This past week renowned author and atheist Christopher Hitchens passed away of esophageal cancer. Hitchens is author of the bestselling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Christians around the world have used his death as an opportunity to throw a final posthumous punch. Maybe you won't interpret it this way, but let's look at some quotes to be sure. Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, tweeted, "My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now." Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, also went to Twitter to drive his point home. He said Hitchens's death "is an excruciating reminder of the consequences of unbelief. We can only pray others will believe."
Let's be honest. These are not evangelical Christians showing a deep, sincere love for the loss of one of the world's great minds. No, this is simply the abuse of an opportunity. This opportunity allowed them to make an arrogant show of themselves on the world's leading asinine-soapbox, Twitter. This is not love. I'll say it again...this is not love. We're called to love one another, regardless of beliefs. And our love is also to be sincere. So it really frustrates me that so many prominent evangelical leaders used Hitchens's death as an opportunity to score a point for the God team.
If you still don't think that these little tweets are unfair and unloving, consider again Warren's statement: "My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now." Don't you think he could have left off the "He knows the Truth now" part? Wouldn't that have sounded so much more gracious? When I read these online postings, what I see is this: "You didn't believe in God, you got cancer, and now you're dead. Well, that's what you get for not believing in God." So to all the arrogant evangelicals out there, remember this: The same grace that saves you, regardless of anything you've done (and all the stupid tweets you've posted), is the same grace that comes to Christopher Hitchens. Don't act like you know God's ways...and remember the humble prayer of the tax collector in Luke 18.
In God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens says that organized religion is "hostile to free inquiry." These evangelical 'tweeters' are doing an excellent job to affirm Hitchens's statement. We should embrace differing views, rather than argue against them. I think it's easy to read certain passages of the Bible and conclude that we need to oppose those who oppose God. This is one of the main irritants that fuels my love/hate relationship with the Bible. Still, the Bible should never be cherry-picked. Love for those with differing views is the main, undergirding theme of the book. We too often forget that.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Keeping My Mouth Shut On The Internet
Blame it on a Christian news Web site.
Every morning I open my Firefox browser to its homepage, The Christian Post, where I get a speckling of world and religious news. And every morning, I find myself disappointed in how divisive religion is. There's always a depressing mix of articles, from the typical stories about homosexuality in America, to Harold Camping's doomsday predictions, to billboard battles between atheists and Christians. It's just too much to start my day with. I guess I should just switch to CNN.com as my homepage, but, as a Christian, I really do want to know what religious issues are happening in the world. It's just sad that most of them reflect petty things such as Harold Camping end-of-the-world predictions—and just how many evangelicals actually disapprove of him—rather than highlighting major injustices like poverty and human trafficking.
For me, the issue shifts to, 'Should Christians just stay off the Internet altogether?' Should Christians really use the Internet as their online soapbox?
And to answer your presumed question, yes—I do realize the hypocrisy of using a blog to consider this subject.
On a serious note, I do question my own partiality to writing Web logs. I question my online musings mainly because of the crap I see on The Christian Post. It makes Christianity look like a damn high-school gossip show. "He said this...She believes in that..." I realize that when a person with 'authority' claims a certain idea or doctrine as the gospel truth, it can raise eyebrows and blood pressure. I get that. But that's exactly why I think more Christians should withhold their opinions from the Internet. Just stay off of it. And quit posting religious thoughts on Facebook, too. It's just going to make people write angry comments on your wall. If we're really witnesses to what we believe, then I would hope we'd realize how terrible we look. We will always have our opinions and beliefs, but online articles and status updates are really not the best places to share those thoughts. If you want to see things in this world get better, then write a letter to your senator. Go volunteer. Send some money to organizations that work to prevent whatever it is that's ticking you off. Philip Yancey once stated, "No one converted to Christianity because they lost the argument." A digital conversation will never be as gracious as one that's face-to-face. There may be a place for productive religious discourse on the Internet, but it's hard to find. And I find that I respect those who keep their divisive comments and opinions to a minimum, while I find it hard to respect those who are consistently posting negativity. It seems to me that, while Jesus had strong opinions at times, he mostly kept his mouth closed and showed compassion. There's an idea.
Every morning I open my Firefox browser to its homepage, The Christian Post, where I get a speckling of world and religious news. And every morning, I find myself disappointed in how divisive religion is. There's always a depressing mix of articles, from the typical stories about homosexuality in America, to Harold Camping's doomsday predictions, to billboard battles between atheists and Christians. It's just too much to start my day with. I guess I should just switch to CNN.com as my homepage, but, as a Christian, I really do want to know what religious issues are happening in the world. It's just sad that most of them reflect petty things such as Harold Camping end-of-the-world predictions—and just how many evangelicals actually disapprove of him—rather than highlighting major injustices like poverty and human trafficking.
For me, the issue shifts to, 'Should Christians just stay off the Internet altogether?' Should Christians really use the Internet as their online soapbox?
And to answer your presumed question, yes—I do realize the hypocrisy of using a blog to consider this subject.
On a serious note, I do question my own partiality to writing Web logs. I question my online musings mainly because of the crap I see on The Christian Post. It makes Christianity look like a damn high-school gossip show. "He said this...She believes in that..." I realize that when a person with 'authority' claims a certain idea or doctrine as the gospel truth, it can raise eyebrows and blood pressure. I get that. But that's exactly why I think more Christians should withhold their opinions from the Internet. Just stay off of it. And quit posting religious thoughts on Facebook, too. It's just going to make people write angry comments on your wall. If we're really witnesses to what we believe, then I would hope we'd realize how terrible we look. We will always have our opinions and beliefs, but online articles and status updates are really not the best places to share those thoughts. If you want to see things in this world get better, then write a letter to your senator. Go volunteer. Send some money to organizations that work to prevent whatever it is that's ticking you off. Philip Yancey once stated, "No one converted to Christianity because they lost the argument." A digital conversation will never be as gracious as one that's face-to-face. There may be a place for productive religious discourse on the Internet, but it's hard to find. And I find that I respect those who keep their divisive comments and opinions to a minimum, while I find it hard to respect those who are consistently posting negativity. It seems to me that, while Jesus had strong opinions at times, he mostly kept his mouth closed and showed compassion. There's an idea.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Forming Habits
As I was typing today I found myself pausing for a moment. I was typing so fast and realized that I don't give any thought to what my fingers are doing or what keys they're landing on. It's as if my fingers are on autopilot. I know my brain is directing them, but it's not until I slow down and give thought to every keystroke that I realize how habitual my typing has become. I really don't even think about it.
We usually think of habits as bad things. Though as I thought about my habitual typing, I wondered how many things in my life might become just as second-nature as typing. If I made exercise, prayer, patience, and similar things a daily habit, would they become automatic, just like typing? It seems that most days I have to muster the energy to cook, clean, exercise, read, balance the checkbook, etc. I guess I'm just wondering how my life might look it I were more dedicated to making certain things a daily habit. I guess I would lose some spontaneity, but I think I'll take good daily habits over spontaneity any day. I'll keep you posted.
We usually think of habits as bad things. Though as I thought about my habitual typing, I wondered how many things in my life might become just as second-nature as typing. If I made exercise, prayer, patience, and similar things a daily habit, would they become automatic, just like typing? It seems that most days I have to muster the energy to cook, clean, exercise, read, balance the checkbook, etc. I guess I'm just wondering how my life might look it I were more dedicated to making certain things a daily habit. I guess I would lose some spontaneity, but I think I'll take good daily habits over spontaneity any day. I'll keep you posted.
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