Well, it is that day of the year again. The day that children, and many adults, dress up as everything from Justin Bieber to fairy godmothers. Police officers to Mount. St. Helens. Princesses, knights, wizards, witches, chicki magnets, the doplar effect. It's all been done. It's the night that kids are actually encouraged to run in the streets and take candy from strangers. For many kids, this is the best night of the year. Late Night, cool costume and lots of candy. What could be better?
While the holiday is celebrated by many, there are many people (especially Christians), who find Halloween sinful and evil. They may give out candy (or possibly scripture passges and tracts), but they likely will just sit at home, with the lights turned out, praying for the lost souls who are selling their souls to the devil walking around dressed up as demons and taking candy. Why is it that there is such an issue with this particular holiday? You don't see people boycotting Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, New Years, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day or Labour Day (Jehvah Witnesses excluded of course...of course even they just go about it in silence). I figured that I would do a quick history lesson here...what is the origins of Halloween? Why is it the holiday that it has become? Why October 31? And more importantly, why do many Christians find it evil and scary? Let's find out shall we...
According to Wikipedia (it's always truthful and accurate right?), Halloween is sort of a spin off from the Celtic holiday of Samhain (meaning "summer's end"), which is a celebration of the end of the "lighter half of the year" and the beginning of the "darker half". It was believed that on this day, the Otherworld was opened up and spirits (both good and bad), could pass through. The wearing of costumes is believed to come from people dressing up as bad spirits in order to avoid harm.
Jack-O-Lanterns were initially created to commemorate the souls in purgatory, as well as warding off evil spirits. Trick or Treating originated from the practice of souling, when poor people would go door to door asking for food in return for prayers.
This is a very quick, overview of the history of Halloween...please, feel free to comment and fix any errors, or add any vital information that I am lacking. Anyway, now to the questions. How should Christians respond? Personally, I see no harm in participating in Halloween. I think it can be a harmless holiday, filled with fun and games. Yes, there are some creepy costumes, and lots of mischief...but overall, it's a fairly harmless holiday. In fact, for many people it is the only day of the year (other than Christmas, with carolling), that they get to meet their neighbours in a non threatening way. Friendships can be built, relationships formed. Now, I don't think we should go around casting spells on people, or performing exorcisms (leave that to the priests), but in reality...the holiday, while rooted in the spiritual, has evolved into just a night of fun and candy. Things change over time. Word meanings change, things that once meant one thing, mean something different now. For example, the word gay once meant happy...today it is a word describing a homosexual. Bitch once was a harmless word meaning "female dog"...now it means...well, you get the idea. Halloween has evolved too. It is no longer just a day to ward of spirits...in fact, most people don't even know the origins anymore. The day has brought together many different celebrations and days (All Saints Day, All-Hallows Eve, Samhain), and created a new holiday.
So should we embrace it? Perhaps. I'm not here to tell people how they should respond to something. The Bible does say that if something causes someone else to stumble, then it should be avoided around that person. If you are intimidated by Halloween, or it makes you uncomfortable, by all means don't celebrate the holiday. But do it in silence. If you love Halloween, don't force others to love it with you. People have choice. Just like religion, yes we are called to make disciples, but a disciple CHOOSES to follow, it is not forced to follow. Make up your own mind about Halloween, love it or hate it, just don't judge others for their view.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Forgiving Mel
So, I was planning on finally doing my "Fmylife" blog...but then I was surfing around on the Rotten Tomatoes website (a move critic website), and saw an article about Mel Gibson being turned down for the Hangover 2 sequel. Apparantly, the creator/writer or whoever of the movie wanted Mel to have a cameo in the movie, but the rest of the cast and crew turned down the idea, due to his anti-semetic remarks a while ago. Now, I definately condone these people for standing up for their beliefs...but seriously, can we give the guy a break?
