Inside or Out?

Growing up, i was pretty sure i was a liberal Christian. I believed in Jesus, a correct and healthy way to live, and i BELIEVED that i was in the right.

After leaving home and changing country, i found that what i BELIEVED was a lot more shaky. When a faith leaves the context of culture, you can suddenly find yourself in unfamiliar territory. Without the framework of culture, many of the things i had understood as 'faith' were quite clearly not.

sexual sin, alcohol, drugs, and eating dos and don't were all up in the air.

I'm sure that some people would say that my faith was being tested. I saw it as my faith being matured.

All my life i'd been trying to live a Christian life without much practical living thrown in. I didn't have to think about issues except to apply a Bible verse to them. It didn't much matter of the Bible verse and the practical application were ridiculous, I knew i'd done everything i was suppose to. But as my faith matured, i began to see that the brain i was given was not there for decoration. Turns out that my belief system should be practical as well as God-centred.

But practical faith is a lot more difficult to practice than simple Bible faith. For one thing, you've got a lot more thinking to do.

too gay?

I recently had a discussion with a single friend of mine. We were talking about the different social groups that were often mistreated. The gay community was at the top of our list. She made a comment that has really stuck with me.

"if your single, you can't talk about gay rights because people with think your gay...even if you're not."

It seems like she's right. Being gay is unacceptable in many circles and can result in dismissal from volunteer leadership positions. It can potentially be a big risk to speak out in favour of gay rights and be thought gay.

In religous communities there is a mixed response to the new society 'acceptability' of gays. Some churches are happy to have gays in their community as long as they remain quiet and don't discuss the issue publicly. Other churches may ask the member to leave until 'cured'. But very few will allow a gay person to take leadership positions in the church. This includes teaching Sabbath (or Sunday) schools, adult worship lessons, or being part of the praise team.

In this sort of context, it is hardly suprising that gays do not feel able to embrace many of the lifestyle teaching of the church. Some, feeling that without their church, their faith is lost, will throw their emotional and physical health to the proverbial wind. Leaving themselves open to painful heartache and or to contract a variety of sexually transmitted diseases.

You can hardly blame me for wondering if this is "what jesus would do". I feel there needs to be more understanding of the gay mindset, more sympathy, and less judgement.

Have you ever wondered?

Today i watched a presentation by a member of the Jews for Jesus organisation. Jews for Jesus is a group of Jewish people who have come to believe that Jesus is the messiah the Jews have been waiting for. Their mission is to share this belief with other Jews.

The speaker was from Israel. He wasn't very old, he was a bit nervous, but he did a great job of explain the passover service in the context of Christ.

As i watched this young Israeli man speak to a group of Seventh-day Adventist Christians i began to wonder what it would be like to be of a religion and find truth in another. What must it be like for a Jew to hear that the Christian belief in Jesus is also your salvation. The difficulty they must have with that must be immense.

Today i wondered if there was truth in other religions that i cut out because it didn't fit into my understanding of Christianity....

Doin' the Xian thang

Its probably because I'm a heathen at heart that most Christian outreach programs piss me off. Actually, a lot of the Christian attitudes piss me off. There seems to be a high and mighty-ness about it all. The kind of "join us or die" sort of air floats around them and their fairy-floss (sugar-coated) smiles.

"yes, we are better than you. and yes, you are going to hell unless you sing all 100 repeated lines of a Hillsong Song."

Thus it was with morbid curiosity that i wandered into xxxchurch.com. It sounds like a funky sort of porn site...it kind of is. It's a Christian outreach program that targets those inside the church who struggle with pornography as well as searching out those in the porn industry to give them the support they can't get from porn.

They go to porn conventions and hand out Bibles that say "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" on the cover...yeah, that sounds pretty fairy-floss at first until they start developing friendships with different people in the Industry. Some of these people choose to leave; some don't. XXXchurch.com arranges to debate with porn stars at Universities. They don't seem to be concerned about backing away or "shutting down the industry". Their ministry is to give the kind of love and support that porn just can't give.

I must admit this story warmed my heathen heart. It's so nice to see Christians filling a need instead of criticising...now if only i could follow suit....

The doctor

Have you ever been referred to someone and after you met them decided you really didn't like them? I heard about a woman whose medical insurance referred her to a doctor for her young daughter's ear infection. Upon seeing the woman's piercing and tattoos, the doctor refused to see or treat her child.

Talk about the sins of the father...er...mother in this case.

The doctor had a set of rules about appearance which he had based upon his Christian beliefs. These rules included no tats, body piercings, or chewing of gum. I think somewhere along the line, i missed the part of the Christian belief system that included excluding people in need....but i obviously REALLY missed the whole part about not chewing gum...damn! i guess i'm damned to hell for sure now!

Christian mockery

If your a Christian and have heard about this documentary, you've probably either laughed it off or been offended. James Cameron and crew have released a documentary that is supposed to air on the Discovery Channel claiming to have found the remains of Jesus and his family (wife and son). Christian groups all over America are claiming this is an attack on Christianity.

