In 1998, the legendary author had returned to her childhood faith of Catholicism, announcing she would no longer pen vampire novels but instead "write to glorify God." Last week, she announced she had "quit Christianity."
Christianity is Intolerant
Powers points a finger of condemnation at organized religion, evangelicals in particular, by citing research showing...
“...people between the ages of 16 and 29 see Christianity as "anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, and too political in alarming numbers."Well, yes! Finally, someone bashing Christianity gets it right! God, as understood by Jewish as well as Christian followers, is against homosexual acts. God also frowns upon adultery, prostitution, drunkenness, coveting your neighbor’s wife and possessions, or even lusting after a woman in your heart.
God also wants us to help our neighbor, give alms to the poor and care for widows and orphans.
God is also judgmental--Remember that whole heaven or hell thing?
He laid down rules and he expects us to follow them. His prophets and apostles have also admonished all followers to be judgmental as well. Yes, he said “judge not, lest ye be judged” and Jesus admonished us to not criticize the speck in our brother’s eye while ignoring the beam in our own eye, for God will judge us by the same standards we hold others to.
He wants us to get our own house in order, but then he wants us to also test the spirits and make judgements of the rightness or wrongness of the actions of others. The Bible is full of stories about people trying to correct wayward brothers and sisters. Peter even stared a couple to death for lying about their contribution to the church, so those who haven’t even read The Bible should spare us the indignation over our being judgmental.
We are All Hypocrites
Anyone who holds ideals that are higher than their actual state would be considered a hypocrite by these people’s reasoning. My favorite is when some liberal slobbers on about the founders being hypocrites. My response? Would it have been better if they just codified into law slavery and all other immoral things going on at the time? Christians, like the founders or anyone looking to better themselves and society, hold high ideals that they often fail to meet.
Finally, why should religious people butt out of politics? Everyone else, from Hollywood celebutards to angry Muslims and illegal aliens are in the arena, so why not Christians?
13 comments:
From the article:
"I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."
As a Christian, I can identify with what she's saying in the above quote. I've become disgusted with churches myself. Most churches, anyway.
I'll keep my walk private, thank you very much.
Hippocrite here, I am a big one and tend to be all wet. Yet when I speak of judgement it is not mine, it is from the True Lasting Judge.
Heard once that if we really love and care, we should call out to those who are gayly floating on the drunken rivers of ruin, "There are rapids and a falls around the bend of this river you run, get out while time permits".
If they can't hear, If I am bad for caring, If I got a Pine Tree stuck in my eye, If-fen they wanna judge me, just hang me upside down. My love for G-d and His creation will never Peter out.
If folks want to seperate from the organizations of religion so be it, Enoch walked alone with G-d and he was taken. I figger it is a one with One deal.
God bless you brother!
Thanks, Always and Jaded. I don't like writing about religion because it's not my area of expertise and we all do walk in our own way, even if we participate in organized religion.
I just get tired of the rank distortions I read. I don't judge my action and those of others by my standards, but by God's as stated in The Bible.
As an American, I also respect (and have defended) the rights of others to call the whole thing balderdash. They reject God's Word as I understand it? Fine, but they need to stop distorting it.
We do need to judge and to help one another along the way.
A short story: I've spend a lot of time in Latin America, much as a single guy, some married.
It is full of beautiful women. I call it the place where single men come back married and married men come back single.
To cut to the chase, as a married man down there, I hung out with other married men who were as committed to their wives as I was to mine. That is how Christian folk help one another on their daily walk.
Silver,
I believe you or Ann have confused some terms here.
Christianity is not 'organized religion' but quite simply the belief, following and worship of Christ and that is referred to as Faith.
I too shun organized religion as it is man-made yet remain a stedfast Christian.
God did not create 'religion' so it can only be described as unorganized.
I am not disputing your other points as I am in agreement, just differentiating between the terms above as many get them confused.
Christopher: I do not confuse the two terms; I agree with your distinction.
Christianity, as explained in the New Testament, is intolerant of many things.
Organized religion, being a man-made institution, will always be flawed.
Silver,
Heard and understood.
Maybe I should have said Kirsten Powers confused the terms after re-reading the first two paragraphs,,my bad and my coffee is made now.
Intolerance in one's heart is one thing; acting on that intolerance is another.
"For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."
We can only conclude Miss Rice won't like Islam, then. Everyone must find their own way in life, to their final destination ... not everything she said is invalid. Humans are political; it is in their nature. We can no longer separate ourselves from human nature than Obama can keep from lying about Islam.
Always on watch & Christopher-Conservative Perspective have summed up how I've come to feel about Christianity lately. I'm of an African background, and a lot of our pentecostals/evangelicals are copying USA Christians wholesale, especially on prosperity gospel. But it's important American citizens keep a focus on Jesus and his preached ideals in the gospel, especially as your president is now facing east. I'm really upset at the 9/11 mosque and can't quite believe it. I thought only UK politicians were that naive about Islam. Or is your president being really naive or does his middle name have more significance than we realise?
Would it have been better if they just codified into law slavery and all other immoral things going on at the time?...excellent point Silver!
You've summed it up nicely, Suburban. Human enterprises (religions) will always be flawed because humans who run them are imperfect. The key is to focus on Jesus (Or God if you are Jewish).
>He laid down rules and he expects us to follow them.
A God who didn't establish high standards for His children would not be much of a God, and a religion that did not expect adherents to be changed in significant ways would never have the ability to lead anyone to salvation. It would be nothing more than rainbows and unicorns, a lot of navel-gazing and self-absorption. It's shocking to see so many churches that focus on building self-esteem rather than on building God-esteem.
As for hypocrisy, a wise man once said that if perfection were a requirement for speaking truth and pointing out the way, then nobody would be speaking truth or pointing out the way. A fundamental aspect of Christian theology, and true Christian living, is an understanding that we aren't perfect, and that even though God has laid down commandments and codes of living, we're all lost without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, regardless of how well we obey the commandments. We're all flawed, and "fall short of the glory of God." That's not hypocrisy. That's mortality.
I usually differentiate between "tolerance" and "permissiveness." Tolerance is good, but permissiveness is bad. I am tolerant of all kinds of things, but permissive of little. I think that's embodied in my code "Do what you want, just do it away from me."
Well, it appears that God doesn't know what He is talking about. Imagine condemning homosexuality, adultery, and all that good stuff! My word.
Okay, so if one leaves the Church and gets it on with someone of the same sex, or cheats on their wife, or steals, lies, fornicates, etc., then how can they claim they follow Jesus?
None of us are perfect, we can only try, but we aren't trying if we feel that we we know more then God.
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