This is a real Christian.
And even though I loathe religion and you all think I hate religious people. I don't. Just the 90% of them that abuse the religion to advance their own selfish aims, which means they aren't religious.
This concludes the Captain's monthly required ranting against religion.
Hey Captain, although many Christian churches have been corrupted, get out of the big cities once in a while and visit the heartland. You'll find plenty of believing Christians. Demonizing the entire religion because you met a few assholes is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this country was built on Christianity. Period. It would never have achieved the success it did without it. Always keep that in mind.
Finally, if you aren't a Christian, and especially if you've never really bothered to learn about the belief system, you don't have any business saying who is and is not a "real" Christian, anymore than some dumb left-wing nutbag hippy gets to say what a real conservative/American is.
So both that post and the post it linked to were pretty damned vague. What's so hard? How are these guys more honest (or however you'd describe it) Christians?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Captain. The person I cited is a former cold-case homicide detective for the LAPD who converted at age 35, at the height of his career. He had no crisis, no problems, everything was fine. He just did an investigation and then bent his will to match what he discovered. This is not really what most pastors and churches tell people though - in fact they typically frown on questions, debates and disagreement. They try to cash Christianity out as life enhancement. And that's bad because it creates a bunch of converts who call themselves Christians but who are not willing to act like Christians when it goes against their self-interest. This then turns truth-minded non-Christians off from even looking into it, because all they see are hypocrites who don't know what's true, can't defend it when questioned and act completely opposite to what they say. We are to blame for this.
ReplyDeleteYep. Being a Christian is a PITA.
ReplyDeleteRemember those guys who used to get fed to lions?
"There is no such thing as Society."
"Make no sacrifices for Equality."
The fundamental error in Platonism and its derivatives, including Communism, is called idolatry. Don't see too many people volunteering to say so. The consequences are likely to be somewhat nastier than "unemployable blogger".
There are so many that treat Christianity as if it's a social club and live in a superficially "religious" life. And so many churches are full of smug people unwilling to get their hands dirty serving others, particularly the homeless and dirty street people. Nope, you don't see them down at the Salvation Army dishing up meals or washing clothes or finding them a place to stay. Nor to you see them visiting the sick or shut-ins.
ReplyDeleteThe author is very much right in the sense that being a Christian often demands that you give up your plans and what you have, to do what God calls you to do, often as great sacrifice of time, money and things. He sounds like one who gets his hands dirty.
Once you escape the "playing church" mode and turn to something deeper, you learn that every day is spent wrestling with God, his word and his people, to more fully understand and more completely accomplish what he has demanded of you. We aren't called to judge or condemn, we're called to uplift, help and restore It is an awesome responsibility.
Maybe some "christians" are accidentally on the side of freedom given the evil communist world we live in... (a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally), but no rational person will consider a christian to be anything other than an intellectual joke. (As someone who grew up "christian" and who later debated Nobel-laureates, I feel quite confident in this statement.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I will not spend much effort criticizing christians publicly if they are also anti-Marxists, as Marxism is the dominant evil of our day... but if the christians got their way and we had a christian theocracy, I (as a scientist) would be as violently opposed to them as I now oppose the Marxists.
How many people actually value logic, reason, and empiricism? It seems that maybe this is a different "1%".
Accepting Jesus, that is deciding how you want to live amounts to this: You agree to salvation through him, and you state freely, to not sin. Now you can define sin as loosely as you like, but Christ's admonition to all of us was, "Go forth and sin no more". Simple really, that is why you cant have a gay church, a church for continuing serial killers, a church for adulterers. Repentance really has meaning and without it, then you cannot claim salvation from the Saviour.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: 1:56...claims to value rational thought, then uses a blatant appeal to authority fallacy.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to talk it then walk it "as a scientist".