I am a Christian. As a Christian, I am very disappointed by something that a lot of other people who identify themselves as “Christians” are doing. Way too many people think it is their responsibility to condemn homosexuals, for instance, or people just because they don’t believe in God, or other people they don’t think are living right.
I cringe every time I hear somebody calling themselves a Christian acting hatefully to anybody. It is just not right.
The first thing is that Jesus was not judgmental as these “Christians” of whom I speak are. In fact, Jesus was most judgmental against the church leaders of his day, the Pharisees. (in my humble opinion, there are a lot of Pharisees still running some of the biggest churches.)
Jesus though, was forgiving in his 33 years of life on Earth. And, as Christians, we believe that Jesus already paid the price of anything we would do that was wrong. Some people act like as Christians that makes them better than anybody else, and they have the right to figuratively hit people over the head with the Bible for their supposed wrongs. The Old Testament is what these people usually use to condemn other people. Old Testament Bible quotes are constantly thrown at homosexuals to condemn them.
But, here’s the deal. Jesus said that the words of the Old Testament can be summed up in two lines:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ‘This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
Let me paraphrase: Jesus said that the two most important things in the Old Testament (Law and the Prophets) can be summed up in two lines:
-
Love God
-
Love everybody else
In my humble opinion, “Love” is a verb, an action word, not just a feeling. When Jesus said: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” he is telling us (Christians) to treat everybody with love.
Also, in my humble opinion, I do not think condemning people using Bible verses is very loving.
—
Now, we have the sad news story of the female athlete whose genetic makeup is not totally female. She has part of the characteristics of both genders. This happens a lot, where a person is not 100% female or male. I would think that this would mean that there are biological reasons why some people of one gender would be attracted to members of the same gender.
People should definitely not be condemned by something that is caused by something they cannot help. (I am not saying that is the only cause for homosexuality, but it could be the cause of a percentage of homosexuals)
The thing is, no matter what the reason, there is no reason at all for a Christian to condemn somebody who is homosexual. That is totally against what Jesus believed. Jesus was criticized by the church leaders of the day because he had meals with, visited with and spent time with people who the church leaders called “sinners”. If he were here today, he’d be having dinner with homosexuals, and making some of the church leaders of today (Pharisees) angry, just like what happened in his time.
If we are called Christ-ians shouldn’t we use Jesus Christ as a model of our behavior? There is a very memorable instance in the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of John, chapter 8. (John was written by one of the Twelve Apostles, somebody who was with Jesus very often.):
3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again, let me paraphrase what Jesus said:
“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
means:
Unless you have never done anything wrong, you have no right to criticize anybody else.
But, you say, hey, X! You are criticizing people who condemn homosexuals and others. Aren’t you calling the kettle black? Let me remind you, the people that Jesus criticized were the church leaders of the day. I am calling your attention to what I deem improper behavior within the Christian community, so in my mind, Jesus would do the same thing if he were living here now (in bodily form). As a Christian, I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and does live still today.
—
By the way, let me tell you the church denomination I am affiliated with. The word denominate means to give a name to, and a denomination is a named group. In my humble opinion, all Christians should think of themselves as being in the same “denomination”. I think it is wrong that some Christians think of themselves as their church denomination over and above the denomination given in Acts 11:26 “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.“
X
X-Evolutionist.com 