I have some thoughts...
This is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. These are merely my thoughts on Christianity as a whole, good and bad, my experiences with it, and how it has changed over time. I have no right to tell people what they can and cannot believe, and I have no right to tell people how they should live their lives.
When I was around age 8, I began to seriously question my Christian upbringing, because some things just weren't adding up. I'm rather proud of myself for thinking so critically as such a young age; it feels like my core ethical values have hardly changed since then in that respect. I feel I can thank Calvin and Hobbes for much of my analytical and critical thinking development. But I digress.
This is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. These are merely my thoughts on Christianity as a whole, good and bad, my experiences with it, and how it has changed over time. I have no right to tell people what they can and cannot believe, and I have no right to tell people how they should live their lives.
When I was around age 8, I began to seriously question my Christian upbringing, because some things just weren't adding up. I'm rather proud of myself for thinking so critically as such a young age; it feels like my core ethical values have hardly changed since then in that respect. I feel I can thank Calvin and Hobbes for much of my analytical and critical thinking development. But I digress.
Unfortunately, few people wanted a small child to critically analyze their religion, and I was never taken seriously, so I rarely, if ever, asked these questions. And when I did, they were often not adequately answered to quell my thirst for knowledge. So often I heard the "you just gotta have faith" response, which left me extremely unsatisfied, and felt to me more like "I don't know, stop asking me questions. That's just the way it is." I've never been one to respond well to a "that's just the way it is" answer.
Here are a few of the questions I remember asking myself from ages 8-12:
-Who wrote the Bible? Was it Jesus?
-Who decided what to write in the new testament? Wasn't that written after Jesus and his disciples died?
-If the Bible can be re-written by people, couldn't anyone just put whatever they want in there for us to worship in his name?
-If we're worshiping Jesus, why does so much of the bible have teachings from people who are not Jesus?
-Why do the disciples of Jesus say things that sometimes conflict with the things Jesus himself says? And why are we following their words in these cases rather than his?
-Why do we decorate a tree on Christmas? What does that have to do with Jesus' birth? And aren't we killing a tree?
-Why is Santa Claus the mascot of Christmas instead of Jesus?
-Why were the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night during December? Shouldn't the sheep be inside at night, where it's warm?
-Is it possible to be a good person without being Christian?
-If Jesus was trying to tell everyone to love each other, and we worship Jesus for that ideal, why don't Christians love gay people just as we would anyone else?
-If God created us, and everything happens according to God's plan, why do Christians hate people who aren't Christian? Aren't all people created by God, whether they believe it or not?
-If someone were gay, wouldn't that be a part of God's plan? Isn't everything that happens a result of God's plan?
-If the ten commandments say "thou shalt not kill", why did Christians kill so many people in the crusades?
Now since I asked these questions, I have asked many more. More than are coming to mind right now, of course, and many more over the years after I was 12. And over those years I have received/researched answers to most of them, and I have come to some conclusions. One being that most of the deeper messages read into the faith were a combination of lost in translation, interpreted/written through the personal bias of another human being, and the more people read into the deep lore, the fewer examples they will find of the actual core values shown through the actual words of Jesus Christ and the ten commandments, which were supposedly provided to us directly by God.
I find that most people I encounter who call themselves Christian are not actually demonstrating the core teachings of Christianity at all, except to other people who identify as Christian. The teachings of Jesus and the ten commandments are broken by many Christians on a regular basis, most notably through their contempt for other people who live their lives differently than they do, or otherwise in a way they don't, and/or are unwilling to, understand.
"Love thy neighbor" does not have a footnote that says, "but only if they are also Christian."
Over the years so many different churches would focus on so many different aspects of the bible with so many interpretations, that the whole thing divided. And thus, many people have many different ideas about what it means to be Christian. This is less often demonstrated in the words they speak, because they are so often directly quoted, but rather the actions they take. Oftentimes they are unknowing that their actions are even hurting anyone, and unwilling to hear people out when they try to tell them to stop.
"Love thy neighbor" does not have a footnote that says, "but only if they are also Christian."
Over the years so many different churches would focus on so many different aspects of the bible with so many interpretations, that the whole thing divided. And thus, many people have many different ideas about what it means to be Christian. This is less often demonstrated in the words they speak, because they are so often directly quoted, but rather the actions they take. Oftentimes they are unknowing that their actions are even hurting anyone, and unwilling to hear people out when they try to tell them to stop.
