12
Sep

Lip Service Christianity and Patriotism

   Posted by: Debbie Mahler   in Belief Check

This is a reprint of something I posted on my MySpace Blog today.

I left playing Bingo in MySpace today because I was enraged by a Meebo chat that was going on and before I started attacking others, I felt it was best to leave.

Yesterday, we honored the deaths of the 9/11 victims. A solemn occasion and one that reminds us of how far we have to go with understanding each other as human beings.

Yet, not more than even 24 hours later, I stumble into this chat room to innocently play my Bingo and there is this raging attack on a girl because she mentioned that she liked Nascar.  Ok, I don’t like Nascar, but hey, I don’t like a lot of things! Does that make her a bad person? No. It just makes her different.

But a group of people felt that this was enough to call her names and shamelessly attack her and her friends. Pathetic.

I finally made the statement that it’s no wonder we can’t have peace between countries when we can’t even have peace among our own human beings. And of course, I made the mistake of calling out someone who then made a statement about how much fun he/she was having picking on this person. I said, “I certainly hope you are not a Christian, [screen name]!”

Well that sparked a whole other feud! This person said to me that he/she was a Christian and that I had no idea what they say or how they felt.

I don’t? Didn’t I just see your faith and beliefs in action in the attacks on this other girl? Is that what your Jesus would want you to do? (And I don’t want you to send me hate mail. I do call myself Christian and I do believe in Jesus. I was simply referencing the difference between his/her belief in Jesus and my belief in what he taught.)

Then, another person jumped in and said, “I am Christian but I am also an American and I have the right to free speech.”

Since when does being American and having the right of FREE SPEECH give you the right to dismiss the teachings of Christianity? Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourselves.” Maybe that’s the problem? You don’t love yourself? (I won’t even go there right now in this post.)

Jesus loved the tax collector and prostitutes and accepted them non-judgmentally. He would talk to them about the love of God – the father, but you cannot preach to someone you’ve alienated through attacking their beliefs or lifestyle. Jesus knew that! So he welcomed them and accepted them and then told them about a life that is different from the one they were living.

Do you think Christianity would have survived so long if Jesus preached the way some of our so-called Christian’s are trying to today?

And to use the Constitution to push your hatred under the guises of FREE SPEECH is not only unpatriotic it’s down right blasphemy!

I am far from being a perfect model of Christianity but I am working on my unconditional love for fellow human beings day in and day out.

I find it a sad, sad state of human affairs when we feel the need to attack someone – a fellow American, who is also entitled to free speech – in the name of religion and patriotism.  That is a very FRACKED up way of translating your beliefs folks!

I think the clergy needs to really take a look at Jesus’ message again and start educating their congregations.  And you Christian’s – and you know who you are – who behave like these folks in the chat room, need to go back and re-read the teachings of Jesus.

Right now, all I’m seeing is lip service Christianity and Patriotism. And it’s sad. So very, very sad!

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 9:06 am and is filed under Belief Check. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One comment

Mark Magbee
 1 

Dearest Debbie, I am the son of a Presbyterian Minister. Early on I was confused by the teachings of the Bible and the actions of people that said they believed. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” and “Judge not lest ye be judged.” are just a fiew of the concepts that I did not see in action. I became disillusioned in religion and the Christian faith and spent hours arguing with Christians about what was wrong with their faith. My brotherinlaw, in the heat of one such argument said “You just don’t understand.” That was a slap in the face that woke me up! I then realized that all I was doing was behaving like them. I was basically saying that if you believe like me then I can love you. The most important concept in Christianity is unconditional love and all I was doing was behaving badly. As hard as it was to swallow I realized that I was not loving unconditionally. All I was doing was alienating people who were on their own spiritual journey. When I stopped arguing, an amazing thing happened. We became friends. I realized that the only way to change the world is to change my self. that striving to love unconditionally actually had a healing affect on all involved. Loving unconditionally meant respecting other people’s beliefs. THEY ARE ON THEIR OWN SPIRITUAL JOURNEY AND THEY HAVE TO LEARN LESSONS ON THEIR OWN. By striving to be the best person I can be, I actually become an example for others. Actions do speak louder than words.
As for the person that was attacked in the chat room , it is up to them to use that exsperience to grow into a better person. Forgiveness actually heals the forgiver more than the forgiven resulting in the peace and joy felt in the absence of resentment. The power of the forgiven is weekened because they are not getting the response they desire and generally that is to make that person as miserable as they are. When someone attacks me, I try to look for the truth in what they say. If I can learn something I grow a little bit more and try to become grateful for the exchange.(I am a work in progress) If there is no truth in the attack, I let it go because I know more of the truth about my self than anyone else. I try to use every apparent bad experience as a challenge to overcome, an opportunity to practice unconditional love. Putting it all in perpective means that everyone is on a spiritual journey. They maybe more spiritually advance than me or less. It’s my job to make sure that I use every encounter to raise my level of spiritual growth. This is my responsibility! No one elses.
I hope my message resonates in your soul. If not please use your reaction as a stepping stone for growth. Take what you can use and leave the rest. You are obviously one who is seeking the truth and we shall always have that in common NO MATTER WHAT! May God Bless, Protect, and Guide you on your journey.

Reply

October 28th, 2009 at 11:58 am

Leave a reply

Name (*)
Mail (will not be published) (*)
URI
Comment

Bad Behavior has blocked 21 access attempts in the last 7 days.