Pissed Off Christians
Am I wrong or are there a lot of pissed off Christians around? They aren't pissed off at sin, or injustice, or the lack of health care they are pissed at other Christians. They are pissed because Christians are following the wrong teachers, or reading the wrong books, or for some past hurt they may have been subject to. The latter is unfortunate, but that is a risk we as Christians take in being a part of a body. I know, because it happened to me on at least two seperate occassions. Fortunately, the person who is discipling me had enough spiritual maturity to ask, "what are you so worried about? if they seek Jesus then it'll work out in the end." I became a pharisee. For the past year or so I frequented a blog called Stupid Church People and I can safely say that I understand their anger. Are there bad teachers out there? Yep, I followed them gladly. Are there bad books out there? Yep, I read those as well. I gave my tithe hoping to be blessed by God and worshipped at the political alter. In the end I am spiritually mature in some areas while being weak in others. In other words, I am a typical Christian. So for all you people out there who are bitter at the church and spend your time being pissed off at churches that won't even notice your anger.... lighten up:
I don't think this bitter separation is what God wanted.
I appologize for this rare rant. But I am getting tired of watching the church act like spoiled little kids over things that ultimately won't matter.
I don't think this bitter separation is what God wanted.
I appologize for this rare rant. But I am getting tired of watching the church act like spoiled little kids over things that ultimately won't matter.
Labels: faith, rant, spiritual maturity
posted by Out Of Jersey | 8:42 AM
10 Comments:
Hi
I agree with you. I think you make a really good and important point and I may be contradicting myself a lot as I write this--but I just want to share with you my perspective.
Right now I am really angry at the church and Christianity...but right now I am also in the process of possibly de-converting from Christianity. I have come to realize that as Christians we don't really much explore the TRUE origins of the Bible and what we believe intellectually--a lot of us tend to assume that the Holy Spirit will just iron everything out and we don't have to really investigate things intelligently. I think "faith" is too often used as a justification for not really knowing why we believe certain things are true. I know this happens because I used to do it and I lived as a happy evangelical Christian all my life until fairly recently. My anger is not at other Christians for being stupid in general or anything, I am angry that I can be in such deep doubt about the foundations of the faith and these other "christians" do nothing that actually could help me come back to the faith. I consider myself an agnostic for now but I want to be a christian--I am going to church and talking to christians to try to learn about the faith again and come back...but they dont help me. Their judgement and lack of real knowledge about WHY they believe the things they believe make me think more intensely that God isn't real. Of course Christians cant and wont be perfect, but why would a sovereign God allow that to happen so much--let his name be constantly tarnished and people misrepresent him? I don't know. this was worded really poorly and I am being hypocritical I know and i am probably displacing my anger onto christians--but i feel frustrated--and i am not feeling that way or speaking about it just to make myself feel better and others look dumb. I am trying to find God and the people who are supposed to help--are letting me down.
now i feel really self-absorbed or something...but i just feel this way.
this is just my perspective on it, but i do agree with you and i think I am guilty of what you speak of.
cubey,
look on the bright side, indeed.
marie,
hi. i understand your frustration. i think that for too long, we have made this artificial divide between the intellect and faith - as if they are two polar opposites and to acknowlege one is to shun the other. it's a very modernist (and shamefully Western) way of thinking. so some people in the church don't even know how to deal with those questions.
may i direct you to one of my and my wife's favorites, N.T. Wright. he's an Anglican Bishop who's got a great many articles and books on very early Christian life (i.e., Jesus and Paul as first century believing Jews) - explaining how it differs from our Western Culture perspectives. he's recently written a book called Simply Christian, a type of updated Mere Christianity. you can get some of his lectures and speeches at www.ntwrightpage.com. one that you may want to read is "Jesus' Resurrection and Christian Origins" (ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Jesus_Resurrection.htm)
i would also highly recommend podcasts from Mars Hill Bible Church (http://www.marshill.org) or get them from the iTunes store. Rob Bell is the preacher there and he has a great book called Velvet Elvis out in paperback at all the local bookstores.
and there's another website of Jewish-Jesus relations that we've been going over recently: followtherabbi.com.
hope these are a help to you somehow.
Brilliant! The Life Of Brian - LOL.
You're right though, we're pissed off about the wrong things. I've told my Sunday School class and congregations I've preached to that we as Christians "fight" about the wrong things. If we are going to get angry about something, let it be something that is worthy of Christ's anger - the very things you mentioned - not ridiculous quibbles that amount to nothing in the big picture.
Marie,
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for your honesty and candor. I appreciate what you had to share more than you realize. I cannot allow my own bitterness and anger at my past allow me to lose sight of what matters most and how it can help others to hopefully come back to a relationship with God.
Jas,
Good call on your info. NT is an awesome place to start. I am wondering if Case For Christ by Stroebel is a good one as well. Though I think we have detatched the intellect and faith I think we have also lost our poetic/artistic side to faith. Though I see that being rectified more these days. Seriously, have you ever noticed how they use the same lines in worship songs over and over again?
Art,
I figured you of all people would appreciate that. I don't even want to think of all the good years I squandered being angry at nothing! One church I left out of respect for a friend and what does he do? completely blow me off. ha ha.
CR--I was going to say "thank you thank you thank you" to you for writing this post, but you said that to Marie, and so then it would just sound more redundant than ever. But seriously. I've been thinking about that a lot. My own Phariseeism (and not just about church either--a sort of critical eye casting its gaze over everything and everybody) and how frustrated I get at the divisiveness. Thanks for saying what needed saying--and for not excluding yourself, actually. That helps.
As a completely trivial aside, the "word verification" I have to type in at the bottom of this comment is "ejazz." Has anyone else ever gotten a word or an almost-word in theirs?
jenn,
my word verification is 'hfbsu.' it's actually a very exotic species of land emu located off the coast of west virginia.
cr,
case for christ is probably also a good place to start. and i agree, we do completely ignore the spiritual/artistic in the modernistic world. i think that's b/c of a false dichotomy that's said that things must be scientifically verified through our perceptions in order to be gauged as true or not. a beautiful thing about the Bible, et. al, is that it's meta-narrative, meaning that it's about story overlapping a larger story (our stories folding into God's story), so it needs to be refreshed through other story-tellings.
Jasdye--
Wow. It's amazing the education one can get on the internet.
confession: i lied about the land emu. west virginia doesn't have a coast (as far as i know). and if it did, anything off its coast would be water-based.
Like I was saying . . .
... that is, unless there were islands off of the non-existant coast of west virginia. in which case, the land-based emus might feel a bit trapped.
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