Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Are you serious?!

I am seriously upset right now; just months after marrying Ryan not only do I find out that he's a flaming racist, he also thinks that all Muslims should die - because they're all terrorists.

Seriously.

My initial response was "and where is that in Jesus' teaching that we should annihilate all other religions because you think they are misguided people?" My second response was "you can't be serious, because if you were serious that would mean that you are also an idiot who can't think past the blowing things up part and that the pain, suffering and destruction that would follow doesn't matter and isn't real." It pretty much spiraled out down from there.

He has these ideas and beliefs that he hasn't really thought through and out. No sane person would ever advocate that we should nuke and kill all the Muslims because it would solve all the problems in the Middle East. Because apparently Muslims are terrorists and cause a bulk of the world's problems (like Iraq, Iran, Israel/Palestinian conflicts) and if there were no Muslims the US would control the world's oil and Israel would be free of the pesky Palestinians. No one seems to have mentioned to Ryan that if we nuked the Middle East there would be no more oil, Israelis would all be dead or dying of radiation poisoning and the US would be guilty of mass murder and genocide.

How can someone who otherwise would seem to be a stable and logical person come to a conclusion that is so reactionary and without any semblance of rational thought?

I mean, seriously.

And I haven't even gotten started on the whole racist thing, let alone imigration.

How can someone claim to be a Christian, yet be completely devoid of all compassion and mercy that the very foundation of the religion is based on? Christ died for all people, not just Christians and Jews. The entire Sermon on the Mount is about holding ourselves to a higher standard so that we are to be examples for the world - examples of peace, love, mercy, forgiveness, holiness and justice (God's justice, not ours.) To do these things we cannot ignore the pain and destruction that our actions cause and our rantings produce. If we are to help the poor we cannot send them back to where they came from if we know that they will most likely die because of it:

"Then the King will say to those on His right, `Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, `Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? `And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You. `When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "The King will answer and say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' "Then He will also say to those on His left, `Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' "Then they themselves also will answer, `Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' "Then He will answer them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'" - Matthew 25:35-45

Somehow when Jesus said that to his disciples I took it as saying that we need to have compassion upon all people, especially the poor and downtrodden and treat them with respect and help them because in His eyes, we are doing it to Him. If we leave them to die we are leaving Him to die. If we nuke/ massacre the Muslims we are doing it to Him as well. Do we not think that He does not feel every death and every soul lost? How are we to fulfill the Great Commission if we kill off millions of people first?

Are you really serious about what you believe?

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Rant

Normally on Easter I post some thinking about how amazing the gift of the Resurrection is or some great Easter hymn, instead this year I'm having an Easter Rant. I cannot stand churches that have an entire service that's pomp and circumstance with no real substance. Yes it's cute to have little kids come and sing a song or two. It is not, however, worship to have an entire service with one performance after another. It is not worship to sit and listen to a choir sing song after song with no one else in the congregation singing. I don't even want to get started on how awful the sermon I heard today was. It was just... *shudders* bad. It was probably the worst service I have ever been too - including the one with the Apostles Creed that had "I believe in God the Mother Earth and in Jesus Christ her son....". The whole thing was just ridiculous. I felt like I was watching a bad televangelist. This service was so bad I had to get up in the middle and walk out and go to the prayer room to take a breather. I am fed up with churches that are too big to provide any of the services a church is supposed to. Like spiritual growth or theological education. I could go on, but writing about this is actually making me more upset.

He is Risen.