I’m really just so sick and tired of all this nonsense about “keeping my faith to myself”. I swear, if I got called a bigot for simply being a Christian I will lose it. Because see, HERE’S THE THING!
It’s okay to be gay.
It’s okay to be straight.
It’s okay to be a man.
It’s okay to be a woman.
It’s okay to be black.
It’s okay to be white.
It’s okay to be an atheist.
It’s okay to be a Scientologist.
It’s okay to be a non-radical Muslim.
It’s okay to be Jewish.
It’s okay to be Pagan.
It’s okay to be Buddhist.
If you’re a Christian, you’re the worst person on the planet and how dare you bring up your religion or apply your beliefs to your life or political standpoint.
Now, if you call yourself a Christian, and you’re ok with this treatment, I’d like to bring to your attention a Matthew 13:20-22 “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” This can also be seen in Mark 4. The passage is an excerpt from the parable of the sower, and how people perceive and apply the Word of God to their lives. Only by living according to His Will are we obeying Him. By allowing ourselves to be cast aside in a country of freedom, we become the seed strewn along the path and among the thorns. We need to speak out about our beliefs, and demand that we also be treated with the same fairness and respect we are asked to give to all the other groups.
This country was founded predominantly by Christians who wanted a land that was free and fair for all people. Why then are Christians now the group being told to keep quiet (denial of freedom of speech) and stay out of governemental business (what happened to ‘of the people, by the people, for the people?”)
My Lord gave me, and everyone, free will. This gives us the right to CHOOSE what we believe, how we live, and who we worship. I have no desire to take that right away from anyone else. Actually reminds me of a Wiccan principle “An it harm none, do what ye will”. As long as what other people are doing does not affect the rights and freedoms and well-being of others, I have NO DESIRE to get in their way! I would absolutely LOVE to teach them about MY Lord and Savior, but I will never force it on them. I just don’t see why the basic rights of the Constitution of the United States are being given to everyone to everyone EXCEPT Christians.
I’m beginning to feel that the terrorists who blew up the Boston Marathon finish line were afforded more protection and freedom by my government than my Christian brothers and sister are being given.
I don’t know about you guys, but I REFUSE TO STAY SILENT. I will NOT be keeping my Christianity to myself. I will continue to respect the beliefs of others, and refrain from forcing my beliefs on anyone else, but this is MY country too! If I want to say “I don’t agree with this, because the Bible says X and I choose to follow the Word of God” then you can get over it. You are MORE THAN WELCOME to have a different opinion! If you have one, I would love to hear about it and discuss it in a calm, respectful manner like adults should! I actually greatly enjoy understanding how and why people think the way they do. Maybe neither of us will persuade the other to our side, but we will both walk away with a greater understanding of the other, and it should allow us to show more respect toward each others views.
I’m trying really, really hard to love all the people right now. I really am. I know that’s what Jesus would do, and that it’s what God wants me to do. But it’s difficult when the extreme bias being shown towards Christians currently is really no different than the bias that was shown towards Muslims after 9/11. YES there are some radical Christian hate-mongerers out there. It’s disgusting. They disgrace the name of Christianity. They aren’t true Christians any more than Islamists are true Muslims. Christianity is about love people. Yes, sometimes it means loving people so much you tell them they’re wrong, but it also means loving them enough to allow them to make their own choices.
I believe that my duty as a Christian is to educate others about the Word of God. To demonstrate with my words and actions how to live according to His Will. Because of that I’m doing my best not to go berserk right now. But sometimes stupid people really just make me want to punch someone in the throat. When that happens, like right now, I pray really hard. I pray for the people who have irritated, upset, or wronged me in some way. I pray for their souls, and that they might at least see why their treatment of Christians (for supposedly being bigots) is pure hypocrisy. I just can’t handle it anymore. I want to crawl in a hole and hide from all the crazy people. So instead I’m going to stand on top of my cyber mountain and shout:
I LOVE JESUS! I AM A WHITE, HETEROSEXUAL, CHRISTIAN WOMAN AND I AM PROUD OF IT! I DO NOT THINK THIS MAKES ME BETTER THAN YOU! IT SIMPLY MAKES ME WHO I AM, AS I BELIEVE GOD DESIGNED ME TO BE! I WILL BE PROUD OF WHO I AM AND WHAT I AM UNTIL THE DAY I DAY! JESUS LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOU TO BE PROUD OF WHO YOU WERE MADE TO BE ALSO!
