Lose the religion, God boy!
“Hey christian, not cool… You’ll never convert me by accosting my family and telling my daughters I’m going to Hell because I have tattoos.” That was the tweet I woke up to this morning. It was tweeted by @IdStand* and then retweeted by @Lulu* (both names are slightly changed to protect them from Christians that feel they must track them down and “save” them). Between the two of them, they have over 3000 followers on Twitter. So potentially 3000 people got confirmation of what they already “knew,” that Christians are all close minded jerks that they really would not want to spend eternity with anyway. For me, it was confirmation of my theory that the biggest barrier between Jesus and non-believers are us damn Christians!
So most of us aren’t that ignorant that we would say that about tattoos, but let’s run a couple of tests. All this requires of you is some honesty. First we are going to take the words ”I have tattoos” out of there. So it would basically read “telling me I am going to hell because _________. I’m going to give you some other words in their place, and you can just consider if you have ever said the words (doubtful) or thought it (probable). How about “you are a homosexual.” So, this is only to yourself, so be honest have you ever thought “He or she isn’t going to heaven because they are gay”?
Let’s look at some other ones. Okay, how about “do drugs?” ”Got a divorce.” ”Have had an abortion.” “Don’t go to church.” “Have committed adultery.” How are you doing so far? None of these people are getting into our little private club, right? Maybe we don’t call it a club, but we tend to hang with other Christians, speak in our little codes (have a blessed day, wink wink), and turn up our noses at those that don’t agree with our beliefs. It’s our job to think less of all of these people at least until they are perfect (like us Christians) right? That’s exactly what the Bible says, right? Let’s look… Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Maybe it’s high time we rethink our little private club. I know personally, I could have written 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
Okay, time for test # 2. It’s going to be real similar to test # 1, but the words will be different. Remember, maybe you haven’t actually said them aloud, but have you ever thought “You’re going to hell because you are a Muslim”? Yes? No? How about “You can’t get to heaven because you are a Mormon”? A Jew? A Catholic? A Protestant? A Jehovah’s witness? A Scientologist? An atheist? I’ve got a news flash for you: you aren’t going to save anyone and neither is your religion. All of these people need one thing and it isn’t you and it certainly isn’t me. Let’s cut all the extra crap that goes with religion, and focus on Jesus.
I can already hear you now, “But wait, look how religious Jesus was, he loves that I am so religious.” Jesus wasn’t religious. In fact, more than any other group, he got into it with the “religious” people of his day. “Yeah but your missing the point Fat Tom, Jesus himself said that it was tougher for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for us to get into heaven.” Don’t worry, I remember that and then he said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” But at least I have the right religion, Christianity was named after Jesus Christ, he had to be a Christian. Oh wait… I guess technically he was a Jew. If you take the fact that any given time in history there have been people killing each other over whose religion was “right,” mix in a few dozen “religious” sex scandals, and the Preacher that will say a special prayer for you for the right price, and it isn’t too hard to figure out why people aren’t too open to our religion.
Our problem is we’ve got our courtroom roles all messed up. We are simply called to be witnesses to the light. Witnesses. What??? That’s not the role we want. Half of us want to be the God’s defense attorney. You know, defend all the bad stuff he allows to happen. Another news flash: God doesn’t need you to defend him. He also doesn’t need us to argue others into believing in him. I object your honor! Speaking of a judge, that’s the role we Christians have perfected. Boy, we can judge with the best of them! As were so busy judging, we are causing the judged to get further and further from Jesus. While we are judging them, let’s just go ahead and throw rocks at them. Maybe we can finally knock some sense in them right? And in Jesus’ words, “let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”