Keep in mind, that the first Hangover starred Mike Tyson, who isn't regarded as a great role model. My point is...I think as a human race we tend to dwell on the past way too much. If someone does something to offend us, we will forver see them as the "person who did this", instead of just a person. Mel Gibson says an anti-semetic remark (keep in mind he was drunk at the time...and his comments were likely taken out of context), and immediately he is thrown under the bus, cast aside and banished. It seems that no matter what he does, he will always be remembered as the person who hates jews. He could probably even make a movie about Judaism, and it would still be seen as a mockery. Tiger Woods will forver be remembered not for his golf, but for his "encounters", Rick Rypien for his altercation with the Minnesote Wild fan (although, i do find that one hilarious!)...there are many people who have been marred by past sins. But is it not time for forgiveness? Can we not move past the past, and instead focus on the future? Jesus forgave those who beat him and hung him on a cross (some of whom did in fact happen to be jewish...so Mel, you were partly right). The ancient Christians were able to, over time, forgive Paul (formerly Saul) even after he killed and persecuted countless Christians. Why is it that we have such a hard time letting past sins go? Why do we hold these things over people? Why can't we let them forever break free? God forgives them...why can't we forgive?
I'm not saying we have to forget...forgetting is hard, especially after someone does something to really hurt us. But give them another chance. Move on....if the guilty party is seeking forgiveness, then give it to them. Love them. Accept them. Forgive them.
Please note, I am not saying that the cast and crew of Hangover 2 are bad people, nor am I saying that the movie should have Mel Gibson in it. This will not stop me from wanting to see the movie (I don't expect it to be as good as the first one...but I do think it will be pretty funny), I am merely making a point. Forgiveness is one of the foundational pillars of the Christian faith (and most other religions actually)...why does it seem that we have lost that over the years? Why do churches split over differences or arguments that can easily be solved with a little love, forgiveness and compromise? Why do friendships dissolve, marriages break up, siblings hate one another? Forgiveness is not easy, I definately understand that...I have people I need to forgive, and have many people who I need to be forgiven from...but it is something we have to do...or at least give a good attempt to do, not some half-hearted "meh" attempt. It's time to forgive the Mel Gibson's of our life...forgive, and move on. Don't hold someone in a certain box...free them, let them out, and let them become more than just one event, one altercation, one sin. We all mess up...we all need forgiveness...it's time to give it!
Keep in mind, that the first Hangover starred Mike Tyson, who isn't regarded as a great role model. My point is...I think as a human race we tend to dwell on the past way too much. If someone does something to offend us, we will forver see them as the "person who did this", instead of just a person. Mel Gibson says an anti-semetic remark (keep in mind he was drunk at the time...and his comments were likely taken out of context), and immediately he is thrown under the bus, cast aside and banished. It seems that no matter what he does, he will always be remembered as the person who hates jews. He could probably even make a movie about Judaism, and it would still be seen as a mockery. Tiger Woods will forver be remembered not for his golf, but for his "encounters", Rick Rypien for his altercation with the Minnesote Wild fan (although, i do find that one hilarious!)...there are many people who have been marred by past sins. But is it not time for forgiveness? Can we not move past the past, and instead focus on the future? Jesus forgave those who beat him and hung him on a cross (some of whom did in fact happen to be jewish...so Mel, you were partly right). The ancient Christians were able to, over time, forgive Paul (formerly Saul) even after he killed and persecuted countless Christians. Why is it that we have such a hard time letting past sins go? Why do we hold these things over people? Why can't we let them forever break free? God forgives them...why can't we forgive?
I'm not saying we have to forget...forgetting is hard, especially after someone does something to really hurt us. But give them another chance. Move on....if the guilty party is seeking forgiveness, then give it to them. Love them. Accept them. Forgive them.
