Why I’m not a Christian.

I’m not a Christian because

of what I believe about gay marriage, what I believe about predestination and election, whether I believe in evolution, whether I think Adam and Eve actually lived, I hate most worship music, what I believe about the end of the world, I said a Sinners prayer, I believe or don’t believe in an eternal pit of fire when you die, whether I identify as a Evangelical or not, what denomination I belong to, the average number of times I witness to someone a week, I smoke, I drink, I read the ESV, I go to 20 Christian conferences a year, I can’t stop looking at porn, I have a degree in theology, I think Rob Bell brings God to life for me, I think he’s a false teacher or I know the Christian lingo.

I’m a Christian because I believe that Jesus is up to something on Earth right now, today in the midst of all the beauty and ugliness. At work to bring Peace and Grace and love and fullness of life to everyone.

And I want you and I to be a part of that together.

I’m a Christian because of this, not that.

Removing support for World Vision: WWJD

As the news filtered through my twitter feed last night that World Vision, a Christian charity organization had decided to allow the hiring of gay people, my heart sunk. My heart sunk because it soon became clear from some of the tweets I read that there were many who lamented the decision but mostly because there were others who were considering the removal of support, financially and otherwise to World Vision.

Why the DUP are today’s Pharisee’s.

The recent banning of the Reduced Shakespeare Play of the Abridged version of the Bible is more than just about censorship. It is more than just about a political party exerting control over the arts and much more to do with fear.

The fear of some Fundamental Evangelical Christians that their rights as Christians are being torn apart. The fear of their version of Christianity being slowly eroded which would leave them in a position of vulnerability. The fear that Christianity will come tumbling down because of a play.

There is no danger of that happening though, even if the play had gone ahead. Thousands of years of Christianity with a history not altogether honorable or righteous has still not caused it to end or for God to die.

It’s a fear that is not really justified but will probably still remain.

This weeks actions of some Fundamental Christians in the DUP has shown that Northern Ireland has now got it’s own version of the Pharisees that Jesus lived among, right on its very doorstep. Just like the Pharisees the DUP acts on fear and as we all know acting out of fear can cause a great deal of damage and pain.

There are several ways in which the DUP are the new Pharisees.

When Jesus arrived on the scene the Pharisees had a nice system of religion going and when Jesus came and spread a message almost contradicting everything they stood for they became fearful that He would bring down their whole system that had worked for thousands of years. In similar fashion when someone comes along, in this case a play about the Bible that seems to poke fun at your ideas of religion then you are going to want to protect your religion and stop those views being expressed.

There is a fear that runs through the DUP and much Protestantism in NI that still views Sinn Fein as the enemy. Like the Pharisees having to deal with the Roman Empire, The DUP live in constant fear that Sinn Fein will eventually take over. This fear permeates into everything else in their lives including religion or at least their version of religion.

Religion has been used ever since day one to control and exert on pressure on people to fall in line.

However, Jesus didn’t come to set up a new political party or system. In fact he came to quash fear and to bring freedom from worry. From the fear of being overridden by our enemies. The DUP seem to overlook this important aspect of Jesus’ mission and in doing so are more like their enemies (or at least how they used to be) than they think. The power that Jesus came to install in his followers was one where commonly understood weaknesses such as grace, vulnerability and compassion were the real strengths. The fear that ran through the Pharisees is the same fear that runs through fundamentalism today.

But fundamentalism also fears difference. A play that speaks truth in a way that is foreign to the DUP’s version of Christianity brings fear. A fear of the unknown. For the Pharisees unless everyone fit neatly into their idea of religion and God then they were wrong. The same is true for the DUP counsellors involved in the objection to the play.

It is this idea of faith and Christianity that is damaging because to the DUP unless you disagree with same sex marriage, believe in a literal 6 days creation account, believe in a real physical Hell or feel the need to protect everyone from a harmless and inoffensive play, then you are not a real Christian.

You are on the outside and everything outside is deemed a threat. Legalism takes the place of Grace.

