Random Dialogue

So here is the story, a while back a friend of mine sent me the post that will follow from his friend on Facebook and I felt compelled to respond... So the following is the post of the female friend of a friend on Christianity. It is quite long as is my response so be prepared. I would appreciate comments if you feel led.

ok this is very forward, if you are offended, i wont say i dont care. i care. im sorry if you're offended. a few years ago, i made a conscious decision to lose faith in my personal practice of the christian religion. i lost most faith throughout the majority of my church-going years, but in the end, i decided to just completely toss whatever was left, because i felt there was very.. very.. very little chance that someone could how can i say, bring me back? um lets see, i had been going to church since i was .. 6, i went all the way til.. 17 ish? i was never baptized, although that is irrelevant, i was an active part of the youth group, i active in praise band, and i was on my way to become a youth group teacher. funny, right. im trying to just write about this calmly without going off on a rampage, cuz theres a lot of frustration and overall irritation i get from discussing this topic. i might be being a little too personal, but whatever, im an open book.long story short, i saw so much
hypocrisy, judgment, and contradiction, that it just completely turned me off. ALL 11 years of going to church. im a logical, sensible, reasonable, rational, but mainly logical person, and i pride myself in that, but wow even after 11 years of active experience, i have not felt that moved. in fact, it looks.. cult-ish. i said someone may be offended, but im just splashing down some honest opinion.so someone tell
me.. how do christians justify their actions of sin? sure, you can repent. but while you're judging non-christians that are doing the same thing you did last weekend? yes, i understand and fully practice judging people, like any human being does, but come on. isnt it easier to judge people when they dont share the same views? and the reason im so erplexed by that is, what about 'love thy neighbor, love thy enemy?' i mean they're really.. really.. really simple concepts. i know its not that easy, we're people, but i just find it REALLY difficult to find christians who at least ATTEMPT to practice those important and vital aspects of the religion. so even if you can admit that, shouldnt someone be apologizing for making those mistakes? maybe if christians were more humble about their errs and wrongdoings, i wouldnt be so irritated. but i only see christians who are hypocrites in what they say, practice, or judge, while somehow holding their head up high. i am NOT saying that christians are bad for going out and getting wasted, ok? dont get it wrong, everybody is human, everybody makes mistakes. i take that into account 100%. but being arrogant in hinking that you are actually better than people who lead extremely similar lives as yourselves.. and also, extremely different ones, is
really what the worst part bout it is. is the act of doing the latter, an actual mistake as well? why are there so many justifications for human behavior, but it
only seems to apply to a certain group of people? i already realize you can tell me all sorts of things about how god loves everyone, etc etc.. then why dont christians at least put an effort out to try? if jesus taught not to judge, not to hate, why dont you TRY. it sounds so extremely elementary, i know. but the christian religion is so contradicting and flawed in so many aspects, and i cant HELP but to notice those things only because it is shoved in my face everyday from television, radio, news/media, conflicts around the world, personal relationships, people, friends.. ok, lets be cliche for a second. WHY is it so damn wrong.. for someone to be gay? tell me. since some of you christians know all, come on, seriously, tell me. if gay is a sin, and sins dont carry levels of extremity, whats the difference in leading a gluttonous lifestyle versus being gay? they're both lifestyles. i mean at least the fat guy chose to eat, come on. what if u're a christian slut? you are consciously practicing this sin called lust, maybe on a weekly, daily basis, but what about the gays, people?! if you're a christian slut, although you are judged and hated on, im going to assume you hold a little more status in the christian community than a fag.oh, the contradictions. the funny thing is, i would actually start to understand, if a christian decided to admit the faults and apologize for being too proud in the
public media, instead of actually trying to defend it with some proverbial nonsense that just puts the whole conversation into a neverending cycle of more contradiction. people make mistakes, that is widely accepted, and yes, i think through time christians are really practicing this religion in the WRONG way. if
theres a god who wrote all these things, who had all these visions, who knew what was to happen, i honestly dont believe this is the way he would have seen it out
for his followers. that is just.. my opinion. i dont think im wrong, but im not denying that i couldnt be. so you can justify that by saying, this is a time of difficulty, of testing. can you seriously say that things are perfect and right in the christian community? and if you realize its not, and its definitely not, and you choose to justify it with 'things happen for a reason,' why dont you try to change that? if you know somethings not right, why not try to make it right. what about god knows everything?' everything happens for a reason, etc etc.. ok thats a little out of my rational boundaries. its so easy to point to everything happens for a
reason, it justifies pretty much every action you take. what.. a.. copout. heres here i get a little less considerate. if you're expected to take responsibilities for your own actions, um, do it. to me, it feels like.. if you claim everything happens for a reason, you cant deny that when you say it, it eases your mind a little bit, takes the pressure off your shoulders knowing that someone else holds the fate to your life, and that you really dont have full control, therefore, ITS NOT REALLY YOUR FAULT. even if you take responsibility for your own actions, claiming that the event happened for a reason, takes part of that responsibility, OFF. it does. thats the logic, sorry. im not saying i only believe in logical things, id someday love to be a bit more spiritual, and i definitely believe there are things we cannot understand. but simple concepts that we've learned through the history of life,
are just there and absolutely obvious.anyway, im getting tired, i have TONS more
on the plate, but this is probably way more than enough. anyone, please enlighten me. give me some answers that i can understand. you can try to convert me for all i care, but all i ask for is to make some sense.