Please note, I am not saying that the cast and crew of Hangover 2 are bad people, nor am I saying that the movie should have Mel Gibson in it. This will not stop me from wanting to see the movie (I don't expect it to be as good as the first one...but I do think it will be pretty funny), I am merely making a point. Forgiveness is one of the foundational pillars of the Christian faith (and most other religions actually)...why does it seem that we have lost that over the years? Why do churches split over differences or arguments that can easily be solved with a little love, forgiveness and compromise? Why do friendships dissolve, marriages break up, siblings hate one another? Forgiveness is not easy, I definately understand that...I have people I need to forgive, and have many people who I need to be forgiven from...but it is something we have to do...or at least give a good attempt to do, not some half-hearted "meh" attempt. It's time to forgive the Mel Gibson's of our life...forgive, and move on. Don't hold someone in a certain box...free them, let them out, and let them become more than just one event, one altercation, one sin. We all mess up...we all need forgiveness...it's time to give it!
Friday, October 15, 2010
The Truth about The Bible
I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now, and am finally doing it. I've had the question in my head recently, "Is the Bible True, or does it only contain Truth?". This question all goes back to my first year at Bethany, when I said something along the lines of, "The Bible is true", and someone said "Is it?". It led to a discussion, in which my only response was, "umm...yes?" followed my a wimper. This of course was before the days that I enjoyed debates and discussions, and actually cowered away from them (my how things have changed). So I raise the question, once again "Is the Bible True?".
This will likely sound horrible and very unChristian, but I would have to argue that the Bible is NOT 100% true, and only CONTAINS Truth. It's a big difference, and may seem to shatter faith, although when you really look at the contents of the Bible, you can't say that everything in the Bible is infallable, True, and Holy. First of all, we have to look at the types of books we have in the Bible. We have letters, we have poetry, we have stories, songs, legends, and proverbs. Now, I am not going to argue that the stories in the Bible are false, and didn't happen. I believe that they did happen, and are true. However, we have to take into consideration that, back in biblical days, it was not uncommon, nor was it frowned upon, to exaggerate stories. Also, it must be remembered that theses stories were passed down verbally for many years before written down. We all know what happens with verbal stories. We've played the game Telephone as kids...we know that usually what is left at the end is not what started. I'm not going to say that the stories are so embellished that only very small fragments are true, but I am saying that we have to keep in mind that things have been embellished slightly, or at least very likely have been. For example, the story of Gideon. We know that story as a man who led 300 men against THOUSANDS of me. Now, he likely had more than 300 men, and perhaps the enemy didn't have as many men as the story says...but the bottom line is...he was vastly outnumbered, and defeated the enemy with God's help in a miraculous way. Does it really matter if he was outnumbered 3 to 1 or 10 to 1? Not really.
These exagerations don't mean that we can't trust the Bible...nor does it mean that the Israelites were liars...it's what was done back then. Numbers were symbolic, for example the number 40. Was it exactly 40 years that the Israelites wandered wht desert? Exactly 40 days and nights that it rained? Who knows....but it was a long time. The number 40 , like the numbers 7, 3 and 12, were very symbolic and meant a lot to the Israelite people. That is why certain numbers appear numerous times throughout Scripture...it's not a coincidence.
Now I want to get into likely the part of the Bible that is most often misread, misunderstood and misinterpreted among Christians. The Psalms. Do you ever notice how we take Psalm 23 and make it out to be whole hearted, 100% infallible truth? We analyze it, tear it apart and meditate over it. I'm not denying its power and beauty. I love it, and think it is a wonderful psalm...but we must remember that it is written by a person, in poetry form. We don't study World War II based solely on the poem "In Flanders Fields", even though that is a wonderful poem. It doesn't contain the whole truth...it's one persons opinion, feeling and description. Now, does Psalm 23 contain truth that is consistent with the rest of Scripture? Of course it does. But the Psalm was written by one person, at a particular time of his life, during certain circumstances. He also wrote Psalms about destroyign cities, killing enemies and having no hope. We don't take Ecclesiastes "Everything is Meaningless" super seriously, nor do we take many of the Proverbs as purely accurate...and yet we read the Psalms as if it is the word of the Lord himself. The Psalsm are beautiful, evoke wonderful emotion, and can be very worshipful...but we can't make them more than what they are. They are poems, hymns and songs.
