Christian Witness

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by scott snedeker

I have been taught through adversity that there are liars and mislead people who predatorially dehumanize others to compensate for their personal sense of inadequacy. They call themselves christians but they resembles Christ's torturors not Him. They use biblical text as a weapon, committing great evil. This text and the term christian is now so soiled with poisonous hate after millennia that it is undrinkable to me. When I see a bible it reeks of an evil so immense I want to grasp it with a paper towel and throw it out of the window and then wash my hands.

On behalf on my faith-community, I'm sorry. Sigh. Jesus loves you, even if some of the jerks who believe in him don't.

[pnggrad79]

Progo,
What a horrible experience you had! That is simply unthinkable!!! But truly most of the gay community has hidden scars wrought upon them by the church and it is sad that people have walked away from the church, when the true Jesus still speaks today and still offers grace, love and forgiveness. I am so so sorry that that horrible thing was done to you and I hope that as you journey along in the faith that you still are able to see that God was nowhere near during that time at least with those people who committed those egregious acts and certainly was not a part of what happened to you. I think about how many people I know who have been literally thrown out of churches and yet stand up today in gay affirming church and sing praises to God. Maybe God has brought us through this trial to show us true praise and true worship. May God continue to bless you.

[Progo35]

Two of the best Christian examples who helped me growing up were my voice teacher, Vianna, and my music history teacher, Dr. Stan Pelkey. Both of them are examples of Christians who are evangelicals and are kind, decent, moral people. Vianna, for instance, does, like everyone, make mistakes in how she relates to people sometimes, but she has firm convictions regarding how her faith impacts her life. For instance, she told me that one of the reasons that she wears a cross around her neck is because it reminds her to be kind to others, because she would be absolutely ashamed of herself if she were to act unkindly towards others while wearing that symbol. Also, she is very honest and will call me on something, but she does it with compassion-for instance, one time when I was telling her about being treated unkindly, she said, "I think you just want people to love you," when I said, "No-" she interjected and said, "yes, and you feel hurt when you don't get it from people you trust. I can hear it in everything you say-'please stop it, your hurting me!'" I started to cry, because she was right (mostly) and she gave me a hug and said, "I'm on your side. There's a light at the end of the tunnel."

My music history teacher, Dr. Pelkey, is one of the kindest human beings I have ever met. While he was at Gordon, he went out of his way to "check in" with me to see how I was doing academically, socially and spiritually when I was struggling in our school's music department. He went to bat for me at department meetings and came to my first vocal jury to be supportive. And, if I ever lost a notebook, his office is one of the first places I'd go look-he always seemed to find my stuff lying around and would keep it in his office to protect it. And, he was just available to talk about life in general. From talking to him I learned about how important his family was to him and how involved he was with taking care of his kids, which I also really respected.

He was very affirming of my abilities. For instance, when I lightheartedly said, "well, we're not sure what's wrong with me," he said, "there's nothing wrong with you. Descartes wrote that we always want to think that people fit into these little boxes and that's not true." Sadly, his colleagues treated him like crap, which is why he left.After he left Gordon, he finished my final project with me via correspondence because there wasn't anyone else with his expertise at the college that could do this. I miss him very much.

But, both these people held relatively conservative theological viewpoints on salvation-but they were kind and compassionate, trying to live like Christ-someting that probably caused my mh teacher's problems at school. I am very happy to have had these two people, as well as some others, as Christian role models-if only more Christians could be like them!

Of course, finally, we will all make mistakes, be petty, selfish, or inconsiderate at times, even those who are trying to spread the Gospel, which is what I meant when I referred to my camp peers as "knowing Christ." What I mean is, they new about the Good News of Christ's gift of salvation, they knew better, I believe, than to do what they were doing, they read the Bible, but they continued to spit in the face of all of this by doing what they did. I believe that Christ was grieved and outraged by the way that his children were behaving towards one another. For whatever reason, knowing about Christ's sacrifice didn't seem to permeate their sense of justice, love, or mercy when relating to to others.

One young man I know, the one who tried to attack me with the butcher knife at church, has now grown up into a fine person and is VERY sorry for what he did to me. And, we came to understand each other better during a youth retreat when I saw that other kids were tormenting Andrew the same way that I had been tormented and continued to act kindly towards him. One time someone threw a tennis ball in Andrew's face and I ran with him down to our cabin to get ice for it. We were around fourteen at the time, the abuse at church desesculating from when I I finally returned till it stopped when I was around thirteen. But, since that retreat, Andrew and I had a new understanding of each other and by the time we were both 16, we were able to interact. I was still traumatized by what he did, however, which kind of came back to haunt me psychologically. Nevertheless, he continued to act kindly towards me and when my best friend needed a date to our senior prom, I asked Andrew to do it. He treated me and my friend with the utmost respect and while we were talking out on the balcony, we started talking about what we wanted to do after high school, etc, and about any regrets we had.

Andrew said, "The only thing I regret is that I was really mean to someone... he paused, "And it was you, and I'm sorry." "I forgive you," I said. So, sometimes people who do incredibly bad things can change, and I hope and pray that those who tortured me at camp will come to TRULY know Christ in their hearts-which will happen if they develop repentance for what they did and true compassion for others.

[keltic63]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Knowing Christ? Knowing something means more than mouthing the right words at the appointed time. Really knowing something means it's in one's bones and one doesn't have to think or act twice about it.

As kids growing up in fundie churches, my brothers and I discussed appropriate responses for Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Bible Quiz Team, and Youth Group. We knew the "right words" even if we didn't believe them ourselves, or if the interpretation the adults wanted seemed wrong to us.

Originally Posted by scott snedeker

When I see a bible it reeks of an evil so immense I want to grasp it with a paper towel and throw it out of the window and then wash my hands.

Earlier this evening, we were walking through Pittsburgh and passed a Catholic Bookstore that had a sign in the window: Discounted Bibles. it made me laugh, imagining the salesperson handing me the Bible and saying "here, but we don't believe everything that's in this one."

[tdogg]

For me, being a Christian witness is demonstrating the love and compassion Jesus lived and taught through my every day living. Not that 100% successful, but definitely something to strive for. Isn't that what "Christian" means? Be like Christ? Christ was love, so I must also be love.

Yelling at people from streetcorners, grabbing them and holding them hostage for a length of time while preaching to them about going to hell, is NOT Christian witnessing. It's a violent pathetic attempt at ensuring one's own salvation, as that religion is based on fear and condemnation. One must always be on one's toes or else, they will join us in the depths of hell. Scary, sad and untrue.

Being Christian SHOULD mean living a life of love for all things. Do kindness, speak softly, love all.