LXXIX. The 21st Century

The church is irrelevant.  Jesus Christ is outdated, perhaps a myth.  Those who believe in Jesus or go to church are just wasting their time because He is not real and the church is useless.  This is the 21st century.  Believing in Him would be archaic and meaningless.

We have real problems in this world.  We have a high divorce rate.  We have too much murder.  We are too sexually active to where people's lives are destroyed by what their partner does.  We lie too much   We cheat everyone.  We have poverty.  We have war.  We have hate.  There is nothing in the Bible or anything Jesus said, or anything the church can do or say about these issues.  They are completely irrelevant.

Lieing and cheating go on without saying but what about the other issues?  Divorce? According to enrichment journal on the divorce rate in America:  The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41%, for the second marriage it is 60% and for a third marriage it is 73%.  http://www.divorcerate.org/.  Murder?  In Washington DC out of every 100,000 people there are 24 that get murdered.  In Louisiana it is 12 the next highest in the US.  Sexually transmitted diseases?  In 2010, over 400 people for every 100,000 got chlamydia, 100 got gonorrhea, 15 got syphilis, not even counting AIDS, herpes, and other types of diseases. http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats10/surv2010.pdf.   Poverty? The US has over 300,000 families living in poverty.  http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html.  War?  Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc., etc., etc..

With all of these things going on what would we care about what a 2000 year old book says?  Believe it or not the Bible talks about each and every one of these and more.  It mentions and/or alludes to divorce, disease, death, life styles, murder, depression, fear, politics, abortion, sex, stealing, finances, home life, drug use, alcoholism, abuse, neglect, marriage problems.  You name it, the book has it.  So how is it irrelevant?  Because those who do not want to admit that God exists or is on control, or those who who do not want to submit to a higher authority scream at the top of their lungs that it is not.

LXXVIII. Turn the Other Cheek?

Christians are sometimes seen as uncompassionate.  They are intolerant hypocrites who do not practice what they preach.  They say they love but preach hate.  But is this an accurate way of portraying the beliefs of Christians, especially when the topic deals with things that battle their morals?  Here are the results from last poll: If something does not fit in with traditional Christian standard beliefs, how should a Christian respond?

• 54% said, With understanding and compassion
• 27% said, Depends on the topic and/or person you are dealing with
• 9% said, With complete contempt and protest
• 9% said, Not caring one way or another
• 0% said, With full tolerance and complacency
• 0% said, Other

More than likely these answers were given by those who profess Jesus as their savior.  So keep that as part of the focus as you read.  Notice not one person said with full tolerance and complacency.  This is odd because if you look at the way the world is and how Christians act (not respond) then it seems like all they do is tolerate because over the last few decades Christian values have diminished in this country.  Some would say that is a good thing but it is not!  When we take God (the real God, not man's interpretation) out of the equation then we see more violence.  We see more abuse.  We see more depression.  We see more disruption.  We see more hate.   Too many people think Christians hate because they lack tolerance.  The big mistake here is those people think tolerance equals love.   Tolerance does not equal love.  Tolerance equals compromise.  Compromising kills truth.  It is okay not to put up with certain things.  Yet, the world tells Christians we need to accept everything or we are bigots.  Acceptance to everything is detrimental to society.  If we accept everything then EVERYTHING will be accepted.

Not caring one way or another is one step away from tolerance.  It leads to apathy.  When we become apathetic, we care less. When we care less, we hurt more people.

With complete contempt and protest is not the best choice either.  This causes the Christian to be viewed as hypocritical, and perhaps rightly so.  These people need to understand that everyone is at a different level in their beliefs and harsh words can actually condemn someone to a life filled with feelings of resentment towards God.  Yes, certain things need to be brought out to the open and some people need to be put in their place with unbridled truth.  But the words need to be consistent with the truth.  Contempt for the issue is completely acceptable.  Contempt for the person is not.

Nothing depends on the topic or person you are dealing with.  There are lines to be drawn.  There is absolute truth. http://ideasoftimreligion.blogspot.com/2009/11/xliv-youre-okay.html.  Now, there is a method to dealing with different topics and people but never compromise the truth.  See above.

The best way to deal with topics that go against the Christian belief is with understanding and compassion.  We need to realize people are different.  But also remember, truth is permanent and uncompromising.  We need to find a way to tell the truth without destroying people.