Finally I want to talk about The Letters, or The Epistles. We can't forget that these books are written by one person to a certain group of people, or in some cases to one particular person. Do they contain truth, and great wisdom? Yes, but we can't attempt to claim every insight and every word as a word written to us. For example, there is a verse in one of the letters about women not being alolowed to lead or speak in church. At first this seems sexist, but when you realize that this was written to one particular church, where the women were gossips, liars, loud, obnoxious and spreading falsehoods, it makes more sense. It's not saying that no women ever should lead or speak in church..it's saying These women in This church.
This blog very likely will be misunderstood as me trying to undermine the Bible. I will probably get nasty comments about how we just need to take all of Scripture as the Holy Words of God. I don't want to make the Bible seem unimportant, false, or incomplete. On the contraty, I want to make sure that we fully understand what we can actually get from the Bible. It's because people take Scripture out of context, and put Truth where there shouldn't be, that we have genocides, sexism, racism, slavery, wars, bigotry, hate, and why Christians are judgemental, and seen as "better than thou". Please, leave a comment, let me know what you think, and feel free to disagree. What do you think, "Is the Bible True, or does it just contains Truth?"
This will likely sound horrible and very unChristian, but I would have to argue that the Bible is NOT 100% true, and only CONTAINS Truth. It's a big difference, and may seem to shatter faith, although when you really look at the contents of the Bible, you can't say that everything in the Bible is infallable, True, and Holy. First of all, we have to look at the types of books we have in the Bible. We have letters, we have poetry, we have stories, songs, legends, and proverbs. Now, I am not going to argue that the stories in the Bible are false, and didn't happen. I believe that they did happen, and are true. However, we have to take into consideration that, back in biblical days, it was not uncommon, nor was it frowned upon, to exaggerate stories. Also, it must be remembered that theses stories were passed down verbally for many years before written down. We all know what happens with verbal stories. We've played the game Telephone as kids...we know that usually what is left at the end is not what started. I'm not going to say that the stories are so embellished that only very small fragments are true, but I am saying that we have to keep in mind that things have been embellished slightly, or at least very likely have been. For example, the story of Gideon. We know that story as a man who led 300 men against THOUSANDS of me. Now, he likely had more than 300 men, and perhaps the enemy didn't have as many men as the story says...but the bottom line is...he was vastly outnumbered, and defeated the enemy with God's help in a miraculous way. Does it really matter if he was outnumbered 3 to 1 or 10 to 1? Not really.
These exagerations don't mean that we can't trust the Bible...nor does it mean that the Israelites were liars...it's what was done back then. Numbers were symbolic, for example the number 40. Was it exactly 40 years that the Israelites wandered wht desert? Exactly 40 days and nights that it rained? Who knows....but it was a long time. The number 40 , like the numbers 7, 3 and 12, were very symbolic and meant a lot to the Israelite people. That is why certain numbers appear numerous times throughout Scripture...it's not a coincidence.
Now I want to get into likely the part of the Bible that is most often misread, misunderstood and misinterpreted among Christians. The Psalms. Do you ever notice how we take Psalm 23 and make it out to be whole hearted, 100% infallible truth? We analyze it, tear it apart and meditate over it. I'm not denying its power and beauty. I love it, and think it is a wonderful psalm...but we must remember that it is written by a person, in poetry form. We don't study World War II based solely on the poem "In Flanders Fields", even though that is a wonderful poem. It doesn't contain the whole truth...it's one persons opinion, feeling and description. Now, does Psalm 23 contain truth that is consistent with the rest of Scripture? Of course it does. But the Psalm was written by one person, at a particular time of his life, during certain circumstances. He also wrote Psalms about destroyign cities, killing enemies and having no hope. We don't take Ecclesiastes "Everything is Meaningless" super seriously, nor do we take many of the Proverbs as purely accurate...and yet we read the Psalms as if it is the word of the Lord himself. The Psalsm are beautiful, evoke wonderful emotion, and can be very worshipful...but we can't make them more than what they are. They are poems, hymns and songs.
