Monthly Archives: June 2010

This Is a Relationship?

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Guest post by M

What would you think if I told you that I had this deep relationship with Halle Berry?  What would you think if told you that I walk with her, that I talk with her and that I commune with her all the time, every day?  Now, if I’m a famous Hollywood actor or actress you would probably believe me, because after all, it’s not so outrageous to believe that famous celebrities hang out and have access to other famous celebrities.  But unfortunately, I am no celebrity.  I’m just an average guy who works a 9-5 job and runs errands and hangs out with friends on the weekend.  My life is not definitely not glamorous or exciting. Maybe it will be someday though.  OK, back to the point.  Considering that you know that I’m no celebrity, you would either think I’m full of shit or that I have some serious mental disorder if I told you that I had this deep and real relationship with some Gorgeous Hollywood celebrity. 

Now what I’m about to say may be extremely offensive to you considering your view of the world and spiritual matters.  If you are an evangelical/fundamentalist Christian, you might find what I’m about to say downright blasphemous, but at least hear me out before you start with your predictable threats of hell and damnation.  When you really think about it, saying that I have a personal relationship with Halle Berry is no crazier than saying that I have a personal relationship with God.

How can I say this?  Well, let me give you some details about my background. I’ll try to keep it short so no one gets bored.  I was an evangelical/fundamentalist Christian for just under 11 years (over a decade).  One of the several things that Christians used to say to me when they witnessed to me was that I could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  And you know what?  I used to tell people the same thing when I witnessed to them. Another common line (or lie) that I used was, “Christianity isn’t a religion. It’s a relationship with God.” 

Now before I continue, I want to clearly state that while I am no longer a Christian, I’m no atheist.  If we have to use labels, I’d call myself an agnostic, or maybe even an agnostic theist.  In my opinion, no one can absolutely prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is or isn’t a God.  After all, we’re talking about matters of the supernatural, right?  Even the Bible, if you want to use that as your authority, says that spiritual matters have to be believed by faith, and that if you could see empirical evidence for spiritual matters, it wouldn’t be faith.  Yeah, I know this is an extremely rough paraphrase, but I don’t think it’s inaccurate either.  All that being said, the complexity of much of creation and my belief in certain moral absolute truths make it seem probable, at least to me, that there is some kind of Creator/Higher Power out there. I strongly doubt that this God that probably exists is the Christian God of the Bible. I also strongly doubt that this God is actively involved in the affairs of this world.  Notice I said DOUBT.  I didn’t say that that I know these things for sure.  Actually these are statements of faith, and I acknowledge that I could be wrong.  But based on the evidence that I can see, these are the conclusions I have come to in my life right now.

Now, let’s get back to this issue of relationship.  There are all kinds of relationships that can occur between people.  There’s the relationship between a husband and wife, child and parent, a friend and a friend, an employee and his boss.  Hell, in this day and age you can have a relationship with someone whom you have never met in person or heard their voice.  It’s called the Internet, and electronic communication has made these kinds of relationships possible.  I’ve just listed a few kinds of relationships that can occur in our lives.  There are several more.  Obviously, these kinds of relationships are very different from each other but there is one crucial commonality that they all have. All of these relationships involve mutual communication, whether it’s talking on the phone, talking in person, or email.  My point is that for a relationship to be a relationship both parties need to communicate with each other.  If one party in a “relationship” is doing all the communicating while the other party communicates nothing in return, THAT IS NOT A RELATIONSHIP!  If a wife constantly talked to her husband and he said nothing in return even though he was fully capable of doing so, at worst that is not a relationship, and at best, it would be considered an extremely dysfunctional relationship.

