Why aren't Christians better people?

"The church's budget overflows, yet poverty persists... how can the heart of Jesus and the prideful coexist!?"
-SONS

The band SONS (formally Sons of God) address the issues that the general public asks of churches everywhere, in their first full-length album. The indie rock style and spiritually-based lyrics make for a promising start to their musical career- but this is not a cd review. This is a criticism, exploring hypocrisy and hate spread by some Christians.

Although I am about to quote Scripture in this post, please note that it is NOT my intention to take any passages from the Bible out of context. I do not believe that the Word of God should be used to do anything but to build people up- that is, to love our fellow man and God. Many times you may see someone quote a Bible verse out of context that they want to use for their own selfish gain, hatefulness or pride. Why do people do this, when others argue that Christ's message was love? How did we stray so far from love and serving others unselfishly? 

When we read the Bible, it is important to take into account who is speaking, who they are speaking to, what they are speaking about, and if the law they are speaking of is a reflection of the times versus a commandment of God. I know many of us do not take these things into account every time we read a verse, myself included. We get excited and parrot out a scripture verse in an argument, or we get frustrated and wonder, "How does this verse even fit in with the rest of the Bible?". 

I will provide a a few examples of how critical thinking and exploration can help us here.

Some people wonder why, in the gospel stories, when Jesus was on the cross, he asked, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". It may lead one to wonder, "Was this man doubting God- was he doubting his own divinity?". I have wondered this myself before. After all, if I am to accept that Jesus experienced life as a human being, could I reason that even him, God in the flesh, could doubt like we do?  What I failed to realize for many years (and what the Catholic church I grew up in never addressed) is that Christ was citing a Psalm throughout his own crucifixion, thus fulfilling the scripture. Psalm 22 is a cry out to God, out of anguish for one's struggles.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”

⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

¹¹ Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help.

¹² Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
¹³ Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
¹⁵ My mouth^[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce^[e] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

¹⁹ But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰ Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

²² I will declare your name to my people;

    in the assembly I will praise you.

²³ You who fear the Lord, praise him!

    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

²⁴ For he has not despised or scorned

    the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

    but has listened to his cry for help...
(NIV)

It is beautifully poetic and raw, and it is a prediction of what was to come for Christ.

Here is a question a lot of people may ask themselves when leafing through their Bibles, that the above passage may lead us to wonder- "Why am I repeatedly told to fear God? Doesn't this go against the image of a loving God, brought in the New Testament by Jesus?" And also, don't many passages say, "Do not be afraid" ; doesn't that go against all of these, "fear God"s?

It depends which translation you are using. Fear is how many people of high religious authority (kings, bishops, priests) kept citizens in line. During times of fire and brimstone, "fearing the Lord" was taught to be the right way to have a relationship with God, and so this is how the Bible was translated. What scholars publish in revised versions of the Word is that, if you look at the original text (as far back as we can go, Hebrew and Greek), the word "fear" could often be  more accurately replaced with "respect" or "reverence". It makes more sense to respect a loving, powerful God than to fear them. Why would anyone want to serve a Creator out of fear anyway?

The many translations of Biblical texts are constantly reviewed and re-evaluated (thanks to the widespread availability of the internet, many of us now have access to many of these critiques). It is in part due to translation and interpretation evaluations that one person can read the Bible and take away a message of love, while another can read it and walk away with a passionate hate burning in their hearts.    

_____________________________

If one accepts that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is important to realize that human beings are providing the translations for us. We are taught that God is perfect, and that man was made in the image of God, but due to sin, human beings are not perfect. Turn on the news, and you will see that we are all so far from perfect, but also look to the little mistakes we make in our own lives that keep us up at night. 

The Bible is not a book about perfect people, and it could be argued that the only view of perfection we have got is of Jesus. In fact, in many Old Testament passages, the theme is "How immoral can we get before God gives us a warning?" and soon after, "For how many generations can we ignore God's warning before God realizes we are taking advantage of God's grace, and smites us?". 

Some people conclude that this is why we cannot take every passage as literally as we do, and that if we go back to the more straight-forward messages of Christ, that is what our faith is to focus on. I think that this consideration may have merit to it, and furthermore, since Jesus often spoke allegorically, part of the Bible could be full of allegories rather than literal teachings (and I love that Christ taught using stories, as this was a nice device to get people to understand certain concepts). Personally, this drives me to explore the history of translations, and to try to get as close to the original texts as I can.  

Human beings are imperfect, and will produce their versions of a Divinely Inspired work.

____________

The next question one might want to ask is, "Why do human beings act imperfectly?". After all, if God wanted followers, couldn't He/She make everyone into obedient little soldiers, mindless slaves? Let's step back and consider the Creation story in Genesis.

It was good. Oh, it was all so good, says Genesis. Night and day were created, earth and sea were created. Man, everything was good. We forget the one thing that God saw that was "not good". In Genesis 2:18, it is written that man being alone was "not good".

Not good!? What could this mean?

