The other day, a friend and teammate of mine described how he wanted to go to a church and make the congregation choose what they thought was the lesser of two evils in a moral dilemma with God holding a gun to their heads. It was essentially a game of "Would You Rather" with God thrown in there. Why God needed a gun, I'm not sure. Another teammate chimed in to offer his opinion - "That's essentially all religion is anyway." I disagreed, and he defended his position - "There are rules, and if you don't follow them, God punishes you." As much as I disagree, I have to admit this is a fairly common view. In the southern christian culture we live in, however, voicing this opinion gets one relegated to the ranks of the sodomites and baby killers. That is to say, self-righteous hypocrites instantly hate you. Now, I am not saying that I agree with my teammates, or that homosexuality and abortion are perfectly ok. The point I am trying to make is that christians and atheists alike often get true Christianity confused with something insignificant - rules. The obvious difference between Christianity and religions of the world has nothing to do with rules. Christians do not have better moral rules than other religions. If you were to strictly follow the teachings of Buddhism or Hinduism, many people would applaud your moral character. However, there is something that Christianity offers that nothing else does. It's very simple. Can you guess? I sure hope so. Are you ready? OK.......... We have Jesus. Christians are not meant to set their eyes upon the Ten Commandments. Did you catch that? If we are living our lives based upon a set of rules we were probably made to memorize at age 6, we don't get it. We are to set our eyes upon the author and perfecter of our faith. For some reason, Jesus gets lost in conversation. Over the next few posts, I hope to explore why this is. I would love input, and I hope we can get this issue tackled.
p.s. - here's a haiku I wrote a while ago, just for fun
Words as art, beauty
flows from the pen majestic.
Hang that on your wall.
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