I’m sure by now you probably know where I am headed.  Why is there such a double standard when it comes to our “relationship” with God?  We’re told that through Jesus Christ, we can have a relationship with God.  But, how can we be expected to have a relationship with someone who we can’t see, can’t feel, and can’t hear.  In fact none of our five senses can experience this God of which Christians talk.  Sure, we can talk to God, or at least think we’re talking to Him, but He won’t talk back to us.  It’s just constant silence.  And don’t give me that quaint easy answer that he communicates with us through the Bible.  Human beings, like you and me, wrote the Bible.  Is there plenty of truth in there? Of course, and the Bible is certainly a book worth reading.  But again, it’s a product of man and did not just drop down to us from the sky.  I have become convince that this “relationship” with God that Christians talk about is no different than a small child who has an imaginary friend. Besides, where in the Bible, if you want to use that as your authority, does it say that you can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ?

In conclusion, let me return to the Halle Berry example.  The truth of the matter is that, believe it or not, I have a better chance of having mutual communication and a relationship with Halle Berry than I do with God.  That may sound really crazy, but I’m not so sure it is.  You want to know why?  I could send an email to Halle through her website (if she has one) or I could write her a letter.  It most likely would get in the hands of someone who is some kind of assistant to or coordinator for Ms. Berry.  That person may decide to pass it on to Ms. Berry, and who knows what could happen?  Perhaps Halle would write me back a quick email or letter saying thank you.  It’s happened before with celebrities and non-celebrities.  It’s rare but it has happened.  Also notice that even just a quick note saying thank you is an objective way of communication.  It doesn’t leave someone having to think that deep down Halle is saying this to me, or that because these things are happening in my life, Halle must be saying that to me.  This is the epitome of subjectivism.   What are the odds of receiving a clear and objective response the next time we try to communicate with God?  Do I really need to answer that question?

Unintended Message in the Book of Eli?

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Guest Post by Lydia

Before watching Book of Eli I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Christian action movie and had no knowledge of the religious themes in this film when I rented it.

In the beginning of the movie the protagonist, Eli, walks west alone in an extremely dangerous post-apocalyptic America. For the past few decades he has walked past nearly every kind of horror one could expect in a lawless society – gang rapes, highway robberies, slavery, cannibalism, mass murder. He carries a book with him to protect at any cost; because of this his motto is “This does not concern you. Do not get involved.”

And then Eli meets a young girl named Solara. Naturally, she follow him out of the feudal hellhole that was her childhood. The overseer of her village, Carnegie, is looking for a book that he soon realizes is in Eli’s possession. If you haven’t already guessed, the book in question is, in fact, a bible, and it is believed to be the last remaining copy of the KJV on earth. So many years have passed since anyone was in possession of a bible that the vast majority of those still alive have no knowledge of God or Christianity. It is  as if those concepts never existed.

The Book of Eli intends to show us what the world would be like if it was run without any semblance of God or religion: there would be no social order, no laws, no mercy. Men and women would live and die as animals and the most wicked of us all would rise into leadership. It is only through this book that we can reclaim our humanity.

There’s just one little problem with this premise: the existence of the Bible in this movie doesn’t actually lead anyone to be more law-abiding, merciful, or just in the film. Eli is so busy protecting his book that until his friendship with Solara has had time to develop he doesn’t do anything to help the secondary characters who are raped, murdered, abused or enslaved as he searches for a safe home for the book.

Most minor characters in this film have no cultural or personal experience with the book and nor do they give any inclination that they feel something is missing in their lives. They are born, live and die in a violent, parched world that has no concept of God, hell or redemption. It is all just a constant struggle to survive.

Carnegie, one of the few people left who can remember what the world was like before the change, believes that this book can be used to influence the opinions and beliefs of the people under his control.  That the words in the book are so powerful that they would become the foundation of his future empire. The book does motivate him…in a destructive manner. He seeks the book in order to gain social and political power, believing that people absorb the book even better if he can decide which bits to share and when to share them.

Eli’s years of wandering do protect the book from those who would misuse or destroy it; this time even gives him a chance to memorize it. But Eli’s knowledge of the Bible never translates into a change in his behaviour. It  is only when Eli bonds with Solara that he begins to defend someone other than himself, to (platonically) love someone other than himself.

I don’t know if this is something the directors of this film intended to show but it mirrors what I’ve seen in real life: as human beings we are built up (and torn down) by the relationships we form with other people . Religious texts attempt to motivate someone to change unhealthy behaviours. They may even have occasional, short-term success, but 99% of the people I know who have broken (or created) destructive patterns in their lives have done so at least as a partial result of the types of relationship they have with family members and friends.