Finally I want to talk about The Letters, or The Epistles. We can't forget that these books are written by one person to a certain group of people, or in some cases to one particular person. Do they contain truth, and great wisdom? Yes, but we can't attempt to claim every insight and every word as a word written to us. For example, there is a verse in one of the letters about women not being alolowed to lead or speak in church. At first this seems sexist, but when you realize that this was written to one particular church, where the women were gossips, liars, loud, obnoxious and spreading falsehoods, it makes more sense. It's not saying that no women ever should lead or speak in church..it's saying These women in This church.
This blog very likely will be misunderstood as me trying to undermine the Bible. I will probably get nasty comments about how we just need to take all of Scripture as the Holy Words of God. I don't want to make the Bible seem unimportant, false, or incomplete. On the contraty, I want to make sure that we fully understand what we can actually get from the Bible. It's because people take Scripture out of context, and put Truth where there shouldn't be, that we have genocides, sexism, racism, slavery, wars, bigotry, hate, and why Christians are judgemental, and seen as "better than thou". Please, leave a comment, let me know what you think, and feel free to disagree. What do you think, "Is the Bible True, or does it just contains Truth?"
Friday, October 8, 2010
Glee, God and Grilled Cheesus.
Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. To be honest, I have wanted to blog for a while now, just didn't know what to blog about. I've had a bunch of ideas bouncing around in my brain for a while; a discussion about the Bible and whether the Bible is Truth or just contains Truth, a sort of funny blog from the popular website and book Fmylife (which I still do plan on doing one day...just give it some time), and a look at the Psalms, and whether Christians sometimes take them too seriously. But then I watched Glee. Yes, that's right. I watch Glee. Usually I watch it just for the music, get a few laughs, and then download the songs the next day to put on my ipod. But Tuesday's episode was different. It stirred emotions. It asked questions, and it begged to be discussed. I realize that my blog demographic doesn't include very many Glee lovers (that I know of), so I will try to discuss the episode in a way that will allow those that have not seen the show to appreciate and get involved in the discussion as well. To start with, here is an episode summary:
Finn, the main character of the show, makes a grilled cheese sandwich, and ends up creating the face of Jesus in the burn marks on the bread. He immediately turns religious, and wants to dedicate the week of Glee to singing spiritual songs. Of course, the school (or more specifically Sue Sylvester the arch-nemesis to the Glee club) takes a firm stance against seperationg of Church and State. Then Kurt's dad (Kurt is a fellow Glee member) has a heart attack, and the Glee club tries to comfort Kurt with prayers and spiritual songs. Kurt then professes that he is an atheist...much to the shock and awe of the Glee club.
That is a very quick synopsis of the episode. Yes, there is much more that happened, but I will save those for the discussion part. So let's start with my opinions and discussions.
Grilled Cheesus!
As silly as turning religious after seeing the face of Christ in a grilled cheese sounds, it happens. People turn religious over the silliest, and seemingly stupidest things. A dream, a near-death experience, a relationship...whatever. There is a tendency to try to "find the face of Christ" in everything. We want God to speak to us in every imaginable way, and even when he isn't, we still imagine that he is. It's a major problem. Yes, there are worse problems in life than trying to find God in the ordinary, and I don't want to say that he is not found in the ordinary and everyday life...but it's dangerous to go around and put God's face, or God's voice to things that don't have God's face or voice in them. When we do that, we tend to idolize those things, or that event. We pray to the Grilled Cheese, read The Purpose Driven Life like it is Bible (or even worse, like it is better than the Bible), and learn all we need to know about faith from Facing The Giants (yes...I went there). I am not saying that God can't be found in strange places...he was the "whisper in the wind", but when we go and look for him in those places, and CREATE him in those places, that is when we get ourselves into trouble.
