Category Archives: Atheism, Belief, Perspective, Religion, Viewpoint

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Christianity at Odds in a “Post-Truth” World

The viewpoint of the world towards historical tenants of Christian faith is rapidly changing in its beliefs. Anger is rising. Anger toward Christian belief with its commonly held core fundamentals and values is exploding in a variety of forms. On social media, the anger is rampant and venomous. Not only that, but Christians are raging at other Christians. You don’t have to look far to see this social trend. People are very connected to their feelings and opinions.

I spent the evening reading a variety of comments directed against Christians and Christianity. Writers said comments like, the teaching of original sin is abusive. The Nones are quite vocal and take Christians to the task. They have strong feelings and opinions. Some rage against Christian beliefs. Sad to say, some Christians rage back. A quiet, reasoned approach is disregarded or attacked. People do not want reason or explanations. Ugliness is surfacing. All stripes are delivering their hateful vendettas. In the mix are Christians-turned-atheists, former evangelists, former pastors, former theologians, and former home-schooled adults with claims of being victims in their childhoods when raised in conservative, religious homes. They are celebrating their freedom. Sometimes I wonder what that freedom looks like, yet they are excited and pumped by their new, religion-free lives.

Within Christian religious groups there also is a growing schism. Bible principles are morphing according to various interpretations (and by societal cultural shifts). Current views on morality and alternate life styles are dividing the church into two distinct camps. I read with interest the debate going on in the Catholic church about these things, especially with Pope Francis in the lead. I see a similar dynamic in Protestant churches. Many Christians have distanced themselves from the teachings related to the cross. Where is Christ in all of this? Much blood has been spilt because of the cross. Those who died as martyrs understood the importance of the cross.

What can we make of all the anger and labeling? We must look at the context. Social media makes it easier to vehemently attack others whose views differ from our own. It is easier to use strong rhetoric because of the anonymity factor…they don’t know the people they are attacking. People are more in-tune to their feelings and emotions and less in-tune to logic and truth. There is anger and there is resentment flying around like objects in a whirlwind, not caring whom it insults or whom it bashes. What is feeding this insanity?

As a Christian, I want to figure it out so there can be a correction, like a re-set button, a renewed vision for the work of God in a post-truth (2016, word of the year) world.

Some fault lies with a weakened sense of Christian identity. Christianity has failed to exhibit its relevancy by projecting a false image rather than a true Christ-following image. Not that the church can be truly relevant, because Christ said we are strangers in the world, but the church can be genuine, which has an understanding that says, the world is to be cared about, and that Christians are in the world but not of the world. Some of the error was through teaching religious form rather than substance. Form without substance is an empty shell…there is nothing in it.

For many, even in the church, science has been elevated into a position of being the known truth in conceptual awareness. It provides an explanation for life without a need or room for God’s holy, transforming, and spiritually rich, intervention. From a Christian perspective, science is able to prove the existence of God through intelligent design. Skeptics are less open to considering life from this perspective.

Our human self has a need for purpose and meaning. Religious or non-religious belief is a vehicle through which we form our meaningful connection to the universe. Purpose and meaning are derived from a greater sense of value, which finds its bearing in what is real and true. This is where we begin to search for a bigger understanding. It is also where we separate apart into several different tracks. It all centers around our reason for living. Truth is the cornerstone from which the foundation is built. If one believes the bible as the one, true Truth, it will provide a moral, holy and righteous way for living life. To those who believe this way, truth is an absolute. If one doesn’t, or rejects this way of thinking, another belief is believed as true and right.

The thing with genuine truth is that it cannot mutate. Truth consists of unchanging properties. For example, a lie will always be a lie even if you call it the truth. A lie cannot become not a lie, no matter how much you want to believe otherwise. Truth is not experiential or changeable in that there either is a God or there is not a God despite yours or my opinion about the matter. If God is real, it changes the conversation. If He is not real, then truth can be shaped into atheistic or agnostic belief and science accepted as its core belief. There is no moral compass when science is on the throne. All things become relative, not intrinsically right or wrong (which is still theoretical since an innate sense of fairness and right behavior will always rectify this belief.) Truth, which becomes relative, simply, cannot be truth. Truth is always true and cannot be altered.

I read the arguments on both sides of the belief spectrum. I love God so very much that it hurts me to see Him abused again by humans through curses, rejection and condemning language. Yet, I do comprehend what the Nones, the non-faithed, are saying in a big picture way. The church has given them lots of material to work with. These people do not see anything in most Christians or in Christianity that resonates with them. They see its inconsistencies and its failure to love as Christ loved. They don’t see enough of turning the other cheek or living like Christ lived…strong and true. Faith today, to some, seems irrelevant and unattractive, simplistic and out-of-touch, ignorant and unbelievable.

Christ would be a source of conflicted views if He were to walk with us today. He would challenge the church of its duplicity and mediocrity, and He would love the unlovely. He would hang out at Starbucks talking with Millenials, and He wouldn’t be intimidated or ashamed. He would understand the arguments and speak to them in ways that could be heard (by meeting their personal needs). Young people would respect Him, though many would disagree with His teachings.

I make no apology for my faith in Christ. But I cringe at the arrogance, pride, and words of condemnation found in the church. We need more people like Mother Teresa. She was real and relevant. I do want to say there are some faith communities who serve with tender hearts and a right spirit.