And yet again, i'm left on the wrong side of the wall, shaking my head at these strange Christians. If the Discovery Channel had done a documentary on the obsurdity of Allah, Christian groups would have said nothing. They might even have defended the airing of the program, saying that it was one perspective and that people should be allowed to see all different sides of the issue.

I'm left asking, why are Christians so afraid of a documentary? If you are unable to allow the airing of critizim of your views, it makes your stance look weak. It looks like if anyone starts to look at your religion at all it will crumble. That shouldn't be the case!

Furthermore, if you're trying keep this from getting noticed, COMPLAINING ABOUT IT DOESN'T HELP! The more you complain, the more people are going to watch. Exactly what do you want to come out of this?

Christian Issues

I consider myself Christian, in that i try to follow the teaching of Christ to the best of my understanding. Lately though, I'm beginning to find myself further and further from mainstream Christian thinking.

Abortion. I happen to be pro-choice. I believe that a child should not be brought into the world unless you can care for it. If you can't, its better off dead. i know its harsh but i can't see what is loving about forcing a hard life upon a person.

Guy Marriage. I don't have a problem if two people want to get married. I am happily married to a man and as long as the guy marriage doesn't mean EVERYONE has to be married to their same sex, I'm happy for it to progress. By denying people legal recognition of their relationship, it forces people to feel compelled to define themselves though their sexual orientation instead of letting them develop who they are outside of who they sleep with.

Environment. I believe it is the christian responsibility to protect the earth. God asked us to be caretakers of it. That should mean we do the best we can to keep it healthy and thriving as long as possible.

Sex outside of marriage. It isn't a religious issue. It is a personal and physical issue that should be considered fully before engaging in it. Disease, emotional health, and social impact should be the primary things to consider. I believe there are plenty of reasons to wait until marriage for sex, but i don't see that having sex before you're married condoms you to hell. i mean, Esther did it and it saved her entire peoples' life!

Condoms. If your going to have sex and your not sure if/what your partner has, use a damn condom! Touching a condom is not a sin! Getting a STI can end your life or make it much less pleasant!

What amazes me is after talking with some theology friends, they now pray for my salvation. They see that my lack of toeing the line is a sign that I've drifted away from the teaching of Christ. I reconsidered all my believes and now believe exactly the same thing as before. God gave me a brain and i intend to use it. If the Church has a problem with that, they can take away my church car park!

AAARRRG!

I got another one. Those horrible forwards that just piss me off. It was posted as a myspace bulletin. I'll avoid pointing the finger at who sent this to me but this time, I saved it for you.

Why do we sleep in church, but when the ceremony is over we suddenly wake up?
Why is it so hard to talk about God, but so easy to talk about sex?
Why are we so bored when we look at a Christian magazine, but find it easy to read Playboy?
Why is it so easy to ignore a Godly myspace message, Yet we repost the nasty ones?
Why are churches getting smaller, But bars and clubs are growing?
Think about it, are you going to repost this?
Are you going to ignore it, cause you think you'll get laughed at?
Just remember God is always watching you.

Repost this as "Don't read if you're under 15."

80 % of you wont repost this.

The Lord said:
"If you deny me in front of your friends, I will deny you in front of my father"

Now lets look at this for a moment, shall we? The thing that JUMPS out at me is what to repost this as. "don't read if you're under 15". Sounds like your actually trying to trick people into reading. It is human nature to want to read something when it says you shouldn't. Plus it has that sort of I'm-a-sexual-bulletin sort of quality. Hmm, neither one of those sounds very 'truthful' and isn't that what real Christianity is about? I mean, Christ did say, "I am the TRUTH". (note lack of chapter and verse)

The other thing that got me was the quote from "the Lord". I love how it is unsupported with chapter and verse yet it gives a wonderful little guilt trip to the reader. You know, I don't think ANYTHING Jesus ever said was motivated by guilt tripping people into following Him. Maybe we should try to avoid guilt tripping people into Heaven.


"80 % of you wont repost this." hmmm, probably I'll get this sent to me another 50 times because people just can't stand the idea that they would be part of the majority. I mean, lets face it, we like to think we're unique and individual. We can't be part of everyone else!

Now it is an interesting idea that sex is more sociable acceptable to talk about than Christianity, but that is only in certain circles and in this generation. 50 years ago, our way of talking about sex was to avoid it at all costs. I mean, Lucy and Ricki didn't even sleep in the same bed for most of I Love Lucy.

So what is my point in ranting against another 'Christian' post. My point is that we don't have to be tricked into being a Christian. We don't have to trick others into it either. Christianity needs to be a real force in our lives that uses both our hearts and our heads. If it doesn't, it is nothing but leaking sewage.

[Repost this within 5 minutes or Jesus won't love you anymore.]