I really enjoy the blog the Contrary Farmer.
Read the blog and then come back here for my comment.
The blog was on the subject of the author giving talks to Churches and being somewhat of a nonbeliever.
There are two answers to the post. The first answer is an easy one... and that is the one I left at teh Contrary Farmer. The second part is my disturbing observation.
Standard disclaimer: I am in no way a particularly good example of a "Good Christian." I have a number of glaring failures which are at times evidenced in this blog. In fact much of this blog is a result of my failure of faith, so if you are easily offended and are an Atheist Click here, if you are easily offended and are a Christian click here. If you don't really care and want to look at porn, Click here.
The concept of Good Stewardship of what God has provided for us is a pretty central theme in Christianity. As a Christian one is supposed to live according to the best of your understanding. When we better understand things like soil health, better treatment of one's neighbor, then it is our duty to follow them.
That being said, Christianity is not really doing so well in this country. Farmers certainly seem to do their best to come out ahead in every financial situation. I suppose you can love your neighbor while you are renting ground out from underneath him if you call it "tough love" and say it is for his own good. Which is done.
Christians also pretty much neglect the difficult parts of the religion. Humbling oneself before God. That we are all sinner and require the forgiveness of God. That being a Christian means a certain standard of moral purity, honesty, and forgiveness.
And then there is the simple fact that the old "mythology" doesn't hold up so well in this day of medical science, crop insurance, bank loans, instant communication, and the constant assault on your basic belief system by mass media.
Which leads me to the point in my little speech were people will get offended.
Quite simply, not that many Christians really believe anymore. Instead we have this vague notion of taking care of "God's Creation" which we don't actually believe was a "divine" event. After all the concept of "God" was invented to explain the unexplainable, but yet we do have churches to fill and so we talk about love for our fellow man and we sing hymns and have potlucks and talk about good stewardship where it doesn't exactly apply to us and we grow sustainable lettuce in our gardens and we absolutely love black folks, and white folks who have gender confusion, and we build habitat for humanity houses.
(I'm not sure what people of color do when they want to go to Church but have out grown God. I suppose they rant about oppression and the evils of the "system," which I guess works out pretty well can then they can dovetail right on in with the white branch of the faith and everyone get together and stimulate each other's god center in the brain.)
But I digress...
Say what you will and point out all the failings of Christianity but are they not also the failings of the human race? And are they not recognized as the failings we must fight against inside and outside of the Faith.
It seems to me that the transition from Christianity as the moral conscience of our culture to being kind to Mother Earth and White Self-Hatred as the moral conscience of our culture is going to be a rocky one.
But, that is just my opinion...
And, after this little rant I will go back to talking about Dynaco amplifiers, horrible music, farming, and rain.
Have a nice day... I don't expect to see any of you in church Sunday.
Except perhaps Mr. 706.
Posts
I am always puzzled by the vastly different interpretations of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Black Baptist Church. Contrary to what many people think, the liberation theology that had so many people up in arms does not preach a doctorate of hating anyone based on their race. It is the manner of evil that is under attack. When everyone went nuts about Rev. Wright's statements about America, no true thought was given to the fact that this nation has opened up a level of evil into many other countries in the world. People who know this either accept it as true or believe that it is race specific. I have heard Rev. Wright preach in person, he is really quite honest and down to earth.
I think the biggest problem that I have with the identity of Christianity the lack of color in it. People get very offended when we point out what is true within the Bible about our presence. It's as if we were given the belief, when in reality, we helped to shape and forward the belief.
There are also a lot of POCs who will have absolutely nothing to do with this particular religion. Which I certainly do understand and respect.
My relationship with God has very little to do with any organized religious belief. I suspect that there are far more folks like me than the ones who insist that they alone know what God wants people to do.
I am not easily offended as a Christian either. I believe that other people have the right to be Muslims, Buddhist or even atheist because we all were given the capacity to think and make choices.
Excellent rant Budde. And Gene makes a lot of sense as usual. I think he and I might be brothers separated at birth. Although he is likely a better farmer and writer than I am. Reminds me of a song, "Swear there aint no heaven but pray there aint no hell".
ReplyDelete"I am always puzzled by the vastly different interpretations of Christianity."
ReplyDeleteme lady, those who describe themselves as Christian in terms of being a religion foster this puzzlement and misinterpretation of the faith.
Chritianity is not a "religion". to declare Christianity as a religion is to declare that one accepts all the beliefs of this religion
as theological truths. and as everyone realizes there are many self-contradictory beliefs within Christianity.
in this day and age the term Christianity is a collective term meant to be inclusive of all religions that use the Bible as their source of doctrines.
to refer to Christianity as a religion we need to go back into history to the time when Christianity was united as one religion.
Misladydeborah, you raise excellent points.
ReplyDeleteI would say the very history of the human race is a story of struggle vs cooperation. I think the concept of individual salvation and personal responsibility and of each individual's direct link to God can be an incredible advantage in Christianity. And it can be incredibly frustration to those who want to control groups of people or pit one group against another.
Ralph, Yup...
Griper, we are on the wrong side of change...
I guess we all have ideas about what constitutes a religion. Mine is that its adherers believe that it is exclusive (no others are legit). If you think about it, all the major "Religions" DO fit that description. Of course, I well remember the old vulgarism about opinions.
ReplyDeleteI can't see that Christianity has a color problem, Jesus was light brown (olive), since he was a Jew. That's neither black nor white. Why we have to make color an issue from ANY perspective leaves me scratching my head.
I think that we are to take the Bible literally everywhere we reaonably can, but parts are worded in ancient Jewish symbolism and, since we're not ancient Jews, that's where SOME of the disagreements come in.
And no, Budd, you won't see me in church this Sunday, though I'd like to be. I just got fed up with prideful men and jealous women attacking anyone who upset their little applecarts. You don't even have to SAY anything to offend most folks. They hate your guts for merely not playing their game!
This is the kind of post that can really only be answered in a long series of meetings at the coffee shop on a long series of rainy days. You ask a lot of good questions and raise good issues. Do these questions offend believers? Not at all.
ReplyDeleteYears ago when I was actively pastoring I had a friend of the family ask me to dedicate their "miracle" baby. He was a police officer. One of the comments I remember making was that he knew hypocrites on the police force. That did not make all police hypocrites nor invalidate what they did. The same can be said of the church. I made that point because they were not attending any church at that time.
As for there being few believers, if you read your Old and New Testaments you will find that God the Father and God the Son had the same complaint. Remember that Jesus Himself said that narrow was the gate and few would find it.
Great post. Bring it back in smaller bites when you have the time.
Grace and peace.