But real faith is much bigger than that and the Church is a beautiful blend and make up of every type of people. Rather than seeing this as a threat as the DUP does it is actually the church’s strength. Which is more appealing? A God that needs you to fit into tight theological square holes which is impossible if you are a circle or a God that is prepared to let everyone in? Everyone despite their past, present or future.

It’s as a friend remarked to me, it’s not so much that anyone who disagrees with fundamentalistic ideas has a little view of God but rather they view a little God. A God that is so insecure that He needs us to stand up for him. A God that is so out of control that if other opinions are entertained then the world will fall apart.

But I have a bigger view of God. A view that includes everyone regardless of anything. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to believing that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God including sexuality or even belief in God. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to believing that great strength is shown in dying to ourselves and serving others; others often who don’t agree or think like us. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to understanding Jesus death and resurrection as a new way of seeing the world, where weakness is the new strength.

A new world where when Jesus was about to be led away to be crucified; instead of applauding one of his disciples for attacking one of his captors, actually rebuked him and brought healing to His enemy.

This is the strength that fundamentalists either don’t see or ignore. One where even Jesus Himself knew that he didn’t need to defend Himself.

For too long in Northern Ireland, the archaic views of the DUP have been allowed to dictate this view of Christianity and to let the fear that has controlled the country for so long flourish. For too long church leaders have failed to counter these ideas of God that are neither loving or gracious? Where were the church leaders this week to speak up for the play? To dispel the idea that Christianity is about fear.

Or are we all controlled by fear one way or the other?

 

Fear (Fearing the right thing)

Fear consumes so many of us. It kills all the things that we could do that are good. And we want to defeat fear and we want to push through it. But we don’t know how. Most of the time we give up. We end it right there. We stop practicing and we try something else.

But guess what?

Sooner or later fear will kill that too.

If we let it.

The alternative is to not let fear win and stop it dead in it’s tracks. But how?

The answer is simple.

Stop worrying what people will think.

Let’s face it we’re not really frightened of singing a solo in front of a concert hall full of people. We love music. We’re not really afraid of getting up and speaking to a room full of eyes looking back at you expectantly. We love expressing ideas and sharing them. We’re not really afraid of riding a rollercoaster. It’s going to be fun and we know it.

What we are really afraid of is the end. The reaction. We are afraid of people not liking what we wrote or said or played.

Like all artists we are afraid of dying.

Our fear is misdirected. It shouldn’t be in the act of the thing we are excited about. The fear is of the judgement afterwards.

“He was too long.” “She sang off key a little”. “I disagree completely with what she wrote”. “He doesn’t know what he is talking about”. “I could do better than that”.

That’s what we’re really afraid of. Sure some things no matter how much we feel we were made to do them are scary sometimes. That’s natural.

It’s just that the reactions above aren’t real. They aren’t what people are saying. They are what we think people are saying.

You can’t control what everyone thinks. All you can do is pursue your gifts, your passions and those things that persuade you to get up in the morning.

Fear won’t always disappear. We need it to keep growing. This isn’t a contradiction though. It’s a rally cry to realize that fear doesn’t have the hold over us that we think it does because in the end we can’t worry about or control what people will think because people will think what they like.

The real question is, are others opinions a good enough reason to give up?

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can alway preview any post or edit you before you share it to the world.

Wishing the Rapture Would Have Raptured the Rapture.

Why Jim Wallis is right (and wrong) and why gay is the new love wins

I had expected it to be at least a while before us Christians started causing controversy again, after the Rob Bell/ Love Wins debate took over our lives in March. But now that we have become bored with that it seems we have now found someone else to vilify.

In this case it is Sojourners founder Jim Wallis, who has created a storm by refusing to include an advertisement on their website from Believe Out Loud, encouraging Churches to be open to Gay and Lesbian people.

This has caused quite a stir to many who don’t understand how an organisation like Sojourners can not include an ad that promotes inclusiveness in Church, while the board of Sojourners are afraid it will distract from other issues in which they are focused on.

But who is right?

