Today, I saw this post on
Facebook, on someone's page that I consider a friendly acquaintance.
This was my response:
·
Kim Danbert Hmm I don't
think judging "Christians" on the actions of some is any more
laudible than judging any other belief systems by the imperfect people who
support it. There are many (and many) Christians who are not "snobs"
and do awesome charitable works with little or no acknowledgement. As, I'm
sure, there are jewish people, sikh people Buddists. I find this type of
Christian bashing as disdainful as I do any sweeping generalization of any
other belief system. Inaccurate and unfair.
·
XXXXX: Of course, this does
not go for everyone. Personally I have never been baptized into any religion. I
try to stay out of the religious conversations. Although, we have a close
personal friend who is going through a unique situation which would fall perf...See More
·
xxxxx: I will agree xxxxx, there are so many Christians that feel
better than others and judge and condemn them.. All we are taught by Jesus is
to love and be loved and teach the good word. I try to stick with
that!! Nature sometimes takes over and we fall back to old ways, but what I
always refer back to, is "who cast the first the first stone"
everybody has problems I don't care what religion you are, but the better thing
for everyone is to find the good! Not the bad
I
don't know why people feel so empowered to tell someone where their spending
eternity, nobody knows that except God.
·
Kim Danbert My issues, here
is the sweeping generalization about a group of people who espouse a belief.
How would you react if the ecard had said "Hey Jews, get your noses out of
your legers, and spread some of the wealth!". Categorizing "most Christians"
as hypocrites or judging is as bad as characterizing any other body of faith.
Well, I'm sure the debate goes
on without my participation further. But, I did as the Ecard suggested.
Disclaimer here: I would never
characterize Jesus Christ, the man, whom I believe, laid down his life for the
sins of all mankind, as a "snob".
I did exactly as the ecard
suggested. I got out my Bible and checked it out. You know what. In His earthly
ministry, Jesus Christ did more than his share of judging people's motives,
rebuking people's actions and criticizing people's mindsets.
Beginning with his own mother.
John
2:1-4
2 On the third day a wedding took
place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ motherwas there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been
invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said
to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
So
here, I think Jesus, the Son of God, product of divine birth, is reproving his
own mother for her impatience.
He
scolded for not having "Godly enough" motivations among his
disciples:
But when Jesus turned
and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You
do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
He
criticised the motivations of some
people praying in the temple:
[ Prayer ] “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the
street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward in full.
Although,
most people during His time and now, seemed to be in one accord on this one, He
criticized the Pharisees:
Matthew
15:7-9
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was
right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These
people honor me with their lips,
but their
hearts are far from me.
9 They worship
me in vain;
their
teachings are merely human rules.’[c
He
rebuked a group of towns people intent on violence toward a woman caught in
adultery:
\
Later Jesus appeared
to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them
for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had
seen him after he had risen
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the
first to throw a stone at her.”8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
He scolded some of His OWN believers for being
hypocrites:
You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the
speck from your brother’s eye.
He even
curses a poor (struggling) fig tree:
Matthew 21:18-19
8 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the
city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found
nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!”Immediately the tree withered.
So, (like the comedy Central series, South Park)
we can gather that nothing is too low (a fig tree), too dear (Mom) or too high
(Pharisees) for Him to rebuke, reprove correct, curse or criticize.
Do I think this gives us, as his followers the
right to do the same?
No. Jesus was the only begotten son of God. I
think it's safe to say he may have known some things that we did not.
However, I am also a student of history. History
tells me that when a specific group of people begin to be identified with specific
descriptive, bullying and chaos are not far behind.
Too often I have heard and read the phrase
"Christians are hypocrites", almost so casual and flip as to be
cliche'.
Why be so Christian-centric about it. Most people
have hypocritical moments in their lives. We're ALL sinners, no matter how hard
we try not to be.
Maybe it's the violence with the ISIS
organization against Christians, that makes me think in parallels.
I recall a testimony by a German gentleman who was
Jewish, who was a young boy when the Nazi regime began occupation.
He told a story of being on a bus, and a man he
had known in his town was sitting on a bus, when the young man boarded. This
one day, the man started calling out in a loud voice, as the boy sat behind him
"I smell GARLIC...Oh the stench!" (the boy was Jewish). This went on
for nearly a week. Until, at last, the boy stopped riding the bus because he
couldn't stand the round of chanting "Jews stink". Then, the man remembered all the "stinking
Jews" boarding a train to Auswitchz.
So maybe you do know some people who are
Christians who are hypocrites. Being human beings (and we ARE human beings) ,
we are not perfect. We claim forgiveness under the blood of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, who sacrificed His life for we,who, invite Him into our souls.
As to the last item on the ecards post, with
which I am going to make note. "You call yourself a Christian". First
a history lesson:
Followers of Christ did not (originally) call
themselves Christians.
1.
The term 'Christian'
was used to describe a follwer of Christ in terms of the world, from the
world's point of view. The pagans at Antioch called the apostles "Christians"
first (Acts 11:26; 26:28) and used it derogatorily because the apostles didn't
follow the commercial world of the pagans.
I do, as it happens,
identify myself to people (when asked) as a Christian.
It is a descriptor of
my faith and the life-path I follow.
If, I, as a Christian,
disappoint you, with my attitudes, my ill temper when I am cut-off in traffic,
my lack of generosity to someone you deem worthy;
If I criticize you
unfairly, or act with pride, or you feel judged by others who also share the
moniker;
If my cross offends
you, when you see it and remember another, by whom you were abused, wearing the
same sign.
I humbly and
completely apologize, for them and for me.
I ask you to
understand, that before I accepted Christ, I was (and remain) a wretched human.
And only Christ and
death can cure that.
Yours in Christ
Until next time
eat something
wonderful
and live a life worth
loving.
-Kim
