I talked to a man today... more than an acquaintance, but not quite a friend.
He thought Christianity was bull crap.
Why?
1) Billy Graham's son once said in a sermon, addressing non-believers "your god is not my god"
He took this to mean that Graham's son thought there was more than one god. My friend didn't think this could be, so instead of believing in one god, he simply believes in a higher power that no one knows.
He also doesn't think this god causes harm or helps people out. He doesn't think god is the kind of person who harms people, but he also has experienced too much pain and seen his Christian mother suffer too much to think that god helps out believers.
2) He heard a paster once say the more money you give the more god will bless you. He has heard about how pastors, when they train, are trained in how to get their church to give.
Thus he thinks that the church is only a lucrative business, and being a pastor just another way to bring home the bacon.
3) His heard a pastor say that if you didn't read his Bible, then you aren't reading the Bible at all.
He thinks the pastor is referring to all the different translations, and thinks that each new one waters it down more and more. So how can a religion be worth following, according to him, if everyone is reading a different book, each watered down from the original.
Then he told me the only pastor he likes to listen to is Joel Osteen. He was frank with me, so i was frank with him: i told him most Christians i know reject Osteen as a real Christian (or at least one worth listening to). When we differed on opinion, he exclaimed the problem he had with Christians believing so many different things. It seems to him it is all a matter of opinion, and so how could any one person's opinion be right (meaning how can one know who is telling the truth who doesn't already have the truth).
4) He also brought up the pope, and all the problems catholic priests are having. I don't really need to say much further here... he definitely was right about that.
All this mixed with 55 years of life experience to back up his ideas and a pretty stern and stubborn attitude, it was a very difficult conversation for me to have.
We agreed to disagree... but i still went away from the conversation a little disappointed with the Church as a whole. Why can't there just be one church that is telling the world the same thing?
That sounds like a difficult but profitable discussion. I wish the Church was perfect too, but until we are resurrected, I'm afraid true believers will continue to have to fight against hypocrisy--other's, and their own.
ReplyDeleteChris, we had one Church telling the whole world what to believe at one time. We called it the Age of Catholicism. Unfortunately, until we receive the Messiah (again), we can't all agree on the same view points.
ReplyDeletePre-destination, for example is argued amongst denominations and even churches of the same denomination. Who's right and who's wrong? Idk, but I know that it really doesn't matter.
One thing matters from Christianity: Acceptance of faith (repentance, acceptance of Jesus Christ, and all that jazz) before death. Although this can be argued amongst believers, all agree that you must be saved before death to live again in Heaven.