Tag Archives: Christianity

On Being [seen as] Wrong

Today someone I love told me they were sorry I am wrong with regard to my left-leaning political views. Not surprising, this person is a far-right conservative. Also not surprising is the only news they get is conservative talk radio, and The National News Desk, which is, as reported by Media Bias / Fact Check , a right leaning source which uses “loaded words to favor conservative causes.” Up until a couple years ago, this person watched only Fox News, but recently they have lost the ability to access that at home.

I am a Christian. A Christ-follower. A flawed human who believes Jesus is real and his teachings are still relevant. In the past ten years, since the first term of the current president, I, like many others, have undergone some sharp and profound changes to my faith. Some of the transformation has been intentional; much of it has been incidental. At this point, I am actively working on understanding better what I believe. Some people are calling this a deconstruction of their faith; for me it is reconstruction. I no longer believe all of the Old Testament literally, the way my fundamentalist upbringing taught me to; much of it is, for me, important as an historical record, and taken as whole — Torah, the prophetic books, the psalms — useful for teaching and learning about human nature and about God, and as my pastor recently said, should be read through the lens of Jesus and his teachings. One thing is certain: I still believe in Christ. Perhaps even more than before, because my faith is less discordant; there is less dissonance and more harmonious consistency.

Jesus teaches me to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. These are the first and second commandments, according to him, with none greater than these two. As best I can, I base everything I do on these two commandments. The ten Old Testament commandments are comprised in these two, and of course I try to live according to those, as well. I am not perfect; if I were, there would be no need for Jesus! I am, however, intentional in my choices and focused on living as consistently as possible according to his teachings.

With all that in mind, I find it appalling that some Christians, like the aforementioned person, would continue to support this administration. In most cases, I believe they do so because, like that person, they have limited their news intake to conservative outlets or none at all, and they simply take the word of their misguided so-called Christian leaders at face value. Honestly; almost all the Christians I know who continue to support the US Government as it currently stands fall into this category. It makes me really angry with them because there is better information out there but as another deeply loved person in my life recently asserted, the other outlets “all have Trump Derangement Syndrome” so they don’t ever consume any other news sources.

Some other Christians who continue to support this administration lack education and critical thinking skills. They are not to be blamed; the system has failed them. They have not learned to recognize false or biased reporting, and they don’t understand the inconsistencies in their faith and what the Cabinet and the GOP are allowing to happen. These are “the poorly educated” the president recently professed his love for; he needs them as a voting bloc, and they don’t even know they vote against their own interests.

Yet others simply don’t engage at all with the news, and as long as life doesn’t get too bad for them personally, they don’t pay attention to what is happening. These are people who are selfish and egocentric, and they probably should not be calling themselves Christians at all because this type of disengagement with the world is anti-Christian and is rooted in an anti-Christian world view. Jesus demands we engage with the world in love: do no harm to a neighbor, be a servant to others, call out corruption, help the poor and oppressed, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the prisoner. It does cost something to follow Christ; burying our heads in the sand is not an option. Jesus did not leave that as a possibility.

Of course there are other groups who still support this administration. The power-hungry and greedy for riches who are profiting one way or another off the policies and activities probably is a group unto itself. Another are the blatant racists who are using this presidency as an excuse for their hatred of others. I don’t happen to think these groups are Christian at all. They are smart enough to know what evils are being done and they don’t care or they celebrate them. This is the antithesis of Christ’s teachings, so if they think they are Christians, I would surmise that they are fooling themselves. I suppose they pay lip-service to being Christians but they know perfectly well they are not. They are serving self, not Christ, not others.

I think if you know, as I and many others do, of some of the evils being committed in our name and with our tax dollars, unless you are a sociopath, you simply don’t support the current government, and if you really believe what Christ taught, you are acting within the limits of the law to change it. That’s why the No-Kings movement has gained so much ground; these are the people who are looking around at what is happening and declaring it wrong. These are the ones who are calling our congressmen and women, marching in the streets, boycotting Amazon and other groups, and helping our persecuted neighbors when we can.

What hurts most about this is that so many of these people are not Christians! They are just trying to live by what they would call the Golden Rule , which unbeknownst to many is straight out of Jesus’ teachings: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In applying this important teaching of Christ, non-Christians are behaving with greater morality and love than a lot of Christians are currently doing! This is a grave disappointment, and a black mark on Christianity, when non-believers follow the teachings of Christ better than believers do.

