A New Kind of Volatile ... Keep Moving Forward

Today I made a faux paux of astronomical proportions... I actually unfriended someone on facebook. For sake of privacy, we'll call this person, JoeJoe. JoeJoe went to high school with me. I don't really remember him from high school, although I was allegedly in a club with him. JoeJoe has been down and out for a while... he has a learning difficulty, so it's hard for him to get a job or go to college to get extra degrees. He's on a personal mission to find old friends from high school and then attack them for their personal beliefs.

JoeJoe contacted me because I was in the Christian club with him, (the JOY club) at school. Teenagers are the most spiritually connected... usually people form the religious beliefs that they stay with for their lives during those formative years. Unfortunately, maturity is usually also not so prominent amongst teenagers. Our Joy club would pray around the flag, and then meet on Fridays to bitch about how we were persecuted and how horrible our lives were. I usually did not participate in this. Then, when everyone had "shared" we held hands and prayed. That was pretty much it. Sometimes we would have a thought of the day or something, but for the most part, it was bitch, find a sympathetic shoulder, and then pray.

JoeJoe, now, 6 years later, is very interested in knowing what boxes people fit into. He thinks that certain boxes are wrong and certain boxes are right. Today, I found out that I was not in a certain right box.

He has been pressuring me about my beliefs concerning the upcoming election. He wants to know if I tell people who I vote for, whether I'm a republican or democrat, whether I am pro-choice or pro-life, etc. Most of this I have until now avoided... I don't think facebook chat is an appropriate venue to discuss those dicey topics (see my earlier post "when chat should just be chat." Today he was going on about how Barack Obama is a socialist and socialism is EVIL! And I nearly lost it. Don't get nervous, I'm not a communist, but I don't necessarily think it's evil. I think socialism and communism are founded on beautiful principles and that if executed properly wouldn't be a bad way to live. I also think that the ways it has worked out in real life have been catastrophic.

Anyway, I'm getting off subject. Then JoeJoe wanted me to tell him, once and for all, if I was pro-life. He was 100% pro-life. And after explaining to me how avid a Christian he was, how hardcore for God, I decided I would tell him I was pro-choice***. (see Can Christians Let People Choose) for more info. (more info at the bottom)

After that, he said "F*** YOU!" and when I told him that language was unnecessary, he very plainly told me I supported murder and that that was unnecessary. Then I unfriended him.

Where is the Christian example in cursing someone out when they don't share your opinion? Is this the non-believing perspective of believers? If so, I don't know if I want to be considered a Christian. I love God, and in my mind that means that I have to love people as He loved them, for what they were.

I'm so tired of Christians feeling like they have to "fix" everyone. The Bible says "judge not, lest ye be judged." It also says "love the Lord your God above everything, and love your neighbor as yourself."

I can take it down a notch if that was too much for people. We can go by the "golden rule" of "do unto others as you would have them do to you." I would NOT like to be cursed at for my beliefs, so I don't do it to others. I don't find this too difficult.

Since when did being a Christian mean being an asshole to everyone who isn't like you? That's what Pharisees did! They persecuted people who weren't doing exactly what they should be. They made everyone feel inferior and like vermin. They built themselves up as being superior and spiritual and really connected to the faith. They had purpose and importance whereas everyone else was just a peon.

I hate to break it everyone, but Jesus doesn't take away personal choice. He doesn't enforce and demand and exact. Jesus romances and loves and sees the beauty in all people, even people so totally opposite from who he was.

Being a "hardcore" Christian doesn't mean you smash people over the head with hammers if they aren't like you. It doesn't mean you don't have issues or don't listen to non-Christian music. It doesn't mean nothing in life has value unless it's labelled Christian. It doesn't mean you can't mess up sometimes. It means you're committed to keep moving forward in your walk with God.

Philippians 3:5-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

This section above shows that Paul had a lot of "status" as far as Jews went. He could count on being "saved" according to their traditions.

7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ,* the righteousness from God based on faith...

This section shows that all that status is created by the flesh... it's based on human systems that are worth NOTHING. He regards it filth and trash.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved,I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Even the Apostle Paul considered himself in-process. He wasn't finished his walk... he still had a lot to learn and a long way to go. I don't consider myself nearly as close to God as Paul, so I know I have a long way to go. Paul did the whole persecuting Christians thing before he converted. Let us not take up what he put down and as Christians persecute everyone else. Forget what lies behind. Keep moving forward.

***In another note, I appreciate the Pro-life agenda, but disagree with the means by which we make it law. The BEAUTY of Ms. Palin CHOOSING her future would not be there except for her freedom to CHOOSE.

"Ms. Palin is known to conservatives for choosing not to have an abortion after learning two years ago that she was carrying a child with Down syndrome. “It is almost impossible to exaggerate how important that is to the conservative faith community,” Mr. Reed said." (NYTimes 29-8-08 Cooper, Michael).