Seperation of Church and State
This can lead to a heated debate here I'm sure. I personally am all for, to some extent, the seperation of church and state. I find it offensive that Christians beg, plead and cry when we aren't alowed to pray/worship publically, but then get angry when they see someone of another religion worship in public. We don't like seperation of church and state for us, but we want it for everyone else. It has to be either no one, or everyone. Christians can be the most arrogant, and selfish people ever. When we don't have it, we demand it, and when others have it we beg for it to be stripped from them. I remember at Bethany, we had a survery in class (I believe it was Issues and Ethics class) in which we were asked if the Lords Prayer should be reinstated into public schools...and a majority, if not unanimously, of the class said no, because once you open the door to the Lords prayer, then you have to open the door to every other religion. It's true..we can't expect to be the only religion given rights. Seperation of Church and State is a good thing, or at least it can be...in my opinion anyway (feel free to disagree and voice your comments).
"I have a hard time believing in a loving God when his followers don't look to highly on gays, or science, or women".
As hurtful and perhaps humorous this comment is, spoken by the gay atheist Kurt, it has a harsh truth to it. I have blogged about this before, but the church treats gays like crap. And there are many churches and Christians who feel that Science is opposed to the Bible, and that all Scientists are out to disprove the existence of God. And as sad as it is, there are churches who don't look highly on women, and are racist as well. It's horrible. As DC Talk says at the start of the song "What if I stumble", 'the biggest cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians'. We claim to serve a loving God, we claim to be a loving and accepting group, and yet we are the most secluded, and often hardest to penetrate (insert innapropriate Office joke here). We are loving and accepting to those who have the same beliefs, same opinions as us...but once we meet someone who believes something different, we close up, segregate and hate. And then, after we push people away (often they are the most needing people as well), we are suprised to find out that they don't believe in God. They calim it's because there is no proof, but deep down it's because of us. We caused them to stop believing in God. So much for being disciples.
...ok I realize that this is getting kind of long so I will do one more, a follow up to the previous discussion point.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
The episode ends with Kurt going to church, after an invite from Glee member Mercedes (yes, she is black). Despite Kurt being gay, and an atheist, the church is inviting and accepts him. And when the choir, led by Mercedes, sings "Bridge over Troubled Waters", an elderly woman next to Kurt, grabs hold of his hand, which is very significant to the episode as that is the main memory of Kurt and his comatose Father. The show never shows whether Kurt changes his theological beliefs...but the church definately warmed his heart. THAT is how church should be. Could you imagine what would have happened if, as he was expecting, the church closed its doors to him. Pushed him aside. Ignored him, and looked at him condescendigly? His faith in there being no God would have been all but proven. Church should be a place of comfort, healing and faith building. It should be where the spirit of God is most felt. It's too bad that we have turned it into a place of judgement and hate (I'm looking at you Florida pastor who wanted ot publically burn Korans!".
For those of you who watched the episode, there are many more things that can be discussed...please feel free to comment on those things and discuss them. Let me know what you think, do you disagree, agree? Let the discussion, comments and opinions flow!
Finn, the main character of the show, makes a grilled cheese sandwich, and ends up creating the face of Jesus in the burn marks on the bread. He immediately turns religious, and wants to dedicate the week of Glee to singing spiritual songs. Of course, the school (or more specifically Sue Sylvester the arch-nemesis to the Glee club) takes a firm stance against seperationg of Church and State. Then Kurt's dad (Kurt is a fellow Glee member) has a heart attack, and the Glee club tries to comfort Kurt with prayers and spiritual songs. Kurt then professes that he is an atheist...much to the shock and awe of the Glee club.
That is a very quick synopsis of the episode. Yes, there is much more that happened, but I will save those for the discussion part. So let's start with my opinions and discussions.
Grilled Cheesus!