The Need To Know

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Truth.

Certainty.

We want to know that our lives matters.

We want to believe that our lives have significance and meaning.

The struggle for certainty, for significance,  for purpose, for meaning takes place on the backdrop of the one thing that we all know for sure is certain…death.

Even then, through religion, we have hope that our life matters beyond the here and now.

But, what do we really know for certain?

I mean really know?

I am a person that prides myself in being a seeker of truth.  I find great pleasure and satisfaction in being the smartest person in the room. How easy it is for me to think my knowledge makes me “better” than the masses. With smug assurance I think I have life all figured out.

But, it is only a matter of time before I am reminded of how much I really don’t know, how much of life l really  don’t have figured out.

It is a tough balance for me, this thing called life.

I have a need to know.  It is who I am. Whether it be religion and politics, or computers and fish aquariums, I am driven to know.

This is not a bad thing, in its place.

Bu, when it turns me into a smug, arrogant, know-it-all who thinks he has the answers for all that ails mankind it is an insufferable problem that drives people away.

I know I can never be like those who are quite content not to know. I know I can never leave off the chase for the illusive (if not illusion) truth.

It’s just not me.

So, I have to find a way to co-exist with others who are not as driven as I am.

I have to learn to pick and choose my truth battles carefully.

I have to learn what matters, and what doesn’t.

Perhaps I have to think of myself as viewed through the eyes of my children and grandchildren.

What will they remember me for?

What do I want them to remember me for?

For my children, perhaps the memory has already been cast.  The stern, fundamentalist disciplinarian who valued truth above people. Though, I am many years removed from being such a man he still shows up in stories my children share and the observations they make about life in general, and my life in particular.

Maybe I will live long enough that the memory of the stern, fundamentalist disciplinarian will fade into the distant past.

With grandchildren, come the opportunity to live again. A do-over.

Will I let my grandchildren be whomever and whatever they want to be?

How will I pass on to them the things that matter?

Because some things DO matter.

I am not sure I have the answer.

I know my tendencies.

I know the passion I have about certain things in life.

What if they choose differently?

What if they become, the gods forbid, a Republican?

I can not  quench my thirst for knowledge.

I don’t want to.

It is who I am.

As long as I have eyes that can see and a brain that can process what I read I will continue to seek knowledge, even if it is just what the ingredients are in the hand lotion on the back of the toilet.

I don’t need to change who I am……….

I just need to change how I relate to others who may not be like me.

I need to be willing to see others as fellow human beings, even though they may be totally different from  me.

This is hard for me.

Fundamentalists make this hard for me.

Tea bagger’s make this hard for me.

Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity make this hard for me.

Climate change deniers make this hard for me.

Truth is…….anyone who disagrees with me makes it hard for me.

After all I am the smartest guy in the room.

But who cares if I am besides other people who think they are the smartest person in the room?

What a miserable lot.

No matter who we are,what intellectual capabilities we have, or what our world view is, we all will soon be dead. One day closer than yesterday.

What will matter then?

What will my kids remember me for then?

What will my grandkids remember me for long after my ashes have been scattered on the shore of Lake Michigan?

When my neighbors tell the cultural legend of Bruce Gerencser how will the story go?

These days, these are the things I wonder about.

I wonder of someone wrote a book on this subject………….

God Gave Me Breast Cancer Because He Loves Me

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I am hesitant about writing this post. The reason is that the main character of this post is someone that I respect very much. She is a person that has inspired many people over the years. Her testimony of faith has been an encouragement to countless people and her perseverance in spite of her disability has inspired many to keep going on regardless of what trial and adversity has come their way.

Joni Eareckson Tada was severely injured in a diving accident in 1967. For the past 47 years she has been a quadriplegic. Tada’s life story was popularized in a best-selling book titled Joni.