It is hard for me, as it is for many others, to accept that our beloved Christian family members and friends see us as misguided or wrong. We want those we love to respect us and what we believe. Unfortunately, it is too much to ask of them; they have allowed something or someone to interfere with the truth in their lives, and they don’t see what we see. I can still love them; I refuse to let this evil regime to take them from my heart. But we must accept that we are not the ones who are wrong in this; we are choosing Christ over everything else: blind guides, misguided leaders, biased reporting, our own biases, our bank accounts…

I will choose Christ. I will keep choosing Christ. Shoulder to shoulder with other believers and with non-believers, I will stand for what is right.

Do unto others...

Thoughts on Club Membership

Imagine you belong to a club, quite a big club internationally, but locally relatively small, maybe between 50 and 200 people. You meet every week, and your meetings are open to everyone, members or not, but most of the attendees are members and you all know each other. Someone visiting your meeting sticks out like a sore thumb.

Now imagine you are someone who DOESN’T belong to the club but thinks you might want to. You know that the only way to meet anyone in the club is to attend a meeting, but it seems to be a pretty exclusive club, and the thought of going alone makes you nervous. Nevertheless decide to try out a meeting. You find out when the club meets and you screw up your courage, and you go to the meeting all alone. You arrive and someone greets you at the door, very friendly and welcoming. “This is cool,” you think. You find a seat and sit through the meeting, participating as fully as you can. At the end of the meeting, you stand, along with everyone else, gather your things, and look around for someone to say hello to. You’re hoping someone will take the initiative. Everyone is talking, laughing, seemingly fully engaged with others. You walk around. You notice there is free coffee and tea. You realize this will give you something to do, making you less conspicuous, and so you take a cup, sipping it. You look around for people to talk to. After a few minutes, you give up and start very slowly toward the door, tossing the cup in the trash along the way. You make eye-contact with as many people as you can. Some smile. Some look away. No one approaches you. No one speaks to you. Eventually you reach the door. A nice man opens it for you and smiles, maybe even says, “Come again!”

But you won’t come again. Or if you do, it’s because you are very determined to get to know this club and you are far braver than most. Because the few minutes before and after the meeting were some of the loneliest and most uncomfortable you can remember.

This is the typical experience of single people, especially single women, visiting an American or European Christian church. Maybe you figured out early on that this was where this post was heading. Maybe it fits your experience. Or maybe you can’t imagine that this is true.

I can assure you that I have not overstated the experience. Over many years of moving, within the USA and in Europe, I’ve been victim to it countless times. Now I am watching a precious new believer deal with it. Go back to that description of the experience and imagine you are a new believer and you know very little about how this is supposed to work. Go on, do it.

Now imagine you are the same new believer who has ALREADY, after only like a year as a Christian, been hurt in one of the few non-Roman Catholic Christian churches within 30 miles (that’s a different post; I’ll write it eventually), and the church where you have been visiting is the least friendly one your long-term believer friend has ever seen. Literally NOT ONE PERSON spoke to us the last time we were there. The first time, at least the greeter did.

Christians, this is hard for her. It is hard for me and I know going in that it is the common experience. Being so conspicuous is terribly uncomfortable, and it is much harder for the new person to walk up to a stranger than it is for the one who belongs. For my friend, it is extremely difficult and supremely confusing. Aren’t we supposed to be the most loving people on the planet? Aren’t we supposed to be trying to save the world? Isn’t that what Christ teaches?

Why does this happen? Am I so intimidating? Is she? Do we give off an unapproachable vibe?

Even if we are intimidating or unapproachable, why don’t you who belong screw up your own courage and come and say hello? We’ve made a supreme effort to visit your church ALONE or with another single woman. The periods when I have been a member of a church, I did make an effort to speak to new people, whether there alone or not, but especially the women who were there without a man. I used to act like it was my responsibility to say hello to them, and guess what? It was! And it is yours, Christ-follower.

After nearly forty years of following Christ, I know a lot of real, genuine Christ-followers. Most of the Christians I know would agree with me that this is abhorrent behavior on our parts. Nevertheless, it happens. Christian, pretend you are the face of Christ to that person, that your behavior will affect, either positively or negatively, his or her perception of Christ. Because I assure you, it will.

I don’t know how to wrap this up other than to tell my fellow believers, TALK TO VISITORS to your church. Be genuine. Just be yourself. Ask them if they live in the area. Point out or introduce your spouse or best pal. Invite them to a small group to visit. Tell them you hope they return. They might be seekers ready to judge every Christian based on this experience. They might be new believers desperately in need of discipleship. They might be as rich as Bill Gates and ready to contribute generously to the building program! Or they might just be hurting and broken, like we all are, and need to know that Christ makes a difference somehow. You have a real power to influence that person for the cause of Christ. Exercise it well.