i'm not sure who even reads my blog. i'm not sure where your heart is or what you believe or how you see the world. but this is how i see it. and whether or not it is true to you, it is true to me. and not because my parents believed it or because my church believed it, but because i believe it.
anyway...(forgive me if this doesn't come out right, i am frustrated and angry and humbled and burdened and broken and confused and hopeful all at the same time)
God has been working on my heart and on my life lately. and if you don't believe in God or call yourself a Christian, PLEASE don't shut me out just because i'm starting into that. at least just read this so that you hear a viewpoint of someone who sees where a change is needed.
but God has been working on me lately. i am burdened by the position the church has taken in the world today. i see a major shift away from the heart of Christ. not in ALL churches, please be sure to understand that. but in the hearts of many Christians, it's there, and it's eating through anything good they have the potential to do. it is hypocrisy.
i went to see Rob Bell tonight at UK. he wrote a book called Velvet Elvis and a new book called Sex God. he is the pastor of the Mars Hill church in michigan. he was doing a question and answer section at the beginning tonight. and towards the end, he gets asked a question about homosexuality. and i was on the edge of my seat, waiting for his response. my reason for wanting to hear what he had to say had not so much to do with homosexuality, but rather to do with the view of Christians towards the "really bad" sins. because my question always is, who determines which ones are "really bad?"
Rob had several things to say which were honestly the perfect answer i think he could have given. i wanted to stand up and clap for his honesty and his integrity and his compassion. and i don't have time to get into everything he said. but i will say this...
he said that the Bible references homosexuality 6 times in the entire Bible. 6 times. and the first of which was speaking about sodom and gomorrah, which rob went on to explain, actually had nothing to do with homosexuality. so that leaves 5 verses. and none of those 5 verses make any mention or reference whatsoever to orientation or same-sex marriage. none of them.
there are thousands of verses in the Bible commanding Christians to care for the poor, those in poverty, the homeless. Jesus made more references in his teaching to money than to love. Jesus was severely more harsh on the hypocritic religious men than he was on those who did not know or follow Him. Jesus never mentioned homosexuality.
here is my point: too many Christians have spent too much time deciding who they would keep out of church and who they would point fingers at rather than spending that time and energy on the things the Bible actually takes the time to mention time and time and time again. the beauty of grace is that we all need it. the reason why the world is so turned off to Christianity right now is because way too many Christians are not being like Christ! if we act like Christ did, treat people like Christ did, look at people the way Christ did, then whether other people agree with us or not, they will not be able to call us hypocrites, they will not be able to call us bigots or closed-minded or anything. they will see forgiveness, grace, understanding, acceptance, LOVE.
whether you believe in what i do or not, you can't deny that the world would be a better place if we all acted in LOVE. acted in GRACE. acted in ACCEPTANCE. acted in FORGIVENESS.
if we all know that it's true, why don't we just start doing it? and if you are one of those people that "the church," who ever that may be, has hurt or turned off, i'm sorry. i'm personally sorry for the actions of others. and i am personally sorry for any actions i may have had in the past. i refuse to be that person anymore. and i refuse to sit by quietly while other people who claim to follow the same God i do, choose to use that name and that position for more evil than good. that was not the intention. it is time for the church to get back to the basics...to get back to Christ.
sorry for the soapbox talk, it was just one of those nights, i guess.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/31147486/
4 comments:
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an interesting post cameron...i would like to say that you are right, but would also like to point out the the gay community is wildly more accepting than the christian community. just a thought, but isn't it intersting the very people the church doesn't want will accept just about anybody...black, white, gay, straight, bi, transgendered, drag queen, drag king, transexual, even christian (most of the time...haha)
thank you.
you have the ability to capture in words the things i wish i had the opportunity to say. thank you.
i love you :)
You have a way with words where I do not! You have a way to get out emotions in others that would normally stay hidden. It is a gift and you should keep using it. I try more and more everyday to not judge others and it is very hard to do. It is quite funny that most of my friends are gay and when going to their church where they are much more accepting and non judgemental it a totally different experience. They have been saying this very thing for years where we are just now speaking of it!
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