In recent weeks Tada has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

In the Friday, June 25, 2010 edition of the Defiance Crescent-News there was a news story reporting that Tada had breast cancer and that she was undergoing treatment.

What absolutely astounded me was Join Eareckson Tada’s comment about God’s involvement in her breast cancer.

Tada said:

I’ve often said that our afflictions come from the hand of our all-wise and sovereign God, who loves us and wants what’s best for us. So, although cancer is something new, I am content to receive from God, what ever he deems fit for me. Yes, it’s alarming, but rest assured Ken and I are utterly convinced that God is going to use this to stretch our faith, brighten our hope and strengthen of our witness to others.

In other words, God gave Tada breast cancer because he loved her and deemed it best for her. God gave Tada cancer so that she and her husband would have more faith and have a stronger witness to others.

Tada’s God is best described as a know it all God who afflicts human beings with sickness, disease, suffering, and death because he loves them and wants to increase their faith in him. He then wants them to use the afflictions that he gave them to tell others what a wonderful God he is.

Crazy  isn’t it? I doubt if Sigmund Freud could even figure this out.

The Christian interpretation of the Bible presents God as a father. Fathers love, protect,  and nurture their children. They don’t beat them, abuse them, and afflict them with suffering. Every human being in their right mind knows what qualities make for a good father. We also know what qualities make for a bad father.

A father who has the power to heal and doesn’t is a bad father. A father who causes suffering, sickness, and disease when he could do otherwise is a bad father.A father who afflicts a person with breast cancer is a bad father. A father who gives a person breast-cancer so that that person can tell everyone what a wonderful father they are is a bad father.

From my seat in the pew, God the father, as presented by modern Christianity, is a bad father. Christianity would be better served by coming up with a different God model. I see a potential  new God model in the words of Joni Eareckson Tada. How about this model? God can do whatever he wants to you because you can. Oh wait, that already is the God model of Calvinism.

Tada’s argument for a breast cancer giving God is one of the reasons I left the Christian faith. I could no longer believe in a loving God that willingly afflicts and kills his children because he has determined that it is best for them. The Christian God is even so arrogant to suggest that not only should the Christian bear whatever affliction he brings upon them but that they should love him for doing it. I want nothing to do with such a capricious, vindictive, warped God.

Disease, sickness, suffering, and death are all around us. If God could do something about these things and doesn’t what are we to make of such a God? What are we to make of a God who is seemingly involved in the intimate details of life, yet who, when things really matter, is absent without leave? (AWOL)

Christian sing a song that speaks of “what a mighty God we serve”. A mighty God? Batman and Superman were mighty gods. They used their powers for good. They were always on call, ready, at a moments notice, to swoop in and help those in need.  But the Christian God ? It seems the bigger the need the harder he is to find.  As I noted in another post, God seems to involve himself in trivial matters, like getting a woman a $200 refund on her plane ticket, but he seemingly can’t be found when a environmentally catastrophic oil leak needs to be plugged. Perhaps we need to forget God and turn on the bat signal.

I am saddened by Joni Eareckson Tada’s affliction with breast cancer. Being a quadriplegic for 47 years is enough suffering for one lifetime. But, I know just because you have one affliction in life doesn’t mean you won’t be afflicted again. Just because I have MS doesn’t mean I won’t get some other disease. Life isn’t fair. Life can be cruel sometimes. Life can even be vicious. I have known people whose lives were devastated by one tragedy or sickness after another. If God is the one dumping all this on them it would seem proper to ask God to move on to someone else. “Please God afflict sister so-and-so. She is in perfect health.”

Christians often quote the verse that says God will never give anyone us more than they can bear. In other words, no matter what you face in life God has determined you can bear it. This verse always leaves God off the hook. God, who is sovereign over all things, determines that you can bear to have cancer, AIDS, MS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, emphysema, or any other dreaded disease, so he afflicts you. You are expected to bear whatever he brings your way. If you don’t, it is your fault. Your failure to bear your burden shows that you lack faith.

