This is gonna be
G-d stuff, so those of you not interested, go see what’s happening at Brigid’s place.
I am constantly amazed at the people who still attribute the motives and actions of the ‘leaders” of the church as the church itself.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian Church is not a building; it is not a priest, or a minister, or a bishop, or the pope, or the things that they say or the things that they do. The Christian Church is composed, 100%, completely and inarguably, of Christians.
Un Christian behavior separates you from Christianity. When you say “That Christian priest raped that little boy” you are in fact wrong; a real Christian does not engage in that activity by definition. When you say “That Christian is a hypocrite!” You are also wrong. Hypocrisy is anathema to Christianity.
it may be possible that part of the confusion has arisen from the fact that such a wide variety of people call themselves “Christians’. Well, I can call myself an olympic athelete but the name does not allow me to run like FloJo. I can call myself a brain surgeon but not too many people will let me take a saw to their coconut.
Christianity is something to which you can aspire. It is not a destination but a journey, and just as you can get horribly lost anywhere in Detroit, you can lose your way on the way to Christianity. You can and many people do CLAIM Christ, but you also have to mean it. Calling yourself a parent but only showing up for your card on Fathers day don’t qualify you. Calling yourself a Christian and repeatedly engaging in un-Christian behavior is the same.
At each turning, individuals have separated themselves from a “Church” that they thought of as evil and went off on thier own, as often as not engaging in their own level of stupid as they went. I give you all protestant sects as proof of this. Not one of them is immune from ignorance, though each claims to be the ‘only true path to salvation’
I’ve recently even heard people say “Satan threw the Holy Spirit out of the church”. yeah, right, as if Satan commands that power.
The church, as I’ve said, is not Kenneth Copeland. it’s not Joel Osteen, God’s own Gilbert Gottfried. it’s not Pope Benedict.
It’s you and me. It’s pretty clear, too. Look at mathew 18:20. “For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
it’s not “For where there are two or three gathered with an approved minister of my faith, there am I in the midst of them.”
You don’t need a building or a minister or a pastor or a creed to have a Christian Worship service. You just need other people, striving to be Christians.
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Amen.
It’s never sufficient to call yourself Christian.
St. Francis of Assisi’s words were never more true. “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”
Ah-yup, can’t argue with this.
Amen.
I’ve said this about Judaism for years. It’s not the building, or the rabbi, or any of that. It’s the kahal, the congregation, the community.
Which is probably why I’m on my third synagogue :) And why this one may actually take.
When you say “That Christian priest raped that little boy†you are in fact wrong; a real Christian does not engage in that activity by definition. When you say “That Christian is a hypocrite!†You are also wrong. Hypocrisy is anathema to Christianity.
If one means they were not acting as a Christian while doing that act, absolutely.
But since we’re all sinners, theologically, “Christian” as a label for “someone trying to be a proper Christian and all that” would have to encompass both – if they tried and failed to reject that sin (or in the case of the hypocrite, were so blind they didn’t even notice it, in which case hopefully some grace will come along and open their eyes).
(If they were, as the Catholics put it, “obstinate in sin” and didn’t fight against it, they’d be so bad at Christianity that the label could be legitimately denied them, I suppose – which is why such people are condemned as blasphemers against the Holy Spirit, and denied communion… until they stop doing that.)
Sound right?
Re read, sigi.
As Pat Robertson says so well, “Amen, and AMEN.”
Sig: Now that I am home and can expand on this, let me clarify. To be a Christian means (Among other things) not engaging in un-Christian behavior. When you do, you separate yourself from Christianity in the way infidelity separates you from your spouse. It may not look like it, even your closest friend might not have any idea, but the stain of the infidelity is there.
Note this is not about salvation; that’s another conversation altogether. And people can wander in and out of their Christianity often, and often do, and maybe the only person who knows who really is a Christian and when, is God.
Grace. Christianity is all about grace, which include agape. If you love someone you cannot hurt them. If you love everyone you are getting close. Even those satan loving buggering moslems.
Otherwise, just amen.
And the fall from Grace, Paul, indeed.
Thank you.
‘LOUD Applause!’
My Pastor and good friend has been pounding that into our heads for years….that a building does not make a church! The People do!!
Nice job!!
[…] And If You Engage.. August 23, 2012 In sinful acts, do not call yourself a Christian.. If you promote sinful acts…Do not call yourself a Christian.. If you look the other way and tolerate sinful acts…Do not call yourself a Christian.. If you do not take the Bible as it is written and BELIEVE…you are a hypocrite to call yourself a Christian.. […]