And if you don’t like it, I’ll be praying for you 🙂
One Woman Won By Him 
I’m sorry, but… I guess I just see this a totally different way as a non-Christian. There has never been a non-Christian president, and it doesn’t look like there will be one any time soon. There are kids in America who don’t even realise their dreams of being president will never come to pass because they don’t worship Jesus. Christians are only being told “Stay out of governmental business” because they are IN governmental business, and that’s not how the United States is supposed to work. No one else is in governmental business. Most politicians are Christian. The inauguration in January had two Christian prayers in it. The president is sworn in on a Christian bible. There’s supposed to be a separation between state and religion in the US, but Christianity infuses so much Christian into government that to foreigners like me it is absolutely baffling. I don’t know the religion of the vast majority of the politicians here, and I wouldn’t unless I went and looked it up. It’s not a factor. And it shouldn’t be a factor. Serving the people means serving ALL the people, and if you’re serving according to your religious beliefs then you’re not doing that. I mean… During the last presidential race, a candidate went to a Hindu religious site to meet with a Hindu group and was vilified for it. Do you really think candidates who went to churches and sang mass would be subject to this sort of treatment?
People get sick of hearing about a person’s religion regardless of what religion that is. Yes, people get sick of Christians talking about being Christian. People also get sick of atheists, Pagans, and Muslims who don’t have a handle on when people have heard enough about what they believe or what they don’t. You believe? Wonderful. But there’s a limit to how much people can listen to, regardless if you worship Jesus or Vishnu. I guess the issue for most Christians is that American culture is so infused with Christianity, and so many people see Christianity wherever they go, that they’re going to get sick of hearing about it quicker.
Christians have it incredibly good in America. You’re in the vast majority – over 70%. Your holidays are national holidays, and if a particular holiday is not, you can be fairly sure of getting time off work to celebrate it; you don’t have to convince your employer that the holiday, or even the religion itself, is real. When people say “god”, you can be fairly sure it’s your god being spoken of. There are entire TV channels dedicated to your religion. Their are entire radio stations dedicated to your religion and religious music. Christian stores are unlikely to be vandalised. Christian teens are less likely than their peers to be bullied to the point of suicide for their faith. You don’t have to look very far to find people of your faith to look up to, to find guidance from, to discuss religion with. There are major figures from your faith in the media who can inspire you. Everywhere you go in the US you will find churches and other places in which you can safely practice your faith. People don’t accuse you of Satanism or blood sacrifice for wearing your religious symbol.
You’re very lucky to live surrounded by people who share you faith, with so many places of worship to go to and so many people to join in worship with. I really envy you that. And when you write things like the above, it doesn’t come across to people of minority religious groups that you are fighting for equality. Given all you have that we don’t, it feels like you are fighting for dominance. Please, put yourself in the shoes of others. In the shoes of Pagans whose religious places have been desecrated. Of Muslims who are called terrorists every day and fear for their lives. Of atheists in the military who are poorly treated by their peers and commanding officers because they won’t go to religious services. Of Wiccans who had to fight ten years to get their symbol approved for the graves of fallen servicemen and the many Pagan groups who as yet have no symbol to represent them in such a way, while Christians had plenty of crosses to choose from.
Like… OK, this bit here, where you say “JESUS LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOU TO BE PROUD OF WHO YOU WERE MADE TO BE ALSO! And if you don’t like it, I’ll be praying for you ” ….. Are you aware of how condescending and offensive that sounds? If someone came up to you, expressed concern and said “Hun, Shiva loves you, and he wants you to be proud of who you were made to be. And if you don’t like it…. I’ll be praying for you” would you be OK with that? Would you feel just a little bit upset that someone had dismissed the validity and beauty of everything you believed, had ignored the love you feel for Jesus and that you feel from him?