And who is wrong?

Or are both sides equally right and wrong?

From the point of view of Sojourners they are probably in their right to refuse to show the ad. Sojourners has never really been about these types of issues. These discussions aren’t ones I would have expected to find on their website and so I’m not really sure why some people are so upset. Would it be odd if a charity promoting the safety and care of animals refused to show the advert? Not really. So should Sojourners be any different?

Saying that, would it have really hurt them to show the advert? Even if this issue isn’t one that they directly are working on, it is hard to not see how it would fit in, in a general sense with the organisations ethos. Despite what people may think, Jim Wallis can be conservative on certain issues and in the past he has shown this to be the case regarding Gay and Lesbian discussions in the Church.  So we shouldn’t be that surprised that they made their decision. But this isn’t really a discussion about whether it is right or wrong to be gay. It is about whether people who are, should we made to feel welcome and loved in the Church.

I think it was a mistake however not to show the advert. I think the advert was very moving and I wish that more Church leaders would act like the Pastor at the end of the ad. Sadly I don’t think this is generally true of reality. I think no matter what you believe about being homosexual, God’s love is for everyone. This is the message I feel the ad was promoting and it is one that Christians everywhere should exhibit.

Which also as it happens includes the ones criticising Jim Wallis. Some of the comments have been very negative and harsh and when Christians who support a campaign that is trying to encourage inclusiveness and then fail to offer the same to someone whom they disagree with, it’s kind of hypocritical.

But then again this has always been our problem. Our problem is having civil discussion with each other. A discussion where we can strongly disagree with someone but not end up hating them.

It would be a shame if some of Sojourners detractors would stop supporting the great work that they are doing just because of their stance on one issue.

Just as it is for Sojourners not to show an ad that is refreshing and showing a sign of Church that we should all be aiming for.

So what is the solution? What has been your experience with this issue in your Church? Do you think we are afraid of something deeper? What are your thoughts on opening church to everyone?

Heaven a hard time with the afterlife?

For the kittens- It’s Masturbation Month.

It is that time of the year again. When the sun starts to come out of hiding. When the flowers start to bloom. When we dust off the bbq and when…ahem we are supposed to masturbate?!

Mmm. Wow. Sorry folks. I don’t know how that got in there.

But yes! May is the official national masturbation month. The time set aside for everyone to join in the mass debate (see what I did there).

If you know a bit of my story then you know that porn and masturbation are things that I have had struggles with and things that I still to some degree struggle with today. Porn and masturbation are still very much taboo subjects in the church. Some people don’t like to talk about such things. Which is fine I guess, unless of course you are finding it difficult to quit when you really want to, and when the only way to actually beat it is to be open about your struggles. When you’re falling deeper and deeper into an addiction you thought would never get you and now you find yourself hating yourself, hating God and ending up wondering who the person staring back at you in the mirror is.

Then, of course, it isn’t so good to not talk about such things.

So this May, instead of promoting masturbation I want to encourage you to give it up. Give it up for one month, if that sounds too much try a week, a day even. Just stop spanking your monkey long enough to see how it changes how you feel about yourself. But of course there needs to be good reasons to quit and below I have come up with 3 excellent reasons why you should give masturbation the heave ho this May.

1/ It is a well known fact that every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten. Kitten’s are cute and the thought alone of a poor kitten dying because of you, should be enough of a motivation to stop. Masturbation is making kittens extinct. I certainly don’t want that blood on my hands.

2/ No, masturbating won’t make you go blind or make hairs grow on your palms. But it will encourage you to lust. It will mean you start to objectify women in your head. It will mean that you won’t have a healthy respect for your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse. Give me hairy palms any day.

3/ Masturbation isn’t usually done in isolation. Usually there are triggers such as porn. So even if you do masturbate without any, how can I put this, help, eventually you will need porn. And that will eventually lead to finding yourself looking at porn more and more, which could lead to addiction, which will lead to despair, low self esteem, an unrealistic view of sex, stronger porn, even lower self esteem, isolation from others, and more porn. I could go on. Needless to say it’s a vicious circle.

