Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

I saw some clips on the news this morning, and read the following article today:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/dan-savage-and-the-truth_b_1463390.html?ref=religion


I found it all highly disturbing. 


The author of this article clearly has no understanding of Christianity. That is especially clear by the following quote: "So what if every day, for decades on end, Dan Savage has dealt with young lives obliterated through violence informed and buttressed by the bedrock "Christian" view that gay people are less than human?"


Christianity does not teach that being gay makes a person less than human. The Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin. It does not teach that a person who sins in that manner is any less of a person than every other person in the world that sins.


The writer continues: "So what if any reasonably compassionate person should be expected to vigorously assert that it's time for all Christians to reject using the Bible as a means of justifying the persecution of an entire population whose only "crime" is to prefer to spend their lives with same-sex partners?"


The Bible does not justify the persecution of anyone.


Also, what gives the writer the right to lay claim on what bullying is?
P.S. What immediately become a meme amongst Dan's critics is that those who walked out of his talk felt bullied by him. But that's impossible. People get bullied because of who they are: how they look and act, what they say and do. Perceived as being in some critical way weak or lacking, victims of bullies are selected for persecution; they are pulled from the pack before being pointedly and repeatedly victimized. The people who walked out during Dan's talk were not separated from their peers by anyone. They were content to do that themselves. They were not frightened or cowed. They were offended. They felt that by disparaging what amounts to their God, Dan had transgressed beyond their capacity for toleration. And they were pleased to show their intolerance of Dan's words by protesting against them in the manner they did. Theirs was not an act born of suffering. It was a proud show of disdain.


Telling people that what they believe is "bullsh*t" is bullying. Bullying involved verbal harassment on the grounds of religion. Calling people who walked out of the room names is, you guessed it - bullying.
Insert any other religion or religious text into his speech, and everyone would agree it was bullying.
And even if all can't agree that it was bullying, all can agree that it was disrespectful at the very least, that it was unkind, and that treating people in this way is not an appropriate response to being bullied. Standing up for yourself does not involve knocking others down.


What Dan Savage and the writer of this article fail to understand is that Christians are human. They sin, some of them bully people, and some of them treat gay people badly.  They are no better than anyone else. What makes them different is that they have recognized their need for a Savior.


When people like these 2 attack Christianity, they are being ignorant and misinformed. They think they understand an entire belief system based on the actions of some, who are actually not living according to that belief system. They think they understand an entire text based on a few verses they have picked out.


What disturbs me the most is the following line:
If that's not what Jesus meant by, "The truth shall set you free," I can't imagine what he did mean.


It bothers me deep within my soul when people who are clearly not Christian dare to believe they can speak for Jesus. And what Jesus was saying in this Scripture is that people who meditate on His word (the Bible) will become his true disciples, and then they will know the truth. I highly doubt this writer has a personal relationship with Christ and meditates on the Bible. He clearly can't understand how offensive his quotation of this Scripture is.


I hope all Christians stand up for what they believe in. They should not be ashamed to say that they believe that homosexuality is a sin. I was for a long time, because of the backlash it brings, and because I was too afraid to offend anyone. I was in a place where my faith was weak, and I knew I wouldn't be able to  defend myself or my beliefs. Now my faith is strong. I believe in Jesus and every word that He spoke. Part of that is that I believe in loving others. If Christians took that responsibility seriously, and loved others as Jesus commands us, no one would calls us bullies just because we disagree with a particular lifestyle choice. I disagree with some of my own lifestyle choices that are now in my past. Once the majority of us start approaching others with love and not condemnation, then people won't be able to say that Christianity as a whole condones the bullying of others.


Further reading: http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/7345/53/

Constitution 101

I have been hearing commercials on the radio for awhile now for the Constitution 101 course offered by Hillsdale College. It always sounded like something that would be good to do, but I never took the leap. Well, this week I decided it was downright irresponsible of me not to take the course. There has been so much talk lately of the constitutionality of immigration laws, Obamacare, etc., etc., etc. I know what the constitution basically says, but do I really know enough? I decided that I don't.

The course is online, FREE, and since all the lessons are archived you can watch the videos whenever you want. How flexible is that?! I definitely couldn't commit to a certain time every week at this stage in my life, so this kind of format is perfect for me. I just registered and I hope many of you will join me!

http://www.hillsdale.edu/constitution/

Faith and Politics

Even as recently as a year ago, I considered myself "not political." What that really meant is that I couldn't handle debate. I couldn't handle the idea of arguing with anyone in my life or even strangers. A couple things in my life have changed that. 

Spurred on by my interest in the 2012 election, I virtually never listen to music anymore - I spend most days listening to talk radio. This had led to knowledge and knowledge has led to confidence. 

Another change came from the controversy over "Tebowing." When I say that Tim Tebow changed my life, that may sound odd to a lot of you, but it's very true. What "Tebowing" did was provoke a lot of thought and self-reflection. How often did I discuss my faith or things impacted by my faith (which is everything) in a public arena? Practically never, unless I knew people would agree with me. I had bought into the whole idea that my beliefs should be kept personal, and I shouldn't share what anyone else might find offensive. Now, if you had asked me outright if I believed that, I would have wholeheartedly said no. But, I lived that way, and I think a lot of Christians do. 

People want to claim "separation of church and state" and tell us to keep our views to ourselves. I think some people actually believe that is in the constitution. What actually IS in the constitution is "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  This country was founded by people who wanted freedom to practice their religion, not people who wanted to suppress anyone's right to practice theirs in public.


Here is an example:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/firefighters-prayer-center-of-religious-debate-20120424

The cross being there does not violate anyone's rights. It does not violate the constitution, because it does not force anyone to believe in God, or practice a faith they do not believe in. It's existence does not mean that the local government favors Christianity over any other religion, nor has there been any evidence of that. If people don't believe in the Christian faith, then why does it bother them so much to see people practice it, or even just symbols of it? 

There is a lot of bullying in the media towards Christianity. We're supposed to keep our faith private - we're not supposed to "force" it on anyone else. The problem with that, is that Christianity is not a "religion." It's an entire way of life and effects every single decision a person makes, no matter how minute. Jesus would never shy away from controversy - that is crystal clear in the Bible. And Christians are called to "make believers of all nations." We should be proclaiming our faith in all arenas as often as possible. Just like Tim Tebow. He prays when he wants to thank God for his success, and this has somehow become something to be made fun of on almost every talk show on tv. There should be Christian outrage, but I haven't heard a lot of it. A cross on a lawn is considered highly offensive, but someone making fun of a man's communication with his Savior is perfectly acceptable. It's shameful.

I want to start off this blog by saying that I will not let anyone pressure me to keep my faith out of politics. My faith is the whole reason I am interested in politics. In fact - I will strive to interject my faith into my political views as often as possible.