so I get to read the paper for the 4th time this week. I am loving this new ‘less work’ approach to my life 🙂
Today, I was interested in the claim by Anne Rice (author of ‘Interview with a Vampire’ and others) that she is quitting being a Christian. The headline prompted me to read on, after all there’s not much interesting stuff about Christianity in the media these days: ‘In the name of Christ, I quit being a Chrisitian. Amen’ something which she apparently posted on her facebook page. In fact the line is very misleading as she hasn’t given up on Christianity at all. She is basically distancing herself from ‘the church’, rules, dogma, and so on. What she is not doing is giving up on Christ. I read the article with some interest, but I was surprised to find myself agreeing with her. She says: ‘I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.’ However she also states that she remains committed to Christ. It is true that the phrase ‘I am a Christian’ provokes all sorts of reactions, usually not favourable, unless of course you happen to be standing in the middle of a New Wine conference when you say it.
Frankly when you see the crap going on all over the world in the name of Christianity, I don’t blame her. (and I refer to my previous post about the fake marriages) Perhaps we need more ‘renegade’ Christians?
The bottom line about my faith is that I want to follow Jesus, I want to be more like him. I want to live my life for him. That does not mean judging others on their behaviour, attitudes or life choices. It does not mean turf wars between local churches. It does not mean invoking hefty rules and regulations about how one should live ones life. Following Christ is an individual choice. It has to be so. God, with infinite grace, gives us the choice to believe in Him (or not as the case may be). Everyone who believes in Christ has their own story, their own reasons for believing, their own relationship with God. So does it matter if we are not all clubbed under the one heading?
Rice put it like this:
‘…following Christ does not mean following his followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.’
well said that woman.
3 Comments
Seeker
August 1, 2010 at 3:54 pmI sympathise with Anne Rice -she has highlighted how unchristian many christians are. But I think there is something contradictory about stating continuing commitment to Christ and claiming to "quit being a Christian". See my post on 30 July 2010.
GODthinker
August 2, 2010 at 6:01 pmHi Red,
I certainly understand your frustration with parts of the body of Christ. I share it with you. Some of the churches teachings actually go against His Word. Sometimes the church is hypocritical. God always has a remnant people though. Through out the Bible the vast majority who thought they were God's people were in fact not, but God always reserved for Himself a remnant, a few faithful followers who did not bow their knee to the idols of the age. We have that now as well.
We need to be careful though with what we choose to aline ourselves with. God is neither Republican or democrat (or whatever political parties there are in the UK, forgive my ignorance.) God is definately for and against some things though and not just to ruin our day or to keep us from having fun, but because He loves us and wants the very best for us.
God says homosexuality is sin. He says any type of sexual sin is bad because it hurts us. He doesn't hate the homosexual but he does want them to have the best possible life. Any type of sexual sin opens the person up to disease, heart break, and demonic influence. Sin separtes us from God, all sin, so God does not want any of us to sin. We can't change His teaching though to match the cultural norm. We need to speak the truth in love.
Secular Humanism is the antithesis of Christianity. It says there is no moral absolute and that each person should decide right and wrong for themselves. It puts human reasoning over God's wisdom and leads people to hell. God decides right and wrong. Left to themselves people choose murder, selfishness, and hatred. We need God's word to teach us what he says about morals.
Science in many cases has proven Christianity. Astro-physicists are coming to believe in God more than any group of scientists because they see how it is impossible for the world to have come into existance outside of a creator. There is plenty of real science behind creationism. The problem comes because many scientists ignore anything that could point to God because if there really is a creator they would have to consider listening to Him. Science does not disprove the Bible unless you ignore much of the facts.
I am a woman pastor so I certainly understand the angst with the paternal nature of much of the church. God is pro-woman though and in Him there is no Jew nor Greek, male nore female. We are all equal before Him. The problem comes with people's interpretation of the scripture. I highly recommend the book WHY NOT WOMEN written by Loren Cunningham and David Joel Hamilton (2 men). They explain the texts on women in terms of the original language and culture. God has always had women leaders. The church needs to catch up with God though.
We all are to follow Christ but Paul also said "follow me as I follow Christ." We are not supposed to completely distance ourselves from the church. We need to be a part of a body. There is no perfect church because it is made up of imperfect people but we are to spur each other on in our walk towards holiness.
The church has done many things to rightfully make the world hate us but also in reality the world is supposed to hate us. Jesus Himself said so. There is a real enemy working against God. If Jesus was hated, his followers will be hated as well. We should not look to the world to see if we are doing OK. We need to be seeking only God's approval.
We all need the Holy Spirit to help us walk this walk and not just talk the talk. We all fail, all of us, but Thanks be to God that mercy triumphs over judgement and that we have mercy through Jesus.
I agree much of the church needs an overhaul but we should be working to be a part of the remnant, those faithful few who really know the Lord. Jesus said if we love Him we would obey Him, that includes not particpating in or condoning those things that He says are sin. That will not make us popular in the papers or on the news but we will be loving God the way He wants us to be loving Him.
Blessings on your Journey to follow Him!!
SS Firedancer aka Soroya
August 3, 2010 at 4:59 pmHi Red I am with Anne Rice in the sense that I do not want the label of "Christianity" to keep anyone from being a true follower of the only one who can Save them from their sin. Yes and what is sin anyway. The word tells us it is the thing that causes us to fall short of the Glory of God well buckaroo with out the shed blood of Jesus that is all of us. He is the only one who could purify our death infused blood. The only one who could make us pure enough to stand in the presence of the Awe-Full God of all creation.
As far as what others are doing in the realm of what we label as sin, homosexuality, pornography, lying, stealing ad-infinitum… All I know is Christ and Him crucified. I choose to leave the conviction to God and the people to work out their salvation with fear and trembling with Him.
Not to say that I wont take the opportunity to help someone in their journey to The Truth Jesus is The Truth.
God has called us to Love one another because Love is from God and as we do that it will be His loving kindness that will lead them to repentance and us also.
Keep writing thanks for the spark.
Firedancer