But reality paints us a far different picture. Many Christians, if not most Christians, do not bear their burdens so well at all. I have counseled hundreds of Christians over the years that were weighed down by the burdens given to them by God.(so they thought) Of course, at the time, I encouraged them to have more faith,  but rarely did the faith of the afflicted rise to the weight of the burden. Most often the burden broke their back. Sadly, many of these people, continue to walk around, stooped over and crippled, all the while singing “what a mighty God we serve”.

There is a hypocritical vein in this line of thinking. The theory is that God afflicts his children with suffering for their good because he loves them and wants to increase their faith. I would ask then why do Christians go to the doctor and take prescription medications? (or for that matter natural supplements) It seems to me that not seeing the doctor and not taking prescription medications would result in a greater increase in faith. Surely a sovereign, Almighty God is bigger than high blood pressure or diabetes. Surely a sovereign, Almighty God is bigger than any pain a Christian might have. Of course there are Christian sects that do have this kind of faith. They don’t go to doctors and they refuse to take  medication of any kind. And every few years we have the privilege of reading about them in the newspaper when they are charged with manslaughter or child abuse for failing to get proper medical care for their children.

For me personally, it is better for there to be no God, or a God that is not involved in his creation, than there is to be a God that afflicts people because he loves them and wants to increase their faith. Such a God is a monster of vast proportions, a God unworthy of  worship.

I fully recognize that sickness suffering, and disease can be instrumental is shaping us, changing us, and even making us a better person. But this is far different from a loving God father figure afflicting us so that we will love him ,have more faith, and be better witnesses. Such thinking is barbaric and best relegated to the ancient past it came from.

If Must Choose I Choose Satan

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Dwayna writes the following for the Christian Research Network website (broken link) :

Let’s take a look at how Satanism teaches essentially the same thing as other occult religions. Hmm. Could they all be a form of Satanism? (Answer: yes.) Satan is behind it all. The battle is this simple: Jesus or Satan. Period. Test the spirits–see the fruit of belief systems. Are people left with nervous disorders and a lack of confidence and immature and unwise as a result of occult spirituality? Do such people get really nervous around Christians who come in the name of Jesus’ love with the power of the Holy Spirit living inside? (Answer: yes.)

Dwayna adds the following from her own blog:

We are discussing on Facebook how Satanism is essentially teaching the same thing as various occult religions such as Kabbalah and Scientology. Satanism teaches rebellion from the law and salvation in a balance of nature.

Consider what Satanism teaches:

The very word “devil” comes from the Indian word devi which means “god.” Satan represents opposition to all religions which serve to frustrate and condemn man for his natural instincts. The Greek word demon meant “guardian spirit or source of inspiration.”…Occult lore states that only the most formidably “protected” or insanely foolhardily sorcerer would try to call forth the Devil himself. These are the names and origins of the Gods and Goddesses called upon, which make up a large part of the occupancy of the Royal Palace of Hell:

First ,Dwayna takes the Satanic Bible as her authority for what the word devil means. This makes sense since she is a fundamentalist who believes the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Words of God. In her mind God’s people have their book and Satan’s people have their book. She might want to study the entomology of the word a bit more.

Second. As all good fundamentalists, Dwayna’s world is black and white. Every religion/philosophy/worldview is either from God or from Satan.Of course, Dwayna seriously doubts that many of the people who call themselves Christians are “really” Christians, so from her perspective there are a lot of Christian Satanists in the world.

Third. Dwayna asks us to test the spirits. She asks us to examine the fruit of the various belief systems. Dare we examine the fruit of Christianity, even the narrow, fundamentalist Christianity Dwayna subscribes to?  What fruit has the Christian Research Network brought forth? Their goal in life is to persecute and attack all those they disagree with, and believe me they disagree with most everyone. If the heresy slayers at the Christian Research Network are THE example of what REAL Christians are………who would want to be a Christian?

Dwayna tells us it is Jesus or Satan.

If I must choose, I choose Satan.

Satan does not require me to have personal devotions or pray to him. Satan does not require me to give 10% of my income to him. Satan does not require me to get up on Sunday and go to a building to listen to a person tell me from a book what Satan demands of me. Satan makes no demands of me at all.

