Religious Abuse......

I am not trying to offend anyone here. Just some truth as I see it. If you don't agree that's o.k.

Christianity gets some bad press. And the sad part it's us Christians that give us a bad name. We fight among each other and we judge those that are outside of the Church. It's been said that the Church kills there own woumbed. That is a pretty sad thing to say about a religion that follows the teaching of a guy who did the complete opposite. When I was in college I had a boss at the college that always said, "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!" When I talk to friends of mine who are not Christians one of there main complaints is how mean and narrow minded we are. I listen to them and I hear the pain in there voice as they talk about the religious abuse that they have faced. Yes religious abuse. We might not be physically abusive as a group, but our words do cut deep into peoples lives. I would say that most Christians don't attend to harm someone, because they think they must give out the message they believe in no matter at what cost. I have seen other church's picket other church's. I was a part of a church that belived the same thing another church did, but our church did not want to picket or come out looking hateful. So since our pastor sent a letter to this church expressing that we need to love and asked them not to come up to our area and cause a scene of hate. So this other church picted us and they in my opinion were not acting Christ like.

In my life I have been on both sides. Before I started drinking I thought that I new everything when it came to God. You could say being a Pharisee or a total hypocrite! Once I started with my struggle with Alcoholism I pretty fast saw the other side. The total misunderstanding of what I was going through. And again, the pastors and church's thought they were doing the right thing. Some or many Christians in America feel that we need to change the world through politics. You can not legislate morality. But, it seems some try to do that and it does not all ways work.

So, we in my opinion have a problem. So what do we do. First we don't change the message we change the method. Christians can still stand on the truth of the word of God. But, I think we need to be reminded of a few things. Paul and James tells us not to judge the world. In the bible world a lot of times means non-Christians. We are not to judge them we are to love them. What did Jesus do? He loved those who did not know Him. He fed the poor, healed the sick and loved the sinner, the down and out. Who did Jesus condemn? Those who thought they were better than every body else. So we need to love and show grace to those outside of the church, not beat them up. We all so need to love people inside the church. It is a silly thought that as a Christian I am suppose to be perfect. Many times real life is messy. I, we all of us need to show more Grace.

 

Secound, we need to have a real understanding of church disapline. A great example of this is found in Paul's writtings in 1 and 2 Corinthians. In first Conithians he tells the church to deal with the sin that is among them. Cast him out. But then we see in 2 Corinthians that Paul says basically, O,k now is the time to restore this guy. He has repnted from his sin. The whole point of church displine is restoration of the christian that is in church disipline. Restroaction back to the church. I have been told it's only restoration back to Christ. But scriputre shows diffrent.

 

 Is it better to be right or is it better to love? Does it really matter if I read the King James version of the bible? If I disagree with you can't we still be friends? Some where Christians got this idea that if people disagree with us we can not be there friends. That sounds kind of dumb, but some believe so strongly on an issue that you must be wrong if you don't agree and then some wont even be your friend any more.

 

As Christians we are given GRACE, FREE grace at that. So let's show grace to others. We don't deserve the GRACE of God, but we sometimes act like we are god by not showing others grace. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest thing is Love. Some of my good friends despise Christianity, but I still love them and still want to be there friends.

 

It's time that we stop playing church.

It's time to care about the poor and feed the poor.

It's time to love the suffering and love the sinner.

It's time to clothe the needy.

It's time to stop saying we act like Jesus and start acting like Jesus.