I decided that I would write an article about Faith, the lack of it and tolerance because of some of the other articles I have been reading here on Steemit.
Without apology I am a Christian. I suppose that could mean a number of things to a number of different people, so let me clarify the latter statement. I believe that we are born with an inherent nature to do wrong (not all the time of course, but some of the time at the very least), that this nature separates us from the Creator of the physical universe (or multiverses if you believe in string or M theory) but that God has provided a way to bridge that separation by simply accepting that bridge as a gift.
In a nutshell, that is the fundamental crux of what I believe.
Digging deeper, once we accept that gift two things happen. In fundamentalist Christian circles we label those two things justification and sanctification. Justification is where Jesus's sinless life is made a substitute for my sinful one. This is immediate and binding forever. The second thing, sanctification, is a lifelong process - a personal journey - in becoming the individual we believe God wants us to be. Sanctification doesn't affect justification - justification is immediate, binding and set in stone regardless of how sanctification goes.
Accepting God's gift of salvation has also been called, "being born again" in that you do become, generally speaking, a new person in a way.
Typically when someone accepts God's gift of salvation they become very sensitive to their thoughts, actions and behaviors. This is what I did before, but is it OK to do now? We view this sensitivity as someone who is simply in their infancy (referring back to the born again phrase). It is critical that in this stage there are trustworthy "adult" Christians that can help guide them because this is the time where Christians are most influenced and greatly shapes the direction of their future journey. It is critical to always question people's guidance though, no matter how trustworthy they may be, otherwise you simply become a pawn for someone.
Sanctification, as I mentioned, is a lifelong process. It involves exercising what is called the fruit of the Spirit; which are:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Longsuffering
- Gentleness
- Goodness
- Faith
- Meekness
- Temperance
Now let me ask you a question (whether you, the reader are a Christian, someone of another faith or an agnostic / atheist). How many times have you come across someone who claims to be a Christian who isn't doing very well in one, more than one or all of the above?
Yeah, thought so. And if I could apologize for other's behavior I would, but I can't, I can only apologize for myself and what I do.
So that's the Faith part of this article.
As far as the lack thereof, well, there isn't much to say. You've got Faith in something (could be God, could be yourself, could be your friends and family) or you don't.
I would like to clarify some things based on some stuff I have viewed recently. An atheist recently mentioned that a popular Christian is going out saying that atheists have no moral compass. Nothing could be farther from the truth; everyone has a moral compass. What drives or influences our moral compasses are different. As Christians who read our sacred text we would acknowledge this - Jesus once said, "therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." For that statement to be accurate, every single individual that has ever existed must have had a moral compass, otherwise they wouldn't be able to distinguish between knowing what is good to do and what isn't.
Clearly, there is a lot of damage control that we have to do. A lot of us come across implying that somehow we are superior when in fact the Gospel is about the exact opposite; that we're all the same, at the Cross the ground is even, the only different between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians have accepted a gift while others have not. That gift provides a benefit for sure but that still doesn't make us any better than others and quite frankly non-believers wouldn't find any value in the gift anyways.
Okay, so the meat of the issue - tolerance. Clearly, tolerance is a problem. I was thinking about this as I was reading a gentlemen's post in the LGBT section of Steemit, who believes he is a gay Christian man.
Bring out the tar and pitchforks!
Okay, maybe not.
Look, I will not sugar coat the countless number of people on my side who do bring out the tar and pitchforks. There are quite a few of them. To them I wonder why they are so focused on judgement when God says judgement will be His and focus on what we are supposed to be exercising (the fruit of the Spirit, itemized above)?
Is homosexuality a sin in my worldview? Yes. But so is my gluttonous beer gut.
In Scripture, God says that sin is sin - there is no difference in significance between one type of sin or another, no varying level of degrees of sin, no labels distinguishing this sin from that sin in God's eyes. From God's perspective it doesn't matter, its all fundamentally the same thing - sin. The specific type of sin is irrelevant.
In addition to that, God says if we are guilty of one sin then we are guilty of them all. So, welcome to the club, my brethren. Might want to check that judgement at the door, casting the beam out of your own eye first if you can before going after other individuals.
So then why do Christians focus on only specific ones? Maybe not me personally, but my brethren? What is driving them to focus on specific ones? Whatever it is, this is the hydra that needs to have its neck cut off from its body. Its a problem internal to our Faith but the effects of the problem are being seen by everyone in the world who sees us.
For me, its a simple solution. Ask them how they're doing in exercising the fruit of the Spirit. If they look at you puzzled, they clearly haven't had that guidance I talked about at the beginning of the article. If they know what you are talking about but brush it aside, they have a pride issue. If they apologize and ask forgiveness you know they're a good person that made a mistake and is attempting to correct their behavior.
When I read the article from the gay Christian man, I felt horrible that he felt like he couldn't openly be who he is. To me it is one of the worst crimes someone can do to another, where people feel like they have to hide who they are. Its just not ethically and morally right. People need to feel fully comfortable to express who they are because that's the only way you can have open, honest and healthy conversations about everything under the sun.
And I believe that our Faith, in its pure form (instead of the bastardization of it that we see so regularly) accounts for this - not just on the issue of homosexuality, but on race, gender and lots of other issues.
It is frustrating, just to let you know, but at the same time it wouldn't be fair for me to judge my Faith based on those who never seem to get out of being at that baby stage, who never grow up into an adult in the Faith. In fact, quite the opposite, it seems as though it puts me into a position of having to try and lead them out of it and into a more mature believer. I don't say that pridefully, I say that with a big sigh.
After years of observation I think the biggest aspect that is keeping believers from growing are church leaders who want to maintain a control over their local congregations. For this reason I choose to assemble together with other believers when opportunities present themselves rather than at preset times scheduled by someone or some group running a local "non-profit" called a church.
But that's another topic for another day. This post is about those of us who are believers, those who are not and finding a place where we can both throw up the white flags and get along.
I've already wrote probably too much for one post so I'm going to stop for now, but I might write more in the future. Basically, we have our differences, and each side has their own army of jerks who choose not to be civilized or mature to the other side, but for those that can be respectful of differences there is an opportunity to collectively work on things that can make the world a better place for us all - so to those I say, lets get to it.