The reason?

Because he doesn’t exist.

And neither does Dwayna’s concept of God and Jesus.

Dwayna would have us believe that all those who aren’t like here get nervous when real Christians like her, Christian Research Network Christians, get around us.

Why should we be nervous?

Is the Holy Ghost going to jump out and get us? Should we walk around fearfully when a Christian gets within 50 feet?

This line of thinking is similar to those who post lots of Bible verses in the comments. They believe the Bible has mystical power. They call it the power of the word.

It doesn’t work. The Bible words are just that, words.

Outside of the tremendous emotional damage that Dwayna’s brand of Christianity does  to people caught up in it,  I find little in it that matters. The internet gives the Christian Research Network a sense of self-importance. They believe they are God’s chosen vessels, chosen to stand for him against the powers of darkness, in the last day.

One is tempted to laugh…….

But, remember such were some of you….

If reason can deliver you then there is yet hope for the folks at the Christian Research Network.

Why Can’t I Just…

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My college age, youngest daughter posted the following on Facebook:

When i stand before god at the end of my life, i would hope that i would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “i used everything you gave me”.

This is a quote by Irma Bombeck.

My daughter said that she thought it was a great quote though she didn’t necessarily agree with every word of it.

This opened the door for a family member, who is also married to a fundamentalist, Baptist evangelist, to do a little bit of evangelizing.

The fundamentalists in our family always  look for those golden opportunities to get a word in for their God. For some reason they think we’ve never heard it before. For some reason they forget that I was already preaching when they were still in diapers.

I told my daughter that I saw her Irma Bombeck quote and that  I also read family member x’s response to it.

She got that look on her face. You know that look fathers. THAT look.  :)

She said to me, “you didn’t say anything did you?”

I told her that I did say something but I was very polite and didn’t say anything inappropriate.

She then asked me a question, that she already knew the answer to.

She asked,”why can’t you leave things alone?”

“Why do you always feel that you need to say something?”

The short answer is quite simple, I just can’t.

Believe me, I wish I could just keep my mouth shut, my fingers off the keyboard, and ignore the words, actions, and deeds of others.

I wish that racial and religious bigotry didn’t bother me.

I wish the political hacks didn’t get under my skin.

I wish that poorly educated, ignorant, fundamentalists didn’t irritate the hell out of me.

I wish I could be one of those people who keep to themselves, concern themselves with no one,and find no issue in life worth standing up for or dying for.

I wish I could be a sheep.

I wish I was blind, deaf, and mute to the suffering and injustice in the world.

Life would be a lot easier for me.

But that’s not who I am.

Life matters to me.

As an agnostic, I realize this is the only life that I have.

I also realize that this is only life other people have.

So in this life, I want to conduct myself in such a way, that I make a difference in my own life, and the life of  the other people I come in contact with.

I may not believe the Bible but I do think loving my neighbor as myself is a pretty good idea.

So when I see family members, and friends of friends on Facebook, evangelizing those who didn’t ask to be evangelized, I am probably going to say something.

That’s what you get when you friend me on Facebook.

Or find my name on your birth certificate.

Please cue Tom Petty.

Why Should I Accept Jesus As My Lord?

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I have spent the last few days pondering the question why should I accept Jesus as my Lord? If I had not grown up in a Christian home, if I had not trained for the ministry,  if I had not pastored churches for 25 years, how would I have responded to the Christian message of salvation in Jesus Christ alone?

I certainly can’t know for certain. My life is what it is and the fact is I did grow up a Christian home, I did train for the ministry and I did pastor churches for 25 years. That’s my story.

But what if I had to do it all over again?  Would I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior? Would I have embraced Christianity?

I don’t know.

I  do know that I am 53 years old now. I have been a lifelong student of the Bible, Christian history, and all things pertaining to the Christian church. I know my stuff when it comes to Christianity. It’s been a long time since someone has posed a question or argument about the Bible, a particular verse, or a matter of church history that I have not read about in the past or seen discussed  at some conference, pastors  meeting or church service.  When it comes to the Bible and the Christian church there truly is nothing new under the sun.

