August 14, 2007 Why I find Christians frightening…
“… so what is wrong for we true Christians to nip the bud of the deviated faith?
… his agenda is antichrist! …. a spiritual matter. It is the demonic forces at work “
As I read these statements (from an email I keep getting through mass circulation) I am reminded of Kierkegaard’s contention that we are never Christians; only attempting to be one. It reminds us of our fallen nature, how distorted and wretched we all are! Is it possible AT ALL that ‘true’ Christians like us can still be wrong in our approach?
I am not sure how demonizing or labelling someone as being antichrist helps us to walk with him even if he chooses a lifestyle that disagrees with what our conviction tells us. There is more to be done than just shouting loud enough for it to go away.
“… the people feared to protest openly the injustices in their society. Why would people be afraid of pointing the finger at somebody who is doing wrong? Because they knew that if they did, that would be the end of their advancement in society and at work. They did not want to blow the whistle on anybody else because they would get the reputation of being a troublemaker-and there went their future…”
There are more injustices in our society than just the issue of homosexuality; hence the above statement is well said. Are not we ‘true’ Christians also afraid of pointing our fingers at issues of corruption, marginalization, oppression and violation of basic human rights? Afraid of losing the freedom to exercise our faith maybe? This again reminds us of our hipocrisy and certainly turns the table around at ourselves, that we may choose a more gracious way to deal with the issue at hand, as we give of ourselves to the grace of God for all our insincerity. Don’t we ALL need to be redeemed?
- 3 comments
- Posted under christianity, church, community
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Jet
said
indeed we need redemption.the trouble with society is that all of us are conditioned to behave like a hypocrite, to deny failures like kitsch. we cannot really differentiate our hypocritic and genuine feelings no matter how alert(or ‘holy’) we are.to walk with someone which has a different conviction really poses a great challenge to our hypocritism.can our verbal communication be a form of hypocritism since words can never fully express our thoughts(and that’s why silence is the place for transcendence?)?i think we are in a hopeless position, aren’t we?
but then, can we really say that we are never christians in this sense?as far as i know,faith defines our identity as christians.to say that we are never christians must mean that we never have that faith.yet the meaning of christian proliferates over the years.i wonder how obscure it is for people to seize the meaning of it.it is no longer vivid.’christian’ would be a redundant word.
in my own version i would say we are never Christ(or little Christ); only attempting to be one.well, people are acting like christ when they condemn,accuse and judge.
anyway,i might be wrong though.it is just a raw thought.
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lianghin
said
jet,
of course, none of us can ever have a conclusive answer. Glad you share your thoughts though. honestly, christian or not, for me, what I call myself is of no importance at this moment. our senses often deceive us no matter how sincere we believe we are. i find it useful to be reminded that faith communities in reality are responding to the challenges at hand and as thoughts and ideas are conceived, the communities begin to define themselves, thus your ‘faith defines identity’. this may be what hold the communities together but not what truth is in totality.
there was only one christ – and he died on the cross, to borrow nietzche’s words. for me, the historical jesus is the way in which he put all things into question (faith and identity) and eventually in itself a question rather than an answer – that which challenges self-critique. perhaps, just perhaps, it’s not to attempt at all to be christ, but to allow that idea to constantly question our faith and our identity. in that way perhaps we find ourselves more restrained to proclaim ourselves true adherents, capable of demonizing others….just perhaps…
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Hedonese
said
I dun like the tone of that mail though I do believe the move to make a clear stance on homosexuality may be a noble one.
Check out this event on the historical Jesus (political/spiritual?) tis Saturday
http://ohmsi.net