I caught wind of this article from my friend Heidi, who had posted this on her Facebook page.
I found this relevant to my own faith. I decidedly quit attending church some time ago, since I have not found one that I have felt was NOT a part of this blood hungry mob. Granted, my own church that I attended as a youth, is not seemingly a part of this, however, I no longer identify myself as a Lutheran, therefore, no longer attend there.
While I am in the midst of a personal/spiritual remodel, I found this to be synonymous to my own thoughts:
"It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."While there are a number of things that I refuse to get into the middle of, (which unfortunately makes me a "Lukewarm Christian",) I do have a strong stance on the fact that Christ did not build his church on Hate and Anger, He built it on Love, Forgiveness, and Patience. When Abraham and his family were sent to Sodom and Gomorrah, God had said,
"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."Abraham then said to the Lord,
"Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing-to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"Then the Lord said,
"If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Abraham spoke up again:
"Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of the five people?"
If I find forty-five there," He said, "I will not destroy it."
This conversation between Abraham and God continued, from fifty people to ten people.
"For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
I believe that this passage in the Old Testament (Genesis 18:16-33) shows that the Lord is a Man of Tolerance, Love, and of Patience. He was willing to forgive an entire city of its wrong doings, and impenitent sin if there were only ten people in the entire city, that were blameless and irreproachable.
If God can be so forgiving, and send his ONLY child, to take our sin upon his shoulders and die the ultimate death for us, corrupt, depraved, unforgiving, dishonest, meager people, then why can we not be people of tolerance, and of patience, and not of anger and hate, spite and malice?
Some of my best friends are gay, they have had abortions, they have had premarital sex, drink too much, smoke too much, drive too fast, swear like a sailor and get angry at the slightest provocation. And they are self proclaimed Christians.
Not one of us is blameless. There is only ONE who has ever walked this earth and been with out tarnish on his soul. And HE died so that we can be the depraved individuals that we are.
So what is the organized Church's excuse?
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