I have been implored many times now to truly accept Jesus as my Lord. I have been told numerous times that the Jesus of my youth, the Jesus of my Bible college years, and the Jesus of my 25 years in the ministry was a false Jesus. I’ve been told if I ever met the real Jesus I would never want to walk away from him. In fact, I have been told that if I had met the real Jesus I would know that he has promised to never leave me nor forsake me. It seems once Jesus  is your Savior you are his forever, even if you want a divorce.

So what is it that makes someone distinctly a Christian? Is a set of beliefs? Is it a way of life?

I’ve asked these questions many times. Every Christian has a different answer,and this reminds me why Christianity is hopelessly mired in what the Bible says is “every man believing what is right in his own eyes.” There are literally thousands of versions of Christianity, each with their own God, Jesus, orthopraxy, and orthodoxy. Every denomination, church, Pastor, and individual Christian has their own interpretation of the Bible and their own standard of what it means to be a Christian.

A Christian is fundamentally a follower of Jesus. A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus. A Christian is one who follows in the steps of Jesus. It  seems to me that Christianity is about living life in a certain manner. That’s what I get from the sermon that Jesus preached in Matthew 5-7.

So if Christianity is all about a way of living that I can think of no reason of why I should accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Quite frankly, I live  as good of a life, if not better of a life, than most Christians that I know.  On any given day I evidence the fruit of the Spirit. I love my neighbor as myself. I try to do good for others, especially for those who are part of my family.

The only difference between me and most of the Christians that I know is that they believe the Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God and I don’t. They also spend an hour or two on Sunday worshiping their God. Outside of these two things I am no different than most Christians  I know.

The truth is I can’t think of any reason why I should accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Let the objections began.

But if you don’t believe_______________________________ then you will go to hell when you die. So then, salvation is really about believing the right things?

Surely you don’t want to go to hell when you die? So salvation is all about avoiding hell and gaining heaven? I have some doubts that I would even want to go to heaven considering the fact that Gandhi and Mother Teresa were not good enough to make it in. What kind of God has a heaven where selfless, sacrificing people don’t make it but live like hell, go to church on Sunday Baptists are be found everywhere in heaven?

You are self-righteous Bruce. All your good works are about filthy rags. Unless Jesus is the one giving you the power to do these good works than they are of no value at all. Really? Is that the road you really want to go down? Why is it that so many Christians don’t live any different than their counterparts in the world? They live just like the rest of  us. They fudge on their taxes just like everyone else. They watch porn, curse, lose their temper, and eat too much at the buffet just like everyone else. Study after study shows that the only difference between most practicing Christians and their non-Christian counterparts in the world is that the Christian goes to a church building on Sunday morning.

As a humanist I believe I have the power to do good or evil. Every day I am faced with moral and ethical choices.  I make those choices to the best of my ability. I. don’t need to check in with God, pray, read my Bible, or call a pastor to decide what I should do. My worldview is pretty simple. Don’t do things that will hurt others. This one simple statement pretty well covers most everything that I will do in life.

It seems to me that the Christian message is all about believing the right things because you don’t want to go to hell when you die. While much preaching is directed at trying to get Christians to live a certain way, for the most part the preaching falls on deaf ears. On any given Sunday,in the Christian town of 325 people that I live in, the vast majority of people will not bother to get out of bed and go to a house of worship. If asked if they are a Christian  they will, with great pride, say, yes I am. I suspect I’m the only person in town who would say no I’m not a Christian and I see no need to be one.

If Christians want to prove to the world that Christianity is real, if they want to prove that Jesus is the way, truth, and life,they need to put their Bibles away.  They need to close down their houses of worship. They need to fire their pastors and tell them to go get a real job. Then they need to start living like Christianity really mattered.  They need to start with the sermon on the Mount and put it into practice in their day-to-day lives.

The truth is the average  non-Christian sees nothing in Christianity, in the lives of those who profess to be Christians, that would make them want to choose Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The proof of any belief is how we live it. As is often quoted in Christian churches ‘’your actions speak  so loud I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”

Why Should God Care?