Think back to the idea that parts of the Bible could be allegorical. Man was alone, so God made woman. Isn't man made, "in the image of God", and if so, could this imply that it was not good that God was alone? Like man, God needed something, to bring Him/Herself back to "good". We all know, being alone is not a good feeling. This is why we must live our lives with the help and companionship of others.

Thus man and woman were there to live in paradise and keep God company. 

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So, why did God make Adam and Eve able to screw things up by feeding from the tree of knowledge? 

Some Christian sects will argue against this, but it is my belief that we are all born with free will. We have to choose right and wrong, and why is that? Why aren't we just automatically obedient to God's law, therefore being happy as clams, never having the chance to take The Fall?

What would you say if when we entered new relationships with other people, we were forced to love them? You might say, "You can't force love, because then it isn't love". Love is a choice or it is nothing at all. To have a relationship, you have to choose it. I think that if God wanted to create obedient little robots, they would not be able to love, because they would not be able to have chosen love in the first place.

Our relationships with others may reflect a truth about our relationship with God- it is a choice, or it is not Love. You cannot be forced to love God or others (on this earth, under our human logic), because that is no longer love. Thus I see free will as the natural side effect of Love, since we were brought into being by a loving God. We chose to take the fall, and we became sinful.

Keep in mind that my reasoning for why we are able to be sinful is my own conclusion, shaped by discussion with others but also liable to fault. I do not expect my answers to be the right ones, only the answers to questions as I understand them at this point in my spiritual life. 

Christians, and all humans, are sinful- we mess up, we are imperfect, or whatever you would like to call it.

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Because human beings were created in the image of a Creator, we create (Look to architecture and art, literature, gardening and all of the other creations we celebrate). Because we are imperfect, we do not always create good things, and so we join one another in our triumphs as well as our imperfections.

Each of us struggles with something different, and there are a wide variety of theories as to what shapes a man or woman into what they are, and consequentially what strengths they have, and what mistakes they may be more likely to make. While one pair of lips could breath the venom of a compulsive liar, another pair could be glued to a bagged bottle. We all sin differently.

If you look back into your life, you are not perfect. You have been a hypocrite, telling another person how to be better when you can't even help yourself. You have had to have others, who may see light where you do not yet see it, guide you back to a more peaceful existence. Yet we are outraged when we see that others show signs of imperfection, and we judge them with our own biased scales. Maybe that is because we hope to find the perfection we do not own in something or someone else. As Descartes suggests, we have this idea of what is Perfect, while we ourselves are not perfect.
We hang out with those whose imperfections are more or less more compatible with our own.

I am not suggesting to call people out on their imperfections, but I do want to say that, although it is lovely when we surround ourselves with those who make an effort to be good people, do not expect perfection out of anything made by an imperfect bunch of humans. Do not believe their claims of perfection. That includes all groups of people (religious or otherwise).

______ 

Because we are sinful, there are those who strive to be good and those who are purposefully wicked in every group. I do not take this to mean, "Trust no one/no group", for without trust, I don't think we can fully love anyone, though without discretion we end up foolishly harming ourselves. I am again asking you to think critically and choose wisely.

Hold dear to the message of love and serving others (in deed, not just in word!) by Christ, rather than the hate that others will try to force down your throats, and the message of hate that is so often in the limelight, that makes a more exciting news headline. We are ALL imperfect. None of us are above anyone else, and a church is not for championing saints, but is as a hospital for sinners.

To all of my fellow human beings: Thank you for bearing with me throughout this post. I know it will have errors and to some it may seem downright idiotic to think about these things. I thank you for giving it a chance anyway.

If you have any questions or comments, as always, feel free to message me privately or to leave your thoughts below. 

"Be Not Afraid"

(Isaiah 41:10)

Back at my old Catholic church, we were taught to fear our Maker. Fear of God was healthy, we were told. We were not told what was meant by "fear", and I used to imagine all of humanity cowering and shaking beneath the glory of God when the world ended. This image was incongruent with my understanding of a personal, loving God through Jesus. I didn't question it, I just accepted it as something I was not perhaps meant to understand. Now I'm at a point in my life where I find it healthy to question and dissect, so when my pastor began a sermon about "fear of the Lord", I listened in eagerly.

He explained it like this- do not think that the Bible was originally written in English. Scholars believe that Jesus would have spoken in Aramaic. The written language would have been Hebrew, and from there the Bible was translated into other languages, and then re-translated again and again. If we go back to Hebrew and translate the word we printed as "fear", a better translation could have been "awe", "reverence" or "respect".

How would this affect our understanding of the Word of God? Let's take Psalm 112:1 and find out.
"Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands."

Sounds very odd, to find delight in doing things for someone you fear. Now let's change the word "fear", and see how different the affect is:
"Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who respects the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands."

 A very different picture entered my mind's eye as the pastor spoke of this: end of the world again, with people bowed down and weeping with joy, overwhelmed at the sight of God.

