My question is, how can these people call themselves Christian? Isn't being a Christian following the teachings of Christ and following His ways? Did Jesus not die to forgive ALL of our sins? I am one who thoroughly believes that God does not forgive us based on ANYTHING we do. Of course we need to follow God's commandments, but we're all sinners. Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial lamb to forgive us of our sins. It's not about who can do more charity work, who can pray more than anyone else, or who has the most 'perfect' life. Striving to do your best at all of those things is important, but Christianity is not a competition. The only way to redemption is through Jesus. When one accepts Jesus into their hearts, they generally tend to DESIRE to do all of those things, especially if it's God's calling for that individual. Daily denying one's self becomes more and more of an opportunity than an obligation. Aside from that, however, redemption is not by our works alone, or by how we have lived our lives thus far, it's by seeking Jesus and asking His forgiveness. So who are these people to cast out and humiliate my sister when she came looking to learn more about Jesus? I by no means think that I am a perfect follower, because I KNOW I'm not. Call me a hypocrite for calling them a hypocrite if you must, but I sincerely feel denying, isolating and making someone feel they can never been forgiven or redeemed is very wrong.
The more I write, the more I become upset, so I leave you with scripture and a request for your opinions!
"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." Romans 15:7
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." John 6:37
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." Colossians 1:19-23
3 comments:
Good stuff. I am totally with you on this one. I think you said it all. Sorry your sister had such a frustrating experience. Was it the leaders or the other campers making her feel this way? Or both? I guess we always have to remember that our faith is between us and God and we can never look to what others are doing and think that is what faith is about. It is individual for everyone. What God is doing in our lives.
Unfortunately it was both, which makes me really sad. It just seems so wrong to me that they would present this to pre-teens! These are their formative years, and if this is the image she has of what Christian bodies are like, it's going to take a lot of work to get her back on track.
I have similar issues with many faith based organizations (more commonly called churches). While Iz and I were church shopping during the past year, we visited several different congregations in this area, one being an Anglican church. This was a formerly Episcopal church, of which I was a member for my entire life up until we moved to Hickory a few years ago. The Episcopal church there just didn't meet our needs and we ended up finding a wonderful home at a Lutheran church and have happily stayed. Anyhoo, when I went to this Anglican church, I had a meeting with one of the rectors who was discussing some of the church's history and why they were no longer a member of the Episcopal church (at large). The general reason was homosexuality to put it much more bluntly than they did. This is where my opinion tends to waiver....I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the issue to be quite honest. BUT, my line of thinking goes something like this: *The Truth,* whatever it may be, exists. It is there. It exists DESPITE our ability, or lack thereof, to perceive it. While I believe that I am right, so do those who practice Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and the like. One day we will all discover what 'the truth' is and go from there. I feel that we have a much better opportunity at coming to know what that is by including all of God's children, rather than rejecting a specific demographic. Jesus ministered to the woman at the well and to prostitutes and the like, and isn't our goal as Christians to be more Christ-like? How do we do that when we fail to minister to all peoples and isn't that what He commanded in the first place? Go and preach the gospel to ALL nations, not just the ones that speak English, look the way we do, and think the same things. Wouldn't that just be a little too easy?
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