Frequently his status posts on facebook are concerning. He writes with the zeal of a new convert, which more or less I suppose he is. There's nothing wrong with his enthusiasm my concern has always been that he seems to get so wrapped up in the letter of the law that the spirit of it, God's love for His people, seems to sometimes get pushed by the wayside. There's a quote from Bono that often pops into my head when I read these kinds of posts that goes something like this "Zealots often have no love for the world. They're just trying to get through it to the next." Once when quoting this to someone else I was told that we are supposed to be "in the world not of it" and similar lines that seemed to forget how John 3:16 starts "For God so loved the world..."
Sometimes when I can't take it anymore I'll comment on these statuses. A few days ago I commented on a status that wasn't offensive at all I simply wanted people to have clarity. I get annoyed when people talk about being "Jesus-like" or trying to do something "biblically" because it sounds like the Christian thing to say but the reality is that they don't know what either of those things mean. My roommate and I like to quote the line from the Princess Bride "You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means."
I think I also get frustrated with the concept of Evangelizing only to "save souls" and move on because there must be more to our faith than simply believing the right things and following a list of "don'ts" God must be bigger than that. So, here's my most recent discussion on this person's facebook page. He never actually responded to me, a couple of his friends did though. Truth be told, knowing him like this is good for me, it helps me to begin to articulate exactly what it is that I believe. The people other than myself will only be identified with initials:
DJ:
Are you doing your job as a Christian? Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:13-16) Jesus also teaches us that we are to go & "bear fruit" (John 15:16) and to become "fishers of men" (Mark 1:17). The whole point of being a Christians is to make disciples of Jesus! GO EVANGELIZE! Souls are at stake!
This particular conversation turned out better than they usually do. Once "DJ" posted something about abortion, which I am against, however because I suggested that it might be important to offer care for the scared mothers who found themselves in such a situation I was scolded be another person who felt that these women were simply suffering the consequences of their sin by having sex outside of marriage and it was not his responsibility. I argued that as her brother in Christ it absolutely was because we are taught to forgive so that we may be forgiven. Sometimes I want to avoid dignifying just discussions with a response, but somethings can be hard to ignore.
1 comment:
Hi Maggie, I'm Allen, I met you at the wedding. We're friends on facebook, woo, and you made a post about your blog, which I read and enjoyed very much! I'm an art education undergrad right now, and some of the things we have been talking about is using fine arts to better develop the, self perception, i guess, in order to build confidence to better interact with, not only to the self, but with their environment, people, trees too if your into tress and stuff haha.
Anyway I think it rubs right up against some of the things you guys were talking about. I feel like it's what that person, A.M., was really trying to talk about when they talked about accepting jesus in order to love others. Developing self is about building a strong community. I thought I'd give my push for the importance of fine arts.
Your blog posts are stimulating to read since I don't hear much talk about christianity, and as a teacher, I know someday I will be working a lot of christains in a community environment. I will definitely be following you now. Not in a creepy stalker way, but in the creepy way cyberspace lets me by clicking a button. Hope to see more posts in the future!
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