Friday, June 12, 2009

I Rarely Talk Religion, but...


I just saw the trailer shown in my previous post advertised on NewYorkTimes.com tonight. I watched, and I've read several comments from others who have watched.

I have a few thoughts on the matter: Religion will not get me to heaven; Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Hinduism, Buddhism, any other "isms" or "ists", denomination-schmomination. I have believed since I was a little girl that it was my faith and belief in Christ that would be my golden ticket.

The trailer is typical...bring up lots of horrible actions committed by those claiming to be christians in order to disprove the existence of Jesus and further prove the insanity one must possess to believe in Christ, heaven, hell, the afterlife, anything really.

Why do so many need to disprove what some are so passionate about believing? Why are so many so angry that there are billions who believe in a higher power? What does one gain from such vehement debate? The woman holding the sign reading "God Hates Fags" in the trailer is not spouting my beliefs, and I am a proclaimed "christian" or "believer". Therein the problems lie, how does one define a christian, and when do we stop pointing fingers at one another? Judging is easy because it's opinion without true knowledge of another and lack of insight into oneself...those things take time to acquire.

I need to read my Bible more, pray more, and learn more, as should anyone claiming to be a christian...not to be able to argue with others, but to be able to be closer to God and withstand doubt that is an all too human experience, and one that I have dealt with intermittently throughout my christian life.

The creators of this movie and many like them are of the opinion that believers are ignorant. They say ignorant, I say faithful. If one must subtract IQ points from me after discovering I believe in God, so be it. When all is said and done, well, we'll find out, won't we?

4 comments:

Denney Crane said...

I feel the same as you. It's not enough just to "not believe", but it seems many must disprove or chastise Christianity. It's really not new, except in America.

Fortunately, it's almost impossible to destroy one's faith. Many die for it daily.

God bless,

DC

Anonymous said...

My favorite are the Darwin fish on cars...how tolerant is that? You want to believe in evolution, I won't say anything; but to deliberately use a Christian symbol to ridicule, yeah, that's classy.

What's really funny is that all the things they don't like about some Christians (pro-life, intolerance of the gay lifestyle, creationism) are 100x more true of Muslims. If they find Christian fundamentalism scary, they should be downright petrified of Muslims.

Anonymous said...

I've found the best test for someone calling themselves Christian is to ask them if they live every moment Christ-like. Are they merciful, forgiving, compassionate to everyone they meet? Are they loving and always looking for how to build people up instead of tear them down? Do they see every person like God sees them, as a child of His? That's my test for myself anyway.

Killing and hatred, those are not things from Christ. Just the opposite, He gave His life for us.

It is sad to see some of the things done under the label of Christian but that is the spiritual battle that satan saddles us with - a battle that can and is won through the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit working through us when we align ourselves to be Christ-like.

Jarhead™ said...

I'm thinkin' I'll play the odds on this one. Why wouldn't we set aside our human egos and believe in a "higher power" [I choose to believe in the God of Christianity]?

I'm going to take the lessons of the Bible to try and live as a better person so that when I kneel at the feet of my Creator to be judged, I will have [hopefully] live a life worthy of being with Him eternally.

So what if He doesn't exist? I'm not taking that chance. And I'm also not going to waste my time on Earth trying to prove that there isn't a God; what's the sense in that? I'm right, you're wrong? Is that how you feel fulfilled? By proving people wrong? How sad and empty is that?