Where's the Love?

I browse certain websites often for the latest information in Prophesy news, news that correlates to Creation science, and once in a while, videos posted from YouTube on various sites.

Something that is always present on each of these sites is comments by Atheists or Agnostics that are not too kind. Their comments are usually extremely negative toward Christians and our beliefs. I often wonder what would inspire them to comment, knowing that the majority of people reading these news articles are Christian.

Is it strictly the desire to create conflict? Are they sincerely trying to convince the Christians reading the articles or the comments to reject their beliefs and become Atheist as well? And why are they targeting Christians? I don’t know.

So, I decided to present my question to some Atheists and Agnostics. I enlisted the help of my sister, an Atheist, to post my question to her friends, many of whom are Atheist and Agnostic.

My question was stated as follows:
“Why, when Atheists are criticizing people who believe in God or a god or several gods, or basically follow a religion or faith, do they always speak mostly of Christians? I mean, I never see a video by an Atheist that speaks poorly of Buddhists, or Muslims. They always show images of Christian churches, or Jesus, or whatever. They never disrespect people of other religions. The same for status posts, discussions, etc. Their hatred is always directed at Christians.”

The replies to my question were somewhat enlightening, but also not very surprising. The majority stated that because Christians are more vocal with their beliefs and worldview, and therefore more prevalent than other religions, that Christians are thought of first. That makes sense. Especially since we are called to “make disciples of all nations…” Although, many times the preaching done by Christians is not done out of love, but out of spite, which is sad.

Some of the respondents mentioned how the Christians they’ve known were complete hypocrites. I understand that, and I’ve seen it. I’ve done it. I think some people forget that Christians are also people who are as flawed as any other, and make mistakes, and hurt people intentionally and unintentionally, just like other people. I think the part that is most often left out is the part where we apologize and ask forgiveness of those we’ve hurt. It’s awful to think that a mistake done in a day could drive someone away from Jesus and cost them their life.

A couple of the respondents focused in on the wording of my question, and criticized how Christians feel criticized. I said in the question, “their hatred is always directed at Christians.” I did not mean to imply that I equate criticism with hatred. I do understand that there’s a big difference between the two. I was a little irked that the focus was on that one sentence in my question, but I digress.

The one quote that really stuck out to me, and cut right to the core, was this one: “…but I have seen more than my fair share in real life and on the internet of Christians just about peeing their pants with happiness that (they believe) others will suffer forever because they don't agree with the dogma. I am really disturbed at the general party attitude people have when telling others they are going to hell.”

Ouch. That one made me want to crawl into a little hole. The sad thing is they’re right. There are Christians who can’t wait for Judgment Day just to see all the evildoers perish. Instead of sharing the Gospel with all they can and trying to save others from perishing, they are delighting in the idea. Ick. That is just flat-out wrong.

God does not want for a single person to perish, but that ALL would come to have everlasting life. He does offer a choice. He gave us free-will so that we could decide for ourselves. But He does not delight in granting that wish. He gave his Son so that whoever believes in Him would NOT perish. The fact that he even offered his Son is proof that He does NOT want any of us to have to be apart from Him.

I did respond to the question, and was responded to, but did not continue the discourse because I didn’t feel like it would be productive. But I’m glad for the opportunity to have read each of the responses, and to think more of my own faith walk. I pray that I am never viewed as a “peeing in the pants” Christian, but as someone who really, genuinely cares for people. I really do want to show others how much God loves and cares for them!

Another Big-Mouth

Wow, I haven't written anything new on this blog in a really long time! I guess it's better late than never, depending on who's doing the waiting, right?

Well, I just wanted to write my thoughts regarding the Governor of Alabama's speech given today. In his speech, he said, "Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother." You can read about it here

I can kind of understand this man's intentions. Most likely, good intentions, at that. However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Sure, he was speaking to a church crowd. And he is right about the fact that those who have Christ in them are his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But that is not something that really needed to be pointed out, now is it? If they are truly a church crowd, then he's preaching to the choir.

His statement rings of exclusivity, which is exactly what Christians are mostly accused of these days. Being intolerant. Being bigots. Constantly pointing out that we are saved and you are not, neener, neener, neener.

I get so tired of Christians in the public forum speaking without thinking first. Obviously, I have no problem with him talking about his faith, but use some common sense. All you have to do is read though the 24,000+ comments on the article I linked to in order to get an impression of how Christians are viewed in society today. It is disheartening, to say the least, and it makes me sad that many people are lost BECAUSE of us, not in spite of us.

There is a video I watched on Netflix a couple weeks ago called Lord, Save Us From Your Followers that I think is really great. It points out how Christians are viewed today to non-believers, and it also talks about how we SHOULD be approaching non-believers, rather than the way we have been doing it.

If you have not seen it, I encourage you to watch it.