Ok that was a bit long I know... Here is my response..

To start, this may seem odd that someone that you don’t know is responding to one of your notes. My apologies up front about that, I saw it linked through another profile and was interested to see what you had to say. First off, let me put myself out there a bit and let you know where I am coming from. I grew up in the Catholic church and had a bit of a crisis of faith myself at 17-18 and left the church for a while. Eventually I returned to a mainline protestant church and have been in several since then. So I would consider myself pretty entrenched in the culture of church and Christianity.
That aside, I have to agree with much of what you say in you note. One of the issues that really caused me to leave the church and still struggle with is the double faced approach that many people in church take to life. On Sunday they go and have their time with God in a church but it only goes as far as the doors of the church building. The rest of the week they don’t let the message of Jesus penetrate their lives. There is definitely a crisis of identity within the church where people want to be associated with it for any number of reasons but don’t want to take Jesus seriously. I think that this is one of your main causes for concern/irritation. One distinction that I think is important to make is that there are a lot of people who claim the name “Christian” but don’t exactly live up to the expectations that the name asks for. This is not to say that people who call themselves Christians have to (or even could be) perfect. I will be the first to say that even as I grow in my faith I feel like less of a good person because my knowledge of the character of Jesus makes me realize how impossible it is to measure up. I think the real testament to whether or not someone is doing the “Christian thing” to their best ability is do I love people more than I did yesterday, and do I love God more than I did yesterday. If those two things are true than there would be a lot less of what you have seen and are disgusted by in the church.
To briefly touch on your discussion of gays in the church, I’ll give it a go. I think that again you hit the nail on the head. Personally, I feel like there is little distinction in the eyes of God between being gay and being the gay basher. If you really look at the overlying themes of both the old and new testament in both cases the main theme is LOVE. In the OT, God demonstrates his love for the people he has chosen as His own by continually being faithful to them even when they reject Him for other gods. In the NT, Jesus whole ministry and life was an act of love. He summed up all his teachings in “love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor (read as everyone) as yourself.” And his sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of love. I think where people are confused is that they mistake the conservative political agenda for the message of the gospel. Politicians have co-opted Jesus in to the gay-bashing, abortion hating, tax lowering, poor neglecting mascot of their agenda. The Jesus you see in the gospels loved everyone including the poor, the tax-collecters, the prostitutes and even the people who sent him to death. He taught his followers to take care of the poor and fight for the oppressed.
The reason I wanted to take the time to write this all out was that I am just starting on this journey of discovery about what it looks like to take Jesus’ words seriously and it looks a lot different that what you will find in any political campaign and in most churches.

Ok sorry for all the length here but I would appreciate any comments.. I tried to be as gracious and considerate in my reply and make a concise response to the major points of contention.. Thanks