Technically, this is actually a double facepalm.
Of course when I saw this
WARNING: Strong Christian Content, Lot’s of Words
in my reader, I had to click on it. I mean, there's a warning. And words belonging to Lot, apparently.
It's mostly about these children's books I've never heard of, meh, whatever, but then we get this
When a Christian falls or seems to be continually failing morally, that is actually something predicted by the Christian faith. We are the ones who believe in sin and in the universality of sin. Christians do not say that we are perfect; we acknowledge that we are sinners saved by grace. Again, that should not become an excuse, but it is a cold, hard fact. I find it amusing anytime a person who does not believe in the concept of sin points to a Christian who falls and says, in essence, “Gotcha! You are no better than I am. You are nothing but a hypocrite.” In a world with no moral absolutes, no heaven or hell, no sin or righteousness, there can be no hypocrites.
lolwut? Hypocrisy has nothing to do with moral absolutes, heaven, hell, sin or righteousness. Hypocrisy is the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. I don't need to believe in heaven, hell, Cthulu or bathrobes in order to notice when a man claims to be a holy representative of the One True God(tm) gets caught masturbating in a public park. (I also don't need to believe in anything supernatural to know that masturbating to small children is wrong. Just wrong.)
The proper Christian answer is, “You’re right. I am no better than you. I am a hypocrite. May God forgive me by virtue of His grace and by means of the blood of Christ. Please don’t let my failure deter you from knowing Christ.”
Judge me not by my actions, but rather by my words. Because faith without works is dead . . . isn't Bible quoting fun?*
For all you know that “evil” Christian might have been even more evil if he had never decided to follow Christ.
Oh, c'mon. Really? That's where you're going with this? Sure, he's masturbating to small children in a public park, but with Jaysus, he'd be molesting them.
That's so fatuous, so asinine, so . . . You know, every now and then, I'd try to weasel my way out of punishment by pointing out to my parents something worse that my friends were doing. Sure, I got home 2 hours after curfew, but Brooks got sent to juvie for shoplifting small firearms**. Guess how often that worked. That's right, never. Not even once. Because the issue wasn't what Brooks was doing, it was what I had done. Sure, we could all be worse, but that's not the issue at hand, now is it?
It is also true that a really “good” non-Christian might be even better if he decides to follow Christ. Somebody who already has a sense of goodness in his heart, is bound to grow better when he chooses to follow the One who gave the best guidelines for pure living that the world has ever known. In fact, to the person who is fed up with Christian hypocrites, I say, why don’t you become one of us and show us how to do better?
By that logic, I should also go become a skinhead, a child molester, a slave trader, a drug dealer, a murderer and a black market arms dealer. I feel those people are bad and should stop what they're doing, too. Apparently, I should not complain until I've been one. It's going to a hell of a year in hell, kids!
It doesn’t matter how good or bad I seem or how good or bad you seem. What matters is that we are all in need of forgiveness; we are all in need of a Savior. Maybe I need Him more than you, but you still need Him, too. Maybe you need Him more than I, but I still need Him, too.
It is our response to the Savior that determines the direction in which we are heading. You could be the best person in the world and still not merit eternal life and a relationship with God. You could be the worst person in the world and still gain, as God’s gift, eternal life and a relationship with Him.
Neat. I'll go become a skinhead slave trading small arms dealer, but I'll go to heaven just as long as I believe just right. Good to know. It would certainly make my life easier to act any damn way I please without concern for others or ethics or morals.
*I fear that one day I may accidentally disprove the universe and we'll all disappear.
**Not really. Brooks was a good guy and not that kind of trouble at all.
"Somebody who already has a sense of goodness in his heart, is bound to grow better when he chooses to follow the One who gave the best guidelines for pure living that the world has ever known."
ReplyDeleteI love the way she just throws that "best guidelines for pure living that the world has ever known" right out there, as if it were so obvious that we should just take it as a given. Sorry, but no. I do my best to be a good person, but a lot of the guidelines offered under the guise of Christianity don't strike me a good or even necessary, and the ones that do aren't unique to that religion.
Wha...huh? Soooo.... if no-one can live up these strictures, and everyone always fails, perhaps the problem is with the rules, not the people? Yes? No? Just a thought?
ReplyDeleteAlso, there is falling of the moral wagon, and there is fucking catapulting yourself off at high speed carrying a bazooka. There are times when i think if one more of these people what about the childrenzzzzz me, I'll just snap.