Sunday, June 5, 2011

Hated for the Right Reasons

I admit I sometimes live in the naive world-belief that Christians would be liked and, actually probably loved, if we would just live the way Jesus commanded us. Who wouldn't want to hang around with people who love and accept everyone right? I'd get so involved in this thought, that I would see people bashing Christians, people saying hateful remarks towards us, and I think..."see! If only we would live like Christ, we would be accepted". But the truth is, we STILL wouldn't be accepted, and loved. We would still be hated, still be despised. As Christians, it seems we can't win in the social game. We will always be the brunt of a joke, we will always be the first to be scoffed at, laughed at, kicked, spit on.
So, I am trying to give up this notion that we need to be liked and accepted. It's hard for me, because I like being liked. I like being accepted, and appreciated. I like being "in". But what I CAN'T ignore, is that...if we are going to be hated, we better be hated for the right reasons. Unfortunately, it seems most (ok, maybe not most...but too many) Christians are ok with being hated for the wrong reasons. It seems that, because the Bible tells us that the world will despise us, many of us TRY to MAKE the world despise us. We give them fuel for the fire...on purpose. We write signs that say, "God hates Fags", we bomb abortion clinics, we are homophobic, we are anti-everything. We protest teachers teaching evolution as a theory. We pull our kids out of school because they can't say the Lord's Prayer anymore. We aren't known for love and acceptance, are a known for hate, judgment, false apocolyptic predictions. They hate us because we do everything in our power to make sure that they do, because "the bible says that they will". We are hypocrites! We arn't even close to living the life that Jesus wants us to. We are so far away from the great commission of "Go and make Disciples", and we always seem to forget about the greatest commandment of "Love God, and Love Others".
Wake up Christians! Wae up so called "Followers of Christ". Are we really celebrating the death of an enemy? Are we really telling homosexuals that they ae abominations and God hates them? Are we really throwing Rob Bell under the bus of damnation because he raises questions? Have we forgotten to look at our tacky bracelets and ask ourselves, "What Would Jesus Do?".
Yes...the Bible says we will be hated...but let's not go out of our way to remind the world of that. People should hate us because we are so loving, so accepting, so kind, so compassionate, so Christ-Like that it is almost annoying. If you look at why Jesus was hated, it was because he wasn't afraid to stick up for the little guy. He stood next to the tax-collector. He walked beside the prostitute. He embraced the leper. The Pharisees hated him because he neglected their "pious religious rules". The Romans hated him because he skewed the class/gender/race lines. The Jews hated him because he loved the Gentiles. The Gentiles hated him because he loved the Jews. THAT is being hated for the right reasons. When Jesus told us that we would be despised, he was envisioning us being despised for doing RIGHT. Jesus wasn't telling us, "Go out, and make the world hate you!", he was saying, "doing the right thing. Doing the unpopular, loving thing, will make people despise you."
I'm sick of the world hating us for being hypocrites. I'm sick of atheists like Bill Maher, or comedians like Steven Colbert, or shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, South Park or American Dad being the only ones who are willing to challenge us, the only ones who apparantly see how off-based and hypocritical we are being. In fact..I want to say, "Thank You!" to these secular shows, these often anti-Christian people who aren't afraid to say exactly what we need to hear. It's just too bad that most Christians aren't willing to listen to atheists, or non-Christians.
That's my opinion anway. What do you guys think? Are we actually being hated for the right reasons? Or, is it possible for us to actually be loved and accepted in this world?

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