As silly as turning religious after seeing the face of Christ in a grilled cheese sounds, it happens. People turn religious over the silliest, and seemingly stupidest things. A dream, a near-death experience, a relationship...whatever. There is a tendency to try to "find the face of Christ" in everything. We want God to speak to us in every imaginable way, and even when he isn't, we still imagine that he is. It's a major problem. Yes, there are worse problems in life than trying to find God in the ordinary, and I don't want to say that he is not found in the ordinary and everyday life...but it's dangerous to go around and put God's face, or God's voice to things that don't have God's face or voice in them. When we do that, we tend to idolize those things, or that event. We pray to the Grilled Cheese, read The Purpose Driven Life like it is Bible (or even worse, like it is better than the Bible), and learn all we need to know about faith from Facing The Giants (yes...I went there). I am not saying that God can't be found in strange places...he was the "whisper in the wind", but when we go and look for him in those places, and CREATE him in those places, that is when we get ourselves into trouble.
Seperation of Church and State
This can lead to a heated debate here I'm sure. I personally am all for, to some extent, the seperation of church and state. I find it offensive that Christians beg, plead and cry when we aren't alowed to pray/worship publically, but then get angry when they see someone of another religion worship in public. We don't like seperation of church and state for us, but we want it for everyone else. It has to be either no one, or everyone. Christians can be the most arrogant, and selfish people ever. When we don't have it, we demand it, and when others have it we beg for it to be stripped from them. I remember at Bethany, we had a survery in class (I believe it was Issues and Ethics class) in which we were asked if the Lords Prayer should be reinstated into public schools...and a majority, if not unanimously, of the class said no, because once you open the door to the Lords prayer, then you have to open the door to every other religion. It's true..we can't expect to be the only religion given rights. Seperation of Church and State is a good thing, or at least it can be...in my opinion anyway (feel free to disagree and voice your comments).
"I have a hard time believing in a loving God when his followers don't look to highly on gays, or science, or women".
As hurtful and perhaps humorous this comment is, spoken by the gay atheist Kurt, it has a harsh truth to it. I have blogged about this before, but the church treats gays like crap. And there are many churches and Christians who feel that Science is opposed to the Bible, and that all Scientists are out to disprove the existence of God. And as sad as it is, there are churches who don't look highly on women, and are racist as well. It's horrible. As DC Talk says at the start of the song "What if I stumble", 'the biggest cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians'. We claim to serve a loving God, we claim to be a loving and accepting group, and yet we are the most secluded, and often hardest to penetrate (insert innapropriate Office joke here). We are loving and accepting to those who have the same beliefs, same opinions as us...but once we meet someone who believes something different, we close up, segregate and hate. And then, after we push people away (often they are the most needing people as well), we are suprised to find out that they don't believe in God. They calim it's because there is no proof, but deep down it's because of us. We caused them to stop believing in God. So much for being disciples.
...ok I realize that this is getting kind of long so I will do one more, a follow up to the previous discussion point.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
The episode ends with Kurt going to church, after an invite from Glee member Mercedes (yes, she is black). Despite Kurt being gay, and an atheist, the church is inviting and accepts him. And when the choir, led by Mercedes, sings "Bridge over Troubled Waters", an elderly woman next to Kurt, grabs hold of his hand, which is very significant to the episode as that is the main memory of Kurt and his comatose Father. The show never shows whether Kurt changes his theological beliefs...but the church definately warmed his heart. THAT is how church should be. Could you imagine what would have happened if, as he was expecting, the church closed its doors to him. Pushed him aside. Ignored him, and looked at him condescendigly? His faith in there being no God would have been all but proven. Church should be a place of comfort, healing and faith building. It should be where the spirit of God is most felt. It's too bad that we have turned it into a place of judgement and hate (I'm looking at you Florida pastor who wanted ot publically burn Korans!".
For those of you who watched the episode, there are many more things that can be discussed...please feel free to comment on those things and discuss them. Let me know what you think, do you disagree, agree? Let the discussion, comments and opinions flow!
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