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Today thousands of people will die  as a result of  famine, preventable disease, and war.  Suffering abounds everywhere.

Yet, we are suppose to think that God gives a shit about  BP, the US government, and the State of Louisiana causing the largest environmental disaster in US history.

Mortals have failed to stop the oil and now it is time to call in the A-Team, also known as God.

The Louisiana legislature is calling on all people of faith to pray.

CNN reports:

While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing a different approach: prayer.

State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God’s help dealing with the oil disaster.

“Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail,” state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week’s unanimous vote for the day of prayer. “It is clearly time for a miracle for us.”

The resolution names Sunday as a statewide day of prayer in Louisiana and calls on people of all religions throughout the Gulf Coast “to pray for an end to this environmental emergency, sparing us all from the destruction of both culture and livelihood.”

While people of faith pray, non-theists ask………….Why should God care?

Perhaps God will say “Your mess, Your problem,You clean it up.”

Perhaps God might rebuke the Louisiana legislature, who, even as they are praying for divine favor, are fighting attempts to strengthen oil drilling regulations. Perhaps God might say “if you are unwilling to do the right thing, why should I?”

Memo to  the Louisiana legislature, the US government and BP:

God ain’t coming to fix this problem.

Ultimately, It is About Faith

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Christianity rests on a foundation of faith. For by grace we are saved through faith….without faith it is impossible to please God…the just shall live by faith….therefore being justified by faith….the fruit of the spirit is faith…one faith…through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God…without faith is is impossible to please God..looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…

Christians are called the “household of faith”

The world, non Christians, and some professing Christians are described as…reprobate concerning the faith…those who overthrow the faith of some…having erred concerning the faith…having cast off their first faith….having denied the faith….those who depart from the faith….

The Bible is clear… all men have not faith.

A number of years ago I got into a discussion with a pastor friend of mine over his belief that the King James Bible was the “perfect” word of God. Every word, as written in English, was the words of God. I gave him a list of errors that were found in the King James Bible.  He would have none of this.  He said “even if you could show me that there is an error in the King James Bible I wouldn’t believe it.  By FAITH I believe the King James Bible is the perfect, inspired, inerrant Word of God. “

Checkmate. Discussion over.

Ultimately, regardless of the argument, the Christian  will, dare i say must, resort to faith to claim victory in the argument. I’ve seen educated theologians and hillbillies with an 8th grade education use the faith argument when they could not counter an argument with truth and reason.

Once faith is injected into a discussion the discussion is over. Faith is spiritual, personal, and subjective. It can not be proved or disproved.

I find David Eller’s words to be very poignant on this issue:

Honest theist philosophers have admitted that the “arguments” for god(s) are inconclusive at best and futile at worst. I am talking here about the familiar arguments like the ontological argument or the cosmological argument or the teological (argument from design) and so on. See the first chapter of my “Natural Atheism” book on “The 12 Steps to Atheism” on all of these arguments. Take the definitely non-atheistic philosopher Immanuel Kant, who showed explicitly over 200 years ago that the ontological argument fails because “being” is not a quality but rather the precondition of all qualities. In his “Critique of Pure Reason” he authoritatively demonstrated that all “rational” arguments for religion end in contradiction and deadlock. That is obviously why modern theologians like Swinburne and Plantinga are always trying to come up with new arguments and why theists ultimately fall back on “faith”–since no argument proves their point and they want to hold their point anyhow.

Why Right Wing Christians Are Dangerous

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Susan Jacoby, in a Washington Post article writes:

Within the United States, right-wing Christians–whether Catholic or Protestant–pose the biggest threat to those who do not share their worldview, because they constitute a large and determined enough minority to finance and maintain a long-term movement to write their views into law. Like radical Islamists, they rely on an absolute truth claim to justify their actions. Unlike radical Islamists, even Christians on the far right have outgrown violence (except for individual psychotics) because Christian denominations exist under legal institutions–established by secularists and minority religious believers–that prevent them from doing what their historical predecessors tried to do to heretics.