The Religious Right
Christianity’s Great Failing
Blog Entry
18 January, 2018
Recently watching a certain Christian program on cable tv, a book was promoted about Donald Trump and my husband got up, looked at me and said “You can!” At first, I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but then it clicked. He meant, yes, go ahead and get the book, so I did.
It finally arrived and it has been a great read so far. One consistent theme however, keeps popping up and they are called the Never Trumpers. These are the religious right alongside with liberals among the Christian community, whether church members, pastors or leaders, mostly found in evangelical circles who had decided to be against this man because of his past. Three times married, owning casinos and salty language.
I’ve been a Christian since 1981 and I’m here to tell you, I don’t go to church. I have visited churches from time to time even have tried to be regular. One major sticking point that has kept me away is the hypocrisy of people in general. I’m not saying all in any one church are, but the few make it painful for those of us who don’t fit the mold of Christian character or meet the dress code. If one has been married and divorced and the church finds out, well God forbid!!
If you think I’m being too judgmental, then consider Jesus. He sat with the wine bibbers, tax collectors and healed and forgave prostitutes. It was the Pharisees and religious leaders of that day that condemned those who were outside their idea of what it meant to be pious.
Even Peter had the distorted view of not mingling with outsiders until Jesus showed him in the vision account of Acts chapter 10. That vision was not permission to eat anything you want. It was to reveal that God desires us to embrace all regardless of dress or appearance or different in background, faith, ethnicity, etc. How many wonderful opportunities have been missed because the “church” treated those who didn’t fit their religious mold as if they were pariah, making them feel unwelcome, looking down their noses at them and causing them to leave?
Donald Trump has his faults but come on!!! Who doesn’t??? Wasn’t the whole point of the Blood of Jesus is to love us even in our faults? The things Evangelicals have against him most were in his past. We ALL have pasts that were less than stellar.
He uses salty language. Here to tell you: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. Still do on occasion because guess what?!? I’m human, just like anyone else with warts and all. But what I do have is a heart for God, a very passionate and intense heart for God, so much so I am not welcome in churches or on other social network platforms. Most people like to stay locked in to their idea of what it means to have faith, to worship, and even to interpret the Scriptures. If anyone comes along and sees things little differently, they are immediately castigated and thrown out of the assembly.
While we know there are very bad things in the world, there are things within the community of believers that are not so great either and the one burning thing which appears to be on the rise is judging others. Maybe it’s been there all along but people either kept it to themselves or perhaps they gossiped about others at the dinner table or in their bible study circles but now, today, in public social network forums where one can remain “anonymous” it runs rampant and has become radically epidemic. People that are complete strangers to each other, not knowing anything about another’s background will come against them and anyone who has ever been the recipient of that hateful behavior will know exactly how it feels.
Christianity’s great failing is judging others even though Jesus taught us not to do so. We simply can’t seem to help ourselves. Why is that? I have a theory but it is too huge to be included here. (unclean realms, identity crisis, the devil’s playground).
Luk 7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
The message in Luke is pretty clear. Those who have fallen the hardest, will be more grateful, more humbled by being lifted up.
The Uber Religious Right groups who had their ideas of who should be president are prime examples of judging others and in the book we find that some were able to break outside that box and think and act and speak as Jesus did on the matter. Thank God!!!
God is no respecter of persons yet His people do it every single day. Why is it that this is one lesson we cannot seem to learn?
Perhaps this might sound condemning but the barometer to go by when “judging” others is your heart. Is your heart in sync with God? Do you have the blessing of His gift to you of discernment??? One should be able to FEEL when it’s right or someone is right. While it can be a skill developed over time, it is not foolproof if by our own power. We need God in that with the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Perhaps that should be the litmus test to know, to live by and to walk in our daily lives.
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