This may seem like a sequel to the last post, but it wasn't intended as a follow-up... This post isn't worthy of even holding up a candle to the sheer brilliance of that one! This was brought on by a completely different set of events...
Prologue: I am a firm believer (wasn't always, though) in the Higher Power thing, and I choose to worship that deity as Jesus. So you could say, I'm an ardent follower of Jesus, but does that make me a devout Christian...? Negative!
Disclaimer: Content that follows is sure to rile up the church-going, God-fearing Christians and probably even my parents the day they read it, but well, I always scored poorly in the "aiming to please" classes :)
I've always had qualms about the way the Church has fallen from being the Temple of the Lord to becoming exactly the kind of place from which Jesus drove out merchants who had turned it into "a hideout for thieves", in Matthew 21:12-13...
I remember this particular time I had been to some church in Trivandrum, when some church elections were going on there... Frankly, it was disconcerting to see alleged men of the faith running around handing out flyers saying "I'm contesting for finance head of the diocese, please vote for me"... And these are the people who are supposed to be shepherds to us lost sheep! What the bleeeep!
Rather than a place where believers gather to sing praises to the Lord, the church has become yet another establishment that takes in money in the name of God and doles out canonization to people who close their eyes, flutter their eyelids and in loud voices claim to have received a vision!
Jesus was born a Jew and in all the prophecies regarding Him, He was also hailed as King of the Jews. Yet He never said that he had come solely to save the Jews, did He? He came to save those who believed in Him. To Him, it did not matter whether the person who came to Him was a Gentile, a Roman, a Samaritan or a charlatan. His love was unconditional. Why then does the church have an ID check installed on it's doorsteps??
Non-Christians who go to church are still looked down upon from the awfully long, high-and-mighty noses of member Christians. Back at the church at home, after the service got over, the priest read out the letter of a non-Christian guy, who had married a Christian and expressed an interest in converting and joining the church. The priest proceeded to royally ridicule the applicant, his intentions, his marriage and his English, and all this from the pulpit of the church.
Such are our evangelists. Those that claim to go-spel the Word of the Lord. Sent to gather the lost sheep, they make fun of those whose only fault were that they were not born into a Christian household. And they make fun of a person's writing, when they themselves cannot put together a grammatically correct sentence in English, using multi-syllable words.
I am as close to attaining salvation as Kabul is to Barbados here. But I think I'll go to Hell knowing that for once I stood up for what He believed in.
Feeling: Distressed
Listening: Rocky Road to Dublin - Young Dubliners
Prologue: I am a firm believer (wasn't always, though) in the Higher Power thing, and I choose to worship that deity as Jesus. So you could say, I'm an ardent follower of Jesus, but does that make me a devout Christian...? Negative!
Disclaimer: Content that follows is sure to rile up the church-going, God-fearing Christians and probably even my parents the day they read it, but well, I always scored poorly in the "aiming to please" classes :)
I've always had qualms about the way the Church has fallen from being the Temple of the Lord to becoming exactly the kind of place from which Jesus drove out merchants who had turned it into "a hideout for thieves", in Matthew 21:12-13...
I remember this particular time I had been to some church in Trivandrum, when some church elections were going on there... Frankly, it was disconcerting to see alleged men of the faith running around handing out flyers saying "I'm contesting for finance head of the diocese, please vote for me"... And these are the people who are supposed to be shepherds to us lost sheep! What the bleeeep!
Rather than a place where believers gather to sing praises to the Lord, the church has become yet another establishment that takes in money in the name of God and doles out canonization to people who close their eyes, flutter their eyelids and in loud voices claim to have received a vision!
Jesus was born a Jew and in all the prophecies regarding Him, He was also hailed as King of the Jews. Yet He never said that he had come solely to save the Jews, did He? He came to save those who believed in Him. To Him, it did not matter whether the person who came to Him was a Gentile, a Roman, a Samaritan or a charlatan. His love was unconditional. Why then does the church have an ID check installed on it's doorsteps??
Non-Christians who go to church are still looked down upon from the awfully long, high-and-mighty noses of member Christians. Back at the church at home, after the service got over, the priest read out the letter of a non-Christian guy, who had married a Christian and expressed an interest in converting and joining the church. The priest proceeded to royally ridicule the applicant, his intentions, his marriage and his English, and all this from the pulpit of the church.
Such are our evangelists. Those that claim to go-spel the Word of the Lord. Sent to gather the lost sheep, they make fun of those whose only fault were that they were not born into a Christian household. And they make fun of a person's writing, when they themselves cannot put together a grammatically correct sentence in English, using multi-syllable words.
I am as close to attaining salvation as Kabul is to Barbados here. But I think I'll go to Hell knowing that for once I stood up for what He believed in.
Feeling: Distressed
Listening: Rocky Road to Dublin - Young Dubliners