I believe many Christians are simply using their Christianity as a title to describe themselves, to feel like they belong to a larger community of like-minded people. And hey, many people have done things like that to feel included. We're a social species, and we like to feel like we belong somewhere. But many people may be Christian simply because they feel it is expected of them, or they were raised to be that way, so it's all they know.
I believe the teachings of accepting things as being fact with nothing but blind faith as proof has helped turn many Christians into people who do not question authority, do not ask why things have to be the way they are, and do not think honestly about figuring out who they are as a person, since they often live through the religion instead of through themselves. And to reinforce this even further, there's an ultimate eternal punishment if you stray from your religion: Hell. But I'd rather not focus on that right now.
It's a darn shame these behaviours so often make it difficult to have calm conversations about this stuff, because through patience, understanding, and actively listening to each other, we could solve a lot of issues that lead to verbal abuse and other forms of violence performed in the name of God. But so many issues are shrugged off as being blasphemous, ridiculous, "impolite", or any other number of excuses to not talk about it openly.
In contrast, the LGBTQ community (I mention it because it's a large part of my life) is largely built on the foundations of being true to one's self and accepting/recognizing people for who they are. I guess it would make sense that people who are trained to live through the teachings of someone else and trust it with blind faith would find issue with people who live to do the opposite - to learn about themselves, constantly ask questions, and try to live according to what makes them truly happy, rather than living in fear according to what they think a higher power wants.
And yet, at the core of Christian religion, through all this control and blind faith and fear, is a contradictory message. A message that says people should love one another, no matter who they are. A message that shows Jesus as a simple carpenter who kneels and washes people's feet, feeds the poor, and heals the needy, whether they be old, young, male, female, rich, poor, celibate, prostitute, straight, gay... It doesn't matter. What matters is that he showed them love - he equally spread love for other people, regardless of who they were. That is the man who is supposed to be at the center of this faith, and that is at the core of what Christianity is supposed to stand for. That is how it started.
I believe that is a truly admirable ideal to have at the core of a belief system, spreading love to all those around you, treating everyone like family, as fellow human beings. It's just a shame more Christians don't demonstrate this in practice with people they don't understand, and instead they search the Bible for ammunition to fight them. Can we please just stop trying to attack one another and say live and let live?
We're all humans here, trying to get by and live our lives as happily as we can. If we don't understand someone, how about instead of finding ways to hurt them, we try to get to know them, human to human? Surely they'll have at least one interesting story to tell about their lives, as we all do.
I believe the teachings of accepting things as being fact with nothing but blind faith as proof has helped turn many Christians into people who do not question authority, do not ask why things have to be the way they are, and do not think honestly about figuring out who they are as a person, since they often live through the religion instead of through themselves. And to reinforce this even further, there's an ultimate eternal punishment if you stray from your religion: Hell. But I'd rather not focus on that right now.
It's a darn shame these behaviours so often make it difficult to have calm conversations about this stuff, because through patience, understanding, and actively listening to each other, we could solve a lot of issues that lead to verbal abuse and other forms of violence performed in the name of God. But so many issues are shrugged off as being blasphemous, ridiculous, "impolite", or any other number of excuses to not talk about it openly.
In contrast, the LGBTQ community (I mention it because it's a large part of my life) is largely built on the foundations of being true to one's self and accepting/recognizing people for who they are. I guess it would make sense that people who are trained to live through the teachings of someone else and trust it with blind faith would find issue with people who live to do the opposite - to learn about themselves, constantly ask questions, and try to live according to what makes them truly happy, rather than living in fear according to what they think a higher power wants.
And yet, at the core of Christian religion, through all this control and blind faith and fear, is a contradictory message. A message that says people should love one another, no matter who they are. A message that shows Jesus as a simple carpenter who kneels and washes people's feet, feeds the poor, and heals the needy, whether they be old, young, male, female, rich, poor, celibate, prostitute, straight, gay... It doesn't matter. What matters is that he showed them love - he equally spread love for other people, regardless of who they were. That is the man who is supposed to be at the center of this faith, and that is at the core of what Christianity is supposed to stand for. That is how it started.
I believe that is a truly admirable ideal to have at the core of a belief system, spreading love to all those around you, treating everyone like family, as fellow human beings. It's just a shame more Christians don't demonstrate this in practice with people they don't understand, and instead they search the Bible for ammunition to fight them. Can we please just stop trying to attack one another and say live and let live?
We're all humans here, trying to get by and live our lives as happily as we can. If we don't understand someone, how about instead of finding ways to hurt them, we try to get to know them, human to human? Surely they'll have at least one interesting story to tell about their lives, as we all do.
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