So there you have it. Happy (Non)Masturbation month of May everyone. Who is willing to take up the challenge?

And remember, if for nothing else. Do it for the kittens.

Rally To Restore Unity: A Blogging call for Christian Unity

The Church has many problems right now. How do we react to Osama‘s death, do we believe in Hell or not, sex scandals and how do we get Pastor Ed Young to stop making those videos? Perhaps the most troubling issue in the Christian Church today.

And as much as those issues are important maybe an underlying issue with resolving those is how we deal with each other. Namely how do we disagree with each other?

This week Rachel Held Evans, an author and blogger is holding  the ‘Rally to Restore Unity’.  A week long blog event where bloggers write about how Christians can get back some unity with each other. To be honest it’s a pretty big and daunting task but one I think is worthwhile and critical. So I’m glad she had the vision to do this. (Check out her page and the hundreds of amazing signs and blogs for the rally. It’s pretty exciting and inspiring).

But the truth is it won’t be successful unless we all have the same vision.

And to do that we all need to stop and look at ourselves instead of looking at the people we disagree with.

One thing that people outside looking into the Christian circus find hard to fathom is why we fight with each other so much. I mean all families fight with each other at some point but is it even possible to disagree with each other and still like each other?

So first up, before I come across all judgemental let me say this. The person I know that finds it harder to disagree with people kindly and with respect the most, is myself.

I like to think I have ideas about God that are so new and fresh and then when I hear someone speak truth about God that is traditional and been around for a while, I think, ‘How old fashioned of them! They don’t really know God at all. I bet they are the kind of person that trashed the religion episode of Glee! They are so blind.’

And I shut my ears to them.

And when big names in the Christian world come along and write books about God that say things that are maybe taking a different perspective than other big Christian names, I side with the former and think how judgemental the latter is.

Which makes me…you guessed it. Judgemental.

No wonder we have so many problems when our actions and thoughts are in direct opposition to who we say we are.

I think God’s love and this community that we have called the Church is so big and so expansive that it allows us to be different. It even allows us to have different opinions than each other on what Christianity represents and how it should be.

Jesus got this.

He spent his whole ministry and life with his followers dealing with this. So many times they had the wrong idea. Many times they thought Jesus was going to come and break down the Roman Empire and give them their just desserts. But he didn’t. Well at least not in the way they thought he would.

Many times the Pharisees were outraged when Jesus hung out with sinners and the all time lowest of the world, but time and time again Jesus turned the tables (sometimes literally) on the way the Pharisee’s saw the world.

A Whiter Shade of Black

It’s easy to judge the Pharisees. But even the disciples didn’t understand Jesus much of the time. They tried to stop children from approaching Jesus for Pete’s sake. Time and time again they were way off.

Which to me shows that we all can get it so wrong. We all can get it so backward. And if we get to a place where we realise that, then maybe we will be less likely to judge each other.

And that’s cool. It’s easy when we are just wrong.

But what about when it’s not so black and white?

Well I think it works the same way.

I think we need to still come to a place where we know that only Jesus hit the bullseye every time. When that happens we can disagree with each other but not have to attack each other. We are free to say ‘I’m not sure what you are saying is true’, and not then turn around and say ‘You are dangerous and I want nothing more to do with you’. Or we can hear people disagreeing with us and can then say ‘Let me hear what you think. Your opinion is important to me.’

No matter how much we might disagree with it.

When did we get to a place where disagreeing with someone and respecting them and being open and kind became mutually exclusive?

So does that mean we just have to agree with each other all the time?

No.

And if you don’t agree with me?

That’s cool.

P.S. This whole thing is about looking beyond ourselves and remembering that even within our disagreements and differences, there are some things that we all need to agree on. Like justice and clean water. That is why you should take the time to donate to head over to the Rally to Restore Unity Charity:Water page and allow more people the chance to drink clean water..And if you don’t. I will still love you. But I’ll love you a little more if you do.