I had an interesting day this ... 06.06.06 day.
A colleague sent a "humorous" anti-Christian spam newsletter to me. It was a "Christian parent alert" for those that may have their baby on this day.
I wasn't amused.
"This is not what Christians believe. This newsletter is not a very funny joke. There is no "Red Sea Resort" and the whole premise of this spam is to poke fun at Christians."
I was a lucky receipient of "humorous" emails to celebrate 06.06.06.
"It's funny. And anyways, there are Christians like this..."
GOODNESS!! There are also serial murderers that are atheists. Why do we have to go extreme with the Christian image and lean on the radical NEGATIVE. I've never shared communion with someone like these crazed "Christians" that the popular media loves to pull out of the nether regions of America. Lest to say, I was hurt and wanted my colleague to know that the video was an awful representation of my brothers and sisters of faith.
"Well, as a Christian, I just wanted to let you know that I don't think this way nor any Christian I know. I don't go to church with anyone that is like this. This makes Christians look like ridiculous, insane and crass thinkers. It's bad enough there are people out there who believe "whatever" about Christians without considering personal experience. Personally, meaning their own... not some story that they heard from a friend"
Was I to consider staying quiet about my seeing a destructiveness in this "funny email?" I saw an indifference and irreverence for people in this email. I couldn't be apathetic.
I felt compromised. There I sat in the middle with my faith and I was being requested to keep quiet and be a loving and accepting Christian as I am supposed to be unconditional and yet be told that Christians were hypocrites for allowing injustice to exist and that they had no spine for making stands to save the world and were therefore responsible for what was wrong with the world.
I felt these expectations were destructive and unreasonable.
Christians are not cookie cut units of humanity. We are not uniform. We are as dynamic and unique as a family of people. We agree on points and disagree on some. We are humans using a system to make sense of our humanity and learning in the process of making good choices and bad choices, being confused, getting lost and finding one's way is LIFE. Some are fast learners and some are not so fast.
Somehow, if you are a member of faith or worst... a leader... you are expected to be a super-human by non-believers.
I felt tied to a standard of expectations for which I can easily be persecuted by a non-believer by any infraction from the "perfection" created by that person; their world of "shoulds." Even within my church community, I don't get should'ed upon for making my personal choices. It's a place where I have a voice and am encouraged to share my point of view to enrich the community with my perspective.
Perhaps it is safer to not make a stand for goodness? Is that better for society? Just to be on the safe side..... YOU KNOW!
Imagine a world without Martin Luther King, Jrs and Mother Theresas, Dalai Lamas and Gandhis...
The world to me is like this picture of people on a carnival ride. Everyone is having their own personal experience. I like that there are different religions and different denominations within those faiths. I like the diversity and the different flavors. What about the perspective that the diversity is beautiful and mysterious? Just when you thought the atom was uncuttable, you discover there are neutrons, electrons, which split into quarks and charms, which split into neutrinos, expressing new dimensions to think from...
Can it be that the complexity of expressions of faith follows that natural order of opportunities of multidimensional thinking??? Can spiritual expression and exploration be a carnival of experience that is available to us as choices?
Well said, Princess J! As always, you remind me of what it means to be a courageous, confident, loving, yet intellectual woman of God. Many non-believers are quick to accuse "religious nuts" and "fundies" of intolerance, yet these secularists are proving themselves to be as bigoted and intolerant as the Christians they denigrate. Sure, they believe in freedom of religion ... as long as we keep our Christianity in the closet, and don't try to share our faith. And as far as Christians being hypocrites and allowing injustice to exist -- have they forgotten how abolitionists and many Christian leaders of the Civil Rights Movement (MLK anyone?) helped change the world? Apparently they have, otherwise, they'd refrain from joining the shrill chorus of disaffected, disillusioned hatemongers.
ReplyDeletePrincess N