I love it when I find stuff like this
I am an atheist. I've read the Bible more times than most Christians I've met, and I have lots of trouble with Christians preaching the concept of morality and righteousness to me or anyone else. From time to time I meet Christians, or read their thoughts as in this case, that make me realize that there are some people out there who strive to take the teachings of Christ to heart. If ever there were any who I felt exemplified Christ and his teachings it would be Bill and Ethel Gulick, the former preacher and his wife at the church my parents used to attend. This passage reminds me of them, and I hope can be an inspiration to people everywhere, not just to the followers of Christ. I came across this when looking for non-scriptural evidence of why homosexuality is wrong or damaging to homosexuals and their surroundings. (here's why...) So far I've found not much, but this I did find.
This was a discussion about why do Christians follow the homosexuality rule but not the shellfish rule (found in Leviticus).
"Do they know we are Christians by our Love?
I can only answer your question from my side of the street. I am a Christian who doesn't mind admitting that I am a sinner and a hypocrite. This doesn't bother me, because so is every other human on the face of the planet. Fortunately for me God was smart enough to know that I would shove my beliefs down other peoples throats and call them bad to make myself feel better. He was also compassionate enough to send me a Savior. That is why, when I get too caught up in my pompous self and start killing everyone with the law, I start limiting myself to the red words. You know, the ones in those red letter edition bibles, where the words of Christ are the only red words. One of the boulders that Jesus flung at the pharisees, was that it is not what goes into a mans mouth that makes him unclean. It is what comes out of it.
Jesus didn't seem to spend much time worrying about what people ate other than feeding them. I have never found one verse where he with his own words condemned a homosexual, or a prostitute or a thief or a leper blah blah blah. He did, however, condemn the spirit of the pharisee. He spoke out at the religious leaders who heaped heavy laws on the people in order to maintain their own semblance of power and control. I believe he even called them sons of Satan or something similar. The only act of violence I have ever read about carried out by him was running the money changers out of the temple. These were people who charged large sums of money to the poor folks who had to travel long distances for their required pilgrimage to the temple where the law required them to make offerings. So the ticket scalpers so to speak, set up to probably price gouge and take what little money these people had for something they believed was necessary for their cleanness in the sight of God. Again blah blah blah
In truth, I believe that I don't serve a little God, so there are no little sins. And I'll be damned if I will stand on my hind legs and chunk stones at a homosexual, a prostitute, a drug dealer, a mass murderer, or a clam eater and pretend that my sins are not equally as offensive in the light of perfection. I can quote scripture till I throw up and it won't prove a thing. Even Satan can parrot what he has heard and sound really good doing it, as a matter of fact, I think he did exactly that when he was tempting Christ.
I am saved entirely by grace and grace alone. As long as I am sucking air, I am pretty much guaranteed that I am breaking some biblical law somehow. Sooooooo, I think I will just worry about my own dirty side of the street rather than pointing out the debris that litters yours .
I never read, they will know we are Christians by our ability to prove everyone else wrong. If in reality--They will know we are Christians by our LOVE-- most of us are sorry examples a lot of the time. I honestly believe that when we hit the pearly gates, there will be some folks requesting a transfer out of heaven because they just can't associate with the likes of some of the people God let in. "
You see, in the words of Ghandi, "I like your Christ, but not your Christians". It's good to know there's a few good ones out there.
This was a discussion about why do Christians follow the homosexuality rule but not the shellfish rule (found in Leviticus).
"Do they know we are Christians by our Love?
I can only answer your question from my side of the street. I am a Christian who doesn't mind admitting that I am a sinner and a hypocrite. This doesn't bother me, because so is every other human on the face of the planet. Fortunately for me God was smart enough to know that I would shove my beliefs down other peoples throats and call them bad to make myself feel better. He was also compassionate enough to send me a Savior. That is why, when I get too caught up in my pompous self and start killing everyone with the law, I start limiting myself to the red words. You know, the ones in those red letter edition bibles, where the words of Christ are the only red words. One of the boulders that Jesus flung at the pharisees, was that it is not what goes into a mans mouth that makes him unclean. It is what comes out of it.
Jesus didn't seem to spend much time worrying about what people ate other than feeding them. I have never found one verse where he with his own words condemned a homosexual, or a prostitute or a thief or a leper blah blah blah. He did, however, condemn the spirit of the pharisee. He spoke out at the religious leaders who heaped heavy laws on the people in order to maintain their own semblance of power and control. I believe he even called them sons of Satan or something similar. The only act of violence I have ever read about carried out by him was running the money changers out of the temple. These were people who charged large sums of money to the poor folks who had to travel long distances for their required pilgrimage to the temple where the law required them to make offerings. So the ticket scalpers so to speak, set up to probably price gouge and take what little money these people had for something they believed was necessary for their cleanness in the sight of God. Again blah blah blah
In truth, I believe that I don't serve a little God, so there are no little sins. And I'll be damned if I will stand on my hind legs and chunk stones at a homosexual, a prostitute, a drug dealer, a mass murderer, or a clam eater and pretend that my sins are not equally as offensive in the light of perfection. I can quote scripture till I throw up and it won't prove a thing. Even Satan can parrot what he has heard and sound really good doing it, as a matter of fact, I think he did exactly that when he was tempting Christ.
I am saved entirely by grace and grace alone. As long as I am sucking air, I am pretty much guaranteed that I am breaking some biblical law somehow. Sooooooo, I think I will just worry about my own dirty side of the street rather than pointing out the debris that litters yours .
I never read, they will know we are Christians by our ability to prove everyone else wrong. If in reality--They will know we are Christians by our LOVE-- most of us are sorry examples a lot of the time. I honestly believe that when we hit the pearly gates, there will be some folks requesting a transfer out of heaven because they just can't associate with the likes of some of the people God let in. "
You see, in the words of Ghandi, "I like your Christ, but not your Christians". It's good to know there's a few good ones out there.
posted by Dr Jones at 2:00 AM
1 Comments:
Hmm, old post. My comment may go unnoticed, but nevertheless...
Thanks for this. I'd like to identify myself as one of those Christians who strives to be like Christ, but I don't know if you'd agree if you met me. What I do know is that, while researching a current sermon topic on the internet, I've seen so many posts and arguments left by fellow Christians... and I'm ashamed to share the name of Christ with them.
I never heard Christ deny the Jewish laws that forbade homosexuality and adultery and all the rest, so I honestly assume he believed they were right. But the funny thing? They flocked to him. The prostitues and the thieves, the dregs, lepers and down-and-outs practically RAN to be near that man. They saw his love for clearly than anything, from miles away.
They don't flock to Christians today. So clearly we're not all getting it right. So thanks again for the reminder, and the encouragement - some people still remember what love can do.
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