In a city near where I live, is a church that is salt and light in their community. They’re amazing, and I am in awe. They have adopted their community and put boots on the ground by getting out and loving them. They’ve hauled junk to the dump, cleaned litter, maintained homes for those kicking substances or the homeless. They’ve run day camps for the children, have a gym open for teens to keep them off the streets, and they offer food and clothing for those in need. They are first responders when there is a need. It is a poor community, and scary. But the mission is greater than their fear.

Like their example, it would be a good thing if those who call themselves Christian would begin walking like Jesus walked and less like the world walks, or, on the other hand, less like the Pharisees walked. Lives centered on Christ could reboot the church into becoming salt and light as it ministers to a spiritually-bereft hungry-for-meaning world.

I wish I could remove all the threads of anger and the common misconceptions that fuel lack of civility and social bashing in the name of religious belief or non-belief, but I can’t. But this I can do. I can be loving, kind and Christ-like to all including those who speak ill of me and my beliefs and those who say they are my enemies. I can be more like Christ and become less self-centered. That’s doing it God’s way.

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The Political Abyss & A Turnaround

THE BETTER GOOD

Our country is in a mess. What the heck is going on? We are swimming around in abysmal conditions without any clear understanding of why or how we got here. It is like we are in a battle, the battle of bad v good, but we’ve forgotten what good looks like. Even our explanations seem to have an edge to them.

There is a struggle going on although it’s not a new one. This one includes deception and misinformation. It is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. There is a lot of crossover. In my skepticism I think “The pot is calling the kettle black.” Such is my disillusionment.

Let’s take a closer look.

The Way of Bad

The advantage the bad has is that it leads with lies. The lies often are couched in misleading lingo. What may sound plausible or positive often has a dark side. People don’t want to unmask it because that would expose the true state of things.

One misleading lie is that the government is the cure to what ails us.

Not so.

The people and their beliefs are the cure to what ails us.

The government is a vehicle to serve us, but it cannot be the cure because it functions at the mercy of its laws and its people. A government is a structure, one that can be strong and life-giving or compromised and corrupt.

The thing is, evil comes on many levels when good is disregarded.

The Way of Good

The advantage the good has is that it leads with truth. Let’s take the most basic truth of all, that there is intrinsic value in every life. We all know this is true. To deny this is to say one life matters more than another life, which gives superiority to one over the other. We also know that good will do good, which is a form of doing right. It is the ‘better good’, ‘best interest’,  ‘higher ground’ of the end result. Purity of thought and action will bring goodness and richness to our lives and world because it promotes what is helpful and best as it exposes what harms and denigrates.

We are in a battle, whether we realize it or not. The battle is for our minds–what we think, believe, and then embrace. It is good to ponder this instead of remaining oblivious. People and organizations have lied to us…even in educational systems, in government systems, in religious institutions, and in families (they may not have realized the lie-believed).

A way to unmask the lies we have believed is to unravel the thread until you get to the root of the matter. What is its inner truth, its true make-up? What is its consequence? How does it play out?

Our society is in trouble because it fails to consider the bigger picture, that ideas become realities, some for the better good and some for  utter harm. To ignore this is to say good is bad and bad is good, as the lies take over and destroy us as a society. It becomes a cesspool of instability because it has no rock on which to stand.

The Way of The Better Good

We can unmask the lies we have believed as a society. Love is the measuring device. The place to begin is with what we care about. What do we love? Are we loving in the way we treat the unborn, the people with developmental challenges, the environment, the various races, religions, and cultures? Are we respecting of people we philosophically disagree with? Are we allowing our love to inform our moral choices and the words we choose to say about and to other people? Is our self-love destroying us? Do we see beyond the end of our nose? Are we hateful or hate-filled, not caring who it hurts?

Love that is true love will do the right thing, always. Sometimes we mistake something for love when it really is pride, arrogance, or ego (even self-righteousness, when we think we are the only ones who are right and good). It takes a great deal of introspection and clarity to see truth as it stands alone.

For me, this includes God’s help. But even God can be misunderstood if we have a mindset that misinforms us about His ways. It helps to ask God to reveal our individual areas of blindness, and we all have them. For example, we may think we are are not prejudiced, but God will show us where we are prejudiced, where we are dark in our understanding and beliefs. Then it is up to us to change our views. Confusion will dissipate and the better good will prevail.

The whole thing is complicated. Yet it is simple, too. Do what is right and good according to the inner values of right and good, which  promote goodness and value to all living things. Live out The Golden Rule, and you will be on the right path.

The choice rests with us.

Who we are and who we will become boils down to our belief system. Constant blaming of others is a form of scapegoating. It deflects from us and our duty to respond and act in appropriate ways. Those times when we choose to be strong, brave, honest, and true, when we choose to treat people with dignity, kindness, and substance rather than with arrogance, self-centeredness, or haughtiness, are when we will make steps toward living life the better good. This past decade of coarseness in our country, as Mark Shields said on the PBS NewsHour, will lessen as we begin to shift in a more positive direction towards the reclaiming of best interest in a civil society. Maybe we will quit the mudslinging and bring back gracious discourse.

Truth talk is also a necessary starting point.