Frustrated Christian

Sometimes Christians baffle me.  I'm talking about a very specific group of Christians... a group that is much more prevalent and numerous than I want to believe.  They want to draw souls to themselves, but they sneer and spit poison when they think no one was listening.  They dominate the charity scene, but they pick and choose which people are deserving of their help.  Not content to just cling to their faith, they choose to cling just as tightly to their behaviors, insisting that God is leading them so their behavior is right, no matter what anyone says.  If any of these describe you, my message is for you.

You are sent to mirror the image of God to the people of earth.  Is that what you want people to think God is like?  Do you want people to think God is a back-biter who gleefully jeers about the "bad" people among his elite followers and friends?  Do you want people to think that He only picks people whom He feels are good enough to save?  Do you think he said that the ends always justify the means?

I sure hope not, because that is not the God that I know.  Here's a word of advice: the world is watching you.  I think it says something like that in your Holy Scriptures if you read them.  Christianity is no longer the required and presumed belief system in the USA.  People are watching you closely to see if your religion is the beautiful, loving, moral system you claim it is.  And they are seeing something ugly.

I'm not asking anyone to abandon their personal beliefs, regardless of how much I disagree with them.  I'm just asking you to compare some of these common statements I've heard to how a "servant of all" should act.

    

"Everyone is invited to our event, but be careful who you invite… we don't want any problems."

    "If she believes ______ then she'd better check her heart again because she's not a Christian."

    "You should be thankful that we are harassing you; we're actually respecting you by not letting you have peace until you do what we know is right."

    "Jesus wouldn't forgive someone unless they were apologetic enough."

    "We are not just allowed to judge who goes to heaven and hell: we're required to."

    "You claim you think you are right, but deep down, you know what you're doing is wrong and that is why God won't have mercy on you."

    "I understand you better than you understand yourself."

    "Why would I pray with you?  You aren't really the same sort of Christian as me.  I'll pray FOR you but not with you."

    "I know that you don't agree with me about ______.  I'm praying that someday you come back to Christ."

    "You think I'm being cruel?  That's being judgmental."

This is just a tiny, tiny sample of what I've heard (only mildly paraphrased for simplicity) and it highlights the problem very well.  No one is safe from your derision besides yourself and your posse of born-again friends.  But you are not supposed a comfy club of people who share a belief and get to sneer everyone who doesn't.  You are supposed to be ambassadors to the world.  Whining about how people are "persecuting" you when you have churches on every corner, a Christian president, and are the majority in your country, isn't helpful or appropriate.  Acting like a victim when real victims are being slandered or mistreated by your members is unconscionable.

Yes, I am holding you to a high standard, but I think that is fully appropriate.  You claim that your job is to draw souls to God and point people to His glory.  That's a tall order.  Of course, everyone will fall short, but falling short seems to have become the socially acceptable trend.  It is high entertainment among so many Christians to jeer at atheists, Muslims, gays, liberals, and anyone else they classify as "the enemy".  Do you want to know why Christianity has gotten such a bad name?  It is not because people hate morals, as you say.  It is because of these sorts of behaviors.  It is because Christians are so cocky and confident with each other that they forget that the eyes of the world are watching.

The eyes are very disappointed in what they see.

It is time to stop blaming your bad reputation on the people outside your group and start blaming it on the people within your group; that is where reputations originate.  You don't have to listen to me, but I'm warning you what the culture has been screaming in your ears for years now: you are losing the world.  Even worse, you're self-righteously folding your arms, putting your nose up, and saying "it's not my fault: I'm doing everything right and the world just can't handle me."  Really think about it.  You're putting yourself in the place of the infallible God. You are crucifying yourself on an imagined cross of "rejection" and "persecution" and then patting yourself on the back for how much people scorn you.  Then you top it all by condemning the world to hell because they haven't appreciated your sacrifice enough.

No wonder the world is telling you to go to hell.  If that is the gospel you're preaching, then you might as well take your little Christianity clubs off of the streets and into obscurity, because no one wants what you're selling.