Her comments resonated with me...as did Michael Rowe's statement:
Like Rice, our belief in the purity of Christ's teachings has chained us to a body of believers who no longer represent anything of what we believe, and indeed represent the very opposite of what Christ's teachings are. There seems precious little Christ in Christianity as it's understood in America today.She caught a little flack (Anne did) on my fb page and other places I'm sure after I posted her quote on my wall:
"For those who care," she wrote, "and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."Some people got it...that she's denouncing what the label "Christian" has come to represent.
Some people didn't and simply see it as another of her vacillations in her belief system in order to sell more books or something...
What's wrong with stating the obvious?
To "Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind even if your voice shakes? (Maggie Kuhn via my bumper sticker)
It's much easier for us to simply say
Oh...she's renouncing her faith because her son is gay
She must be broke so she's renouncing her faith because she wants to write books about darkness again
Much harder to take a look at what she HAS to say and see if it is in anyway applicable
Okay...disagree with her but at least LOOK at what she has to say and why
Can't you see...her statements resonate with the reasons non-believers DON'T believe
A Pastor friend of mine commented on my wall post saying "I stopped being THAT kind of Christian years ago..."
ME TOO
and I think it's time those of us that have got a bit braver about SAYING SO!
2 comments:
"I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." Gandhi
As a non-Christian, I do recognize that there are some people in the Christian church who are following the teachings of Christ (as opposed to the Church of the Bad Rap) but simply stay in the church because they don't know where else (or how else) to proclaim their faith. Chances are they will leave the CBR once they realize how different they are. So would you say this is almost akin to Christ when he broke away from the mainstream? Are we looking at another potential religious revolution of the Christ kind? Or will most of those who break away from the CBR become closeted? Heh, that's an interesting pendulum swing...believers in the closet instead of non believers. A paradigm shift perhaps?
YES well said
I think we Christians hide behind the "you shall be persecuted for your faith" verses instead of thinking that perhaps the reason for the 'persecution' is the lack of consistency we show to the spirit of Christ's teachings.
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