This I Believe
Let me start off this post by stating that this was inspired me having to tell someone “don’t tell me what to think, don’t tell me what to believe.” That being said I enjoy healthy discussions of ideas, healthy being the key word in that sentence. To me a healthy discussion does not involve yelling, talking over someone, refusing to listen and/or consider nor does it involve being told, “you’re wrong and going to hell”. It does mean, however that you can completely disagree with any and all points as long as you are civil, polite, and thoughtfully consider counter points as you do it. I have bitch claws and I will not hesitate to use them if my boundaries are crossed and you refuse to respect them. This is a last resort, but I do know how to put someone in their place and walk away after drawing last blood. Please do not think I am being melodramatic, just honest.
Back to being nice and considerate:
I believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and that Jesus Christ is his only begotten son and who is my Lord and Savior. I believe that he was crucified, died, was buried and on the third day rose from the grave and ascended into Heaven. I believe in the Holy Spirit, who came down from heaven and is manifest in my life, who leads and convicts me in all of my ways. I believe in the Trinity of God the Father, Christ the Savior and the Holy Spirit. I believe in the forgiveness of sins and all transgression to those who believe and are repentant. I believe in everlasting life, for both the found and the lost. That the found will be taken up into heaven to be with Christ and that the lost will be separated from God for all eternity. I believe that the scriptures, both the old and new testaments are the authoritative Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. I believe it is essential to the life of the church that it be a body of people who want their lives to be shaped by the Word of God and for His will to be present in all their actions in both the community and in the world. Pretty much anything past this isn’t essential to salvation. I believe that God allows His children to have different interpretations of SOME of His word. For example, there are a few valid ways to interpret Revelation. Many scholars believe that the bulk of Revelation has already happened and refers specially to Nero’s reign while other believe it has yet to happen. I don’t think that either view will get you sent to Hell. (Neither will baby baptism vs baby dedication)
I was recently described as a "flaming liberal who voted for Obama.” Which is ironic because my liberal friends call me the most conservative person they know. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a flaming liberal. If you think I am then you haven't met any. This being said I will not and cannot abide with name-calling. Obama is not the anti-christ. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are not the anti-christ. It's not biblically correct and since I assume you don't mean it literally it is disrespectful to call them names and it is certainly not Christian behavior. I am an independent moderate who can see both sides of the aisle and prefers practical results rather than ideology. I am pro life. This means that I do not abide abortion but also that I don't believe that outlawing it will change anything. You want to stop abortions, put your (generic you) money where your mouth is and fund pregnancy clinics, adoption agencies, give women another choice other than to abort their child and they will. Being pro life also means I am against the death penalty because to me all life is sacred to God. Up until the very last moment when God takes someone away there is a chance that they will affirm God as their Lord and Savior and you can't ask me to take precious seconds away. We have all sinned grievously against God and without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we would all be lost, I can't take that away from anyone else. This doesn't mean that I think the death penalty is unbiblical, rather it means that I believe that God has allowed for both opinions. This may make me a bit of a pacifist, but that is a time honored, conservative tradition followed by more than just the Quakers and the Amish. I don't believe in socialized health care, but think that our system needs reform because it doesn't work well. I believe in having a well fund education system and a strong standing military force. A lot of people think these two paragraphs are contradictions. The largest struggle for me is balancing what is the responsible thing to do vote/political wise and what is right to do moral wise. My good friend Seth gave me a good example of this a few weeks ago about parental rights case in which a child was taken away from the mother and placed with the grandparents. The child would have been better off with the grandparents, but the mother wasn’t abusing the child in any form and wanted her child with her. Morally the child would have been better off with the grandparents, but the rights of the mother are a completely legal, legitimate claim/concern. I'm not sure there is a right (as in good) answer to this dilemma, and I feel that a great deal of politics falls into the same sort of category.
There is a great deal more that I believe, but right now I don’t really want to get into my own personal philosophy of things I can’t quite remember right now. But I'm sure if you ask me about them I’d be happy to tell you.
Back to being nice and considerate:
I believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and that Jesus Christ is his only begotten son and who is my Lord and Savior. I believe that he was crucified, died, was buried and on the third day rose from the grave and ascended into Heaven. I believe in the Holy Spirit, who came down from heaven and is manifest in my life, who leads and convicts me in all of my ways. I believe in the Trinity of God the Father, Christ the Savior and the Holy Spirit. I believe in the forgiveness of sins and all transgression to those who believe and are repentant. I believe in everlasting life, for both the found and the lost. That the found will be taken up into heaven to be with Christ and that the lost will be separated from God for all eternity. I believe that the scriptures, both the old and new testaments are the authoritative Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct. I believe it is essential to the life of the church that it be a body of people who want their lives to be shaped by the Word of God and for His will to be present in all their actions in both the community and in the world. Pretty much anything past this isn’t essential to salvation. I believe that God allows His children to have different interpretations of SOME of His word. For example, there are a few valid ways to interpret Revelation. Many scholars believe that the bulk of Revelation has already happened and refers specially to Nero’s reign while other believe it has yet to happen. I don’t think that either view will get you sent to Hell. (Neither will baby baptism vs baby dedication)
I was recently described as a "flaming liberal who voted for Obama.” Which is ironic because my liberal friends call me the most conservative person they know. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a flaming liberal. If you think I am then you haven't met any. This being said I will not and cannot abide with name-calling. Obama is not the anti-christ. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are not the anti-christ. It's not biblically correct and since I assume you don't mean it literally it is disrespectful to call them names and it is certainly not Christian behavior. I am an independent moderate who can see both sides of the aisle and prefers practical results rather than ideology. I am pro life. This means that I do not abide abortion but also that I don't believe that outlawing it will change anything. You want to stop abortions, put your (generic you) money where your mouth is and fund pregnancy clinics, adoption agencies, give women another choice other than to abort their child and they will. Being pro life also means I am against the death penalty because to me all life is sacred to God. Up until the very last moment when God takes someone away there is a chance that they will affirm God as their Lord and Savior and you can't ask me to take precious seconds away. We have all sinned grievously against God and without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we would all be lost, I can't take that away from anyone else. This doesn't mean that I think the death penalty is unbiblical, rather it means that I believe that God has allowed for both opinions. This may make me a bit of a pacifist, but that is a time honored, conservative tradition followed by more than just the Quakers and the Amish. I don't believe in socialized health care, but think that our system needs reform because it doesn't work well. I believe in having a well fund education system and a strong standing military force. A lot of people think these two paragraphs are contradictions. The largest struggle for me is balancing what is the responsible thing to do vote/political wise and what is right to do moral wise. My good friend Seth gave me a good example of this a few weeks ago about parental rights case in which a child was taken away from the mother and placed with the grandparents. The child would have been better off with the grandparents, but the mother wasn’t abusing the child in any form and wanted her child with her. Morally the child would have been better off with the grandparents, but the rights of the mother are a completely legal, legitimate claim/concern. I'm not sure there is a right (as in good) answer to this dilemma, and I feel that a great deal of politics falls into the same sort of category.
There is a great deal more that I believe, but right now I don’t really want to get into my own personal philosophy of things I can’t quite remember right now. But I'm sure if you ask me about them I’d be happy to tell you.
posted by Rebecca at 8:54 AM
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