Dear... Too Many People

Are you a Christian? In the U.S.?

Have you opposed health care reform? Said we shouldn't take in Haitian refugees? Said that people should stop throwing money at Haiti? Opposed proposed extra funding for food stamps?

If you answered "yes" to the first two questions, and any of the remaining ones, I'd like you to do me a favor. Go get your Bible. Open it up to Matthew 25. Start reading at verse 31, and finish up the chapter.

I'm not going to say anything else. I think that really about covers it.

Happy Epiphany

I skipped right over Christmas, but since this holiday is frequently forgotten even by some observant Christians, I figure I might as well post something today.

Epiphany, for those who aren't up on their Christian tradition, is more or less the celebration of Christ's, erm, Christliness. Interestingly, though Christmas celebrates his birth, this day also celebrates his birth, along with the revelation of his (literal or symbolic, as you will) son-of-Godness to the magi or three wise men who brought him gifts and possibly his baptism.

Since the U.S. is the major source of the complaining about secular Christmas, it's interesting that there isn't more widespread celebration of Epiphany, which would give such people a purely religious holiday. Not that it isn't celebrated here at all (if not today, at least this coming Sunday), but at this point the gift-giving is over (no myrrh in sight), the tree may already be down, and anyone who went to visit their family over the holidays is probably home. (And, of course, it's not a bank holiday.) You'd think the existence of a purely-religious holiday would be marked with more fuss if people are so upset that their Christmas is too secularly oriented. Plus at least this day doesn't seem to have co-opted any former non-Christian seasonal celebrations...

Eh, I shouldn't expect it to be logical.

In any event, Happy Epiphany! It's a day of joy for anyone who believes in Christ.

A Cheerful Sunday Thoughts

When I got up today, I did what I usually do not long after getting up: loaded up my Yahoo page with its news feeds and skimmed the headlines. Imagine my surprise when I saw this one: Evangelical church opens doors fully to gays [link, for as long as it lasts]

The story says, in part:

Tidd is an outlaw pastor of sorts. His community, less than a year old, is an evangelical Christian church guided both by the Apostle's Creed and the belief that gay people can embrace their sexual orientation as God-given and seek fulfillment in committed same-sex relationships.

Of course, if you believe homosexuality is a choice, this won't matter to you, but for those of us who believe the evidence is soundly for the idea that it's an innate quality, this is really simple logic. If people are born gay, it was as much a God-given trait as any other, and should be accepted in the same way.

Yet it's a logic that seems to elude people, judging by the number of church communities who acknowledge it's not a choice but still think that people who are gay should suppress their desires and live celibate. It's a shame that that's one of the prevailing attitudes, but I'm still encouraged by the idea that it's not the only one.

While I'm in a cranky mood

Might I point you over to slacktivist's very well-written posts on why it is the "Manhattan Declaration" is unacceptable? (If you don't know what it is, Fred'll also let you know that part.)

They can be found here, with a followup here, and lastly, here.

Go read them. Yes, now. I've got a few comments, myself, but they can wait until you're done.

Oh, get over yourselves.

I know that title is a bit snippy, but seriously, I'm so sick of it.

It's the same thing every year, and has been for my entire life. "Americans are taking Christ out of Christmas! Boycott stores, snottily correct clerks and other customer service personnel who dare to say 'Happy Holidays', and write angry letters!" About the only thing different from my childhood and now is that now people have teh intarwebz to spread their message of woe, doom, and destruction of the Christian faith by godless Commienazis.

It's been a while...

I haven't been feeling very good physically or mentally the last few weeks, so my non-existent audience (nearly so; at this time my actual audience seems to consist of my fiance and my stuffed cat that sits by the computer) has been let down a little, to say nothing of the fact that this blog was kindasorta supposed to be a substitute for things like church. Eh, He'll forgive me.

In light of the recent Thanksgiving holiday, I feel I should post some things I'm grateful for despite the long list of things I feel are wrong with my life. Perhaps concentrating on them will improve things.

I'm grateful I live in a county that, despite making me jump through hoops to do so, will give me insurance so that I can at least get some health care for my problems.

I'm grateful I have a fiance who understands my problems and puts up with them, and does the lion's share of the work because of them. I'm trying to do more, but in the meantime it's good that he's willing to do so much.

I'm grateful to have rediscovered my religious and spiritual side, and the ability to separate that from the people who practice a form of my religion I cannot recognize.

I'm grateful for my ability to create. It's something that makes me happy.

I'm grateful to have had so many extremely wonderful friends to help me through some of the roughest times (and a little sad I've lost touch with so many, but glad they're still out there).

I'm grateful for all the other people who have the gift to create, whether songs or games or writing or art, because those are some of the best parts of life.

I'm grateful for sunrises and sunsets, kittens, laughter, and all the other wonderful things that were made for the enjoyment of mankind.

I'm grateful that there are good examples of people practicing my religion out there, because seeing those helped me find my way back.

I'm grateful to Google for offering a free place to write down my thoughts.

I'm grateful that I still have a place to live, food to eat, internet access, and things I can do purely for leisure and enjoyment.

I'm grateful that there is a power out there that loves me despite all my many human flaws.

I am appalled at my own kind

Well, they're not quite my own kind. I recognize them as Christians, but we're obviously very different. It's the ones who, in the wake of the horrendous tragedy at Fort Hood, are saying, "See, Muslims are all terrorists!" Who are, in the main, the same ones who when people, oh, say, shoot an abortion doctor in the name of Christ, don't have anything to say about that, or at best say "But that's not what we believe!"... and then refuse to give the same courtesy to others.

I'm appalled that Christians give other Christians a free pass on such acts, but immediately harp on anyone of any other religion, especially Muslims. We worship the same God. Never mind my belief that ultimately we all do, I mean this one much more literally; Muslims consider Jesus one of the great prophets and believe some of the same things Christians do about him (albeit not all of them). We should get along better. It's one of the shames of religion that we can't. And one of the shames of American Christians in particular that so many of them refuse to believe anyone who says "We're not all like that."

Are there bad Muslims? Yes. But there are also bad Christians. And a lot of them are right here in this country. Condemning the entire religion based on the whack-jobs is really... unChristian. Brotherhood, remember?

(Belated x2) Sunday Thoughts

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."—Mark 16:15

A fairly sizable portion of Christians seem to believe that the primary goal of all Christians should be to preach to others, and I believe this is one of the verses that makes them think so.

Sunday Thoughts

So... normally I write more about what things mean to me on this day, and maybe that's where this'll end up... but my topic today is not a verse or idea from the Bible, but rather, the actual whole Bible. To be specific, it's about the project to rewrite the Bible that some of my non-existent readers may've heard about lately, spearheaded by Conservapedia. I say "rewrite" rather than the word they use, "retranslate", because, frankly, they're planning on putting some stuff in I don't remember from any version of the Bible I've ever read, including the KJV.

Is Proselytizing a Sin? (Part 3/Final)

So, let's wrap this up, and go back to my basic question: Is proselytizing a sin?

I think I've shown how it can be, whether one defines sin as "harm against other people" or "offenses against God". Anything that drives people away from God (and, if you think Christianity is the One True Way, Christ) pretty much would have to be a sin, and generally speaking, things that harm people are sinful.

But is it always a sin?