I also don't wish to get into any debates on the existence of God, as that is irrelevant to this particular post.

The main point I'm making here is that a lot of the stereotypes and images people have of Christians are due to a prevalence of spiritual immaturity among Christians. The idea is that what I understand Christianity to be is inconsistent with what I observe among certain Christians. I understand that this post is not totally secular, but please, please don't attack me. I'm not a militant person and hateful comments hurt me. I'm a human being with feelings, not an effigy of everything you hate about conservative Christians.