I've discovered this semester, and espeicially the past few days, that Christianity has a bad name. Just in the past two days, my pastor has been called an a** hole by someone who waitressed for him last week, my church has been ridiculed, and a philosophy professor told me that the intrinsic value of a human being has become so widely held that no one needs to justify why they believe it anymore. Therefore, the ends justify the means in morals.
It has come to the point where you can no longer talk about God first. I'm not talking about the Bible, I mean just God in general. You must now start at the existential aspects of life like love, being human, and so on. You must address the here and now before you can talk about God. You have to link their beliefs or their tensions in life to God. It's a scary world out there, full of hopelessness and searching. And its tearing me apart. I spent a good time this morning praying to God to show me how to talk to these people, and help their search.
I'm searching too. All I know right now is that it is sad that you cannot say what church you go to because it turns people away. I guess that isn't too bad though. Nowadays, to talk to a non-Christian who has learned you are a Christian, you have to ask them to suspend their preconcieved ideas about Christianity. It's not looking good for Christianity in America; makes me want to move to Far East.
2 comments:
I agree with you. this semester i have really been faced with this idea, especially as i've tried to take on so many classes on gender equality...
i've found that love really is the only answer. without it no one will believe what you are say. it is after all the second greast commandment. this semester especially i've seen that i can talk all i want but no one cares unless i carry it out. i've become very tired of people calling themselves christians and not carrying it out or being the people everyone hates in class. on a whole, christians are a very arrogant, prideful, ignorant people group that this generation hates to encounter. i've even grown to hate hearing people claim christianity in a class room because of the negative view taht it places on christians as a whole. the negative group stands out more then those who have a passionate love for others.... just some random thoughts while in class listening to a ignorant "christian" guy stir up anger in the class
I think the hardest part is to loving towards the Christians we are frustrated with. There is nothing worse than showing hostility towards another Christian in a public sphere. The love we have for one another is a testimony to our allegiance towards God (John 13:34-35), and the oneness we have with other Christian's is a testimony that God is real (John 17:21). Anger towards "negative" Christians does no good either. Love is universally given. It's hard, I hate it at times, but necessary.
Post a Comment