And I don’t know what you’re trying to say about the Boston bombers. One of those guys was killed. Unless Christians are being hunted and shot, I’m confused as to what you’re trying to say.
I’m not going to propose that the gods bless you, because I imagine it would make you uncomfortable. Kindly extend me the same courtesy. (It’s this sort of empathy that I see a lack of in your post, and that I’m sure Jesus would have preached. How can you love without empathy?)
Peace
First of all, I would like to offer you my sincerest apologies to anything that I said that offended you in any way. It truly was never my intention. I think I got caught up in my frustration about a specific situation, and in so doing made a much bigger deal about a broadspectrum situation than was necessary. I intend to write a second post concerning this, but it is my hope that the post will be far less “frustrated hormonal bipolar woman” and more “this is how I see things personally, and I understand other see them differently and I respect your views too”. I would very much like it if, when I write that post (Hide the Christian pt2) you would read it and let me know what you think of it.
Personally, I would never be offended by someone offering me the blessings of their deity, as I imagine doing so is as precious to them as me offering prayers and blessings to my God is precious to me. However, I do very much understand the point you were making, and I will take it under advisement as I write my addendum and future postings.
A part of me wants to take this post down, because I realize now I have offended people with my poorly thought out words. However, at least for the time being I have decided to leave it up, with my adamant footnotes about not being perfect, because I don’t want to hide my mistakes. This post, the way I wrote it, was obviously a mistake. And for that, again, I apologize.
Thank you for your feedback. Though we are of different religious stances, I do believe that your words will help me to grow as a Christian, and also as a person in general. I do hope that if you stick around for future postings, you will come to see that I’m striving to love with empathy and forgive in all things, but it’s a work in progress.
While I am not Christian and even mildly religious, I respect what you have to say. I understand that your faith is very important to you and luckily for me, you are one of the few friends I have who do not shove your religion down my throat. I appreciate that. However, I do agree with the fact that religion should stay out of many aspects of our lives. It shouldn’t ever be a driving force to any major facet of our lives besides your faith. In my mind, now forgive for saying this, religion has warped into a massive wedge between people. Nearly every single war fought has been over religion. Countless deaths have been over religion and I still have trouble understanding the concept of religion. That sounded offensive… Sorry. On the other hand, I have seen the power of faith do so much good for some people. The power of prayer has somehow helped people overcome amazing challenges.
As to Christians being compared to extremist Muslims… I do not know that I would ever go that far. Being even Middle Eastern in America is hard. I am Israeli and I don’t tell people that because they usually assume that I am Muslim. After 9/11, I became very ashamed of who I was because in essence, I felt as if I was the enemy. Granted, I don’t wear a burka and I do not look Middle Eastern at all, I am.
I feel that Christians are the most welcome religion in America. Christians and all religions that are similar (Protestant, Catholic, Baptist) are everywhere you go. I see churches on every block. I see crosses in public. I see Bibles readily available in every store but I do not notice the Qur’an or Torah nor Temples or Mosques. So while I do see where you are coming from that people are offended by Christians, I also see where non Christians COULD be offended by some Christian’s behaviors.
How about this? We are all human. We all live on Earth. We are all made from the same stuff. In my mind, we all evolved from the same furry little primate and yet, we’re so stuck on fighting over faith that we don’t take the time to love one another and accept that we’re different but the same.
As ever, you are far more eloquent than I. I have been considering writing an addendum to this post, as I believe much of what I desired to get across was misconstrued by my frustrations at the time of writing it. So you you, and any else who has read this, I would like to apologize if you were offended by anything I said. It was never my intention.
I’m not at all offended by anything you have said, nor am I offended by the various other responses to this post. I actually very much appriciate the varying viewpoints being presented to me.
I am far from perfect. I’m quite aware of this. I truly hope that I am able to more eloquently (and less offensively) get across my original intention of this post. I intend to spend some time in quiet reflection and prayer this time though, rather than haphazardly slamming by brain into the keyboard and pressing “Publish”.
I think I am once more getting away from the original purpose of this blog, and I’m starting to think I should keep away from political and social issues in my writings, as controversy is never my intention. So I shall write my addendum, and then get my blog back on track! Thank you for your feedback, dear friend 🙂