A little side-story: There was a woman who oversaw my Catechism classes, who was not too friendly with us kids. She used to go one by one and make sure none of us were slouching in our pews, and heaven forbid any of us talked during mass. She would also tell us that if we received the host and chewed it, we were chewing Jesus. Yikes! She told us to let it disintegrate a bit and then to swallow it whole. This led to me being very confused when, in a Protestant church, I was presented with an actual piece of bread for communion.

"Do I... do I chew it? Is it food here?"

Judgement Day

I once read that death is the one thing promised in this life. We all will die- but no one knows what EXACTLY goes on when the soul leaves the body- maybe we can't ever know, or can't comprehend it yet. We also do not know how long we have left to live. Life is unpredictable, whimsical and mysterious. Hey, I could be killed in a freak accident tomorrow that involves a beaver, a large pepperoni pizza and a unicycle. You don't know, I don't know. As twitchy as the human mind is about dying and death, that may be for the best.

Twitchy, itchy brain... my thoughts wandered to the Afterlife at church this morning, and then roamed into The End, the Judgement Day. Both the Judgement and Death are considered an end (or just the beginning, based on your perspective). What if they are closer related than we dare to think?

Say when you are in the process of dying, you go through your own personal judgement day. The living can't see it happen. It's real to you and maybe it's real in the dimension your soul is tip-toeing towards. In that state of being, you see everyone else being judged for their sins as you are. And then, the elevator goes up or down, one more crowded than the other. What I'm saying is what if we die and there is no big wait to be sent to the afterlife?

I had been watching documented cases of near-death experiences on Youtube a month back. A lot of people that were interviewed reported that they were brought into a different state of being, and were shown (presumably by God) how every one of their actions affected other people. They were shown these things not to be made to feel guilty, but to understand.

If you have ever been around someone who is dying, they're not always mentally stable near the end of their lives. They sometimes mumble about memories and their past experiences, sometimes talking to anyone in the room as if they are there with them. Could that be their own personal "judgement" in progress?

It may follow that dementia is an extended state of Judgment. Too far a leap? Let me know what you're thinking!

UFOs and Speaking in Tongues

Not my style- a three hour worship service. Half of the time they sang, and half of the time, a woman spoke about her own supernatural experiences. Not one Bible in sight, which seemed counterproductive for any place of Christian worship to me.

Here's the deal: my brother and I are on vacation, and we were looking for a church to go to down by the shore here. This one was labeled as "nondenominational", and since my brother and I lean towards different Protestant denominations, I thought it'd do just fine. I'd done no research about what "Assembly of God" church meant, but hey, they seemed open and friendly as we walked in. Little children ran around and giggled, their parents with a watchful eye on them as they spoke with old friends. Something about their language was off. They're trying too hard, I thought to myself, and then focused on praying for an open mind and heart during the worship.

Turns out I'd need that.

One of the pastors came forward with a story about his young granddaughter. He compared his granddaughter running back to him and holding his hand on the beach to our style of faith- running back to God when it turns out we need Him after all, to watch over and protect us. Near the end of his speech, there were a few voices rising up with "Amen!" and "Jesus!". I'd only seen that happen on TV, with televangelists. I was not used to people being so vocal about their spiritual experiences.

Then, the music started. Cool-looking band, contemporary gospel music. They weren't terrible, although I wasn't paying full attention to them. I was distracted by the two women with their hands up, swaying back and forth in front of me. I eyed my brother and we both suppressed twin grins, but I went from grinning to gritting my teeth as they repeated the last words of the chorus, for another five minutes. With every song they played, they did the same thing. Little children and adults alike shouted out and danced, and then mumbled unintelligibly once each song was over- what they called speaking in tongues. I couldn't tell you if it was normally what speaking in tongues sounds like, as this was my first experience with it. My brother and I stayed seated and tried not to squirm around. Didn't want to offend the happy church-goers by scrambling out the door.
The band joined the audience, seating themselves right behind us. An older woman with long, straw-like hair took the mic and talked about- gosh, a lot. A few of the girls in the kids programs were moving up to the youth group. They were told that they would make fine "healers", "seers" and "prophesiers". The kids left then, so that the remaining adults could talk about the government, angels and aliens. She kept mentioning "Watchmen" (I could only think about the movie) and how she had these visions and dreams. She had seen UFOs often as a child. She claimed to have had a visitation from Christ Himself. She talked about when she was little and people would start convulsing in church, how she didn't know that there had been demons in them. And she spoke of the fast approach of the End Of Times.

We ran out of there the second she was done. Once we got to my car, we stopped walking as little, confused giggles escaped.
The calm and peace felt by the parishioners, it felt too showy. I felt angry about their claims to heal people with their own, human hands, especially when a woman came forward whose brother was dying of cancer. I glanced at my own brother next to me, thinking the pain of losing him would be unbearable, and that giving hope to that woman that one of the other members would heal him was cruel. I even felt bad for those kids, who were told what their role would be in the church. "You will make a fine seer", they would tell one child. Some of the kids seemed more than happy to comply, others looked dissatisfied.

It was not the kind of church I would want someone newly exploring the Christian faith to go to. Very extreme and extroverted worship styles.