Some Thoughts On Blasphemy Day

So today is September 30–happy Blasphemy Day. If you’ve done any poking around my site, it will be painfully obvious that I’m not an atheist or agnostic, but I do have hope for today. First, some background.

I’m ill-educated on the matter, but from what I understand, the purpose of B-day is to strike out against social norms and national laws which prohibit speaking negatively against religions. And to do so, the organizers encourage acts of sacrilege in public arenas.

I can’t help but think they’re trying to make change by offending their opposition. As a matter of fact, I read that that was the goal. I can’t see any other purpose for such acts, nor can I see how this is going to actually make change. I think it’s going to cause a lot of hurt for people on every side of the issue.

As a follower, however, I’m excited because it is an opportunity to choose to Love those who don’t love me back, rather than loving my pride. Pride is among my biggest weaknesses (if there are weaknesses that aren’t rooted in pride).

Frankly, if they want to hate on Christianity (while B-day isn’t explicitly anti-Christian in nature, that’s certainly the flavor it seems to have in many places in the US), I say let them. I’ll support the repeal of those laws (if there are any in the United States).

I read today some commentary about why we shouldn’t be offended. Mostly because Jesus was “despised and rejected among men” and we aren’t called to defend His honor, but to share in His scorn. It’s beautiful because it’s hard and it can’t be done apart from Love. This strategy benefits absolutely everyone and the only reason we seem to suffer is because we are prideful and this is a lesson in humility and Love.

The opportunities for cheek-turning and cloak-giving and two-mile-walks abound. Not to mention the many truly humble prayers and blessings for our “enemies”.

Have a great Blasphemy Day.

Sincerely, Craig

PS: Some other thoughts: this compels me to revisit the notion of laying down our rights because Christ lay down His for us. Central in our acceptance of Christ is the idea (read: fact) that all we have is a gift–we forsook our rights to demand rights at the foot of the cross–something my lovely friend Bethany reminded me of a week ago (in fewer, better words, of course).

Reflecting on Morality and Religious Pressure

Why do my fellow Christians fight me on the elements of my personality which Christ cultivated? Within me there are countless, large imperfections about which they could warn me, but they concentrate their efforts to destroy those parts in me which express Love to the poor and marginalized; the parts of me which seek to deny myself to lift up the powerless. It seems like they seek to make me the Pharisees against whom Jesus spoke throughout the Gospels–the hypocrites who appear to have cleansed themselves of external sins while taking great care to nurture and grow their internal ones. My soul cries out to my brothers, “get behind me Satan! I’m doing my Father’s work!” and it shouts this not out of anger but out of love. Are we so blind that we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking that our evil desires (though cloaked in religion and twisted to look like truth) are in fact pleasing to God? It didn’t work for the religious elite then, so what makes us think that God will favor the religious elite now?

The Spirit in me and the scriptures both testify that God will always, ALWAYS favor the poor and the broken and the powerless over those who appear to be “correct” and “powerful”. Even if my brain can’t find an adequate answer to their twisted logic, God’s truth appeals to my heart–telling me that I may not understand exactly why, but their ways are dark. So it is and will be: I follow God even when the people who’ve taken claim to his name take a different path. I will follow God into the dark places to rescue his precious people even if it means that many of the Christians call me a glutton and a drunk and kick me out of their churches. After all, Jesus endured that first.

On the subject of morality, it seems that there are people who see two kinds of people in the world: those who seek to uphold morality and those who are trying to “lower the moral bar” so to speak. The problem I see is that people with this viewpoint tend to define moral behavior as behavior exclusive of external sins, but the term doesn’t speak to the presence of internal sins. Internal sins (conditions of the heart: jealousy, self-righteousness, judgmentality, etc) get downplayed for the sake of lifting ourselves over those who suffer from external sins (sins identifiable by actions: sexual sins, drunkeness, etc). In this way, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are justified in denouncing the evils of liberalism and homosexuality and alcohol consumption and partying when we have darker sins clouding our vision. We seek to remove sawdust from our neighbor’s eye without first removing the boards from our own. We take great care to wash the outside of our cups, but the insides are filthy. We love to call people out on their mistakes, because it feeds the lie that we’re better than we are–that we do, in fact, deserve love (which stares right in the face of the Cross and the Gospel of Grace). This self-righteousness seems to plague the church, so if someone is truly concerned about upholding morality in our culture, perhaps we should look first at ourselves and then at everyone else. Furthermore, when we stop viewing the world this way, we realize that if our “morality” is only a product of social pressure, then it is empty and worthless. In this way, we are locked in a pointless battle of who’s definition of morality is correct, ours or theirs? When we are freed from this, we realize the only universal morality isn’t measured by actions, but by the motivations which drive our actions (namely the presence of Love or lackthereof). The issue isn’t where the moral bar should be set or whose moral bar should be used; the issue revolves directly around our own loving and hateful desires. The battle isn’t between us and them, the battle is within each of us, cliché though that may sound. We are our own enemies. We are the primary opposition to the cross–not the muslims or the liberals or the homosexuals. Let’s stop scapegoating and own up to our own failures. Let’s really die to ourselves.

Post-Concert Ramblings…

I wrote this yesterday morning on Facebook. I’m posting it here now. Does anyone know if there’s a simpler way of syndicating Facebook notes and WordPress blogs?

So it’s currently 6:08 AM and I’ve been up for the last forty-five minutes. Last night we went to the Rock and Worship Tour concert at the US Cell Center in CR and now we’re staying at Kristen’s parents’ house in Mount Vernon. And I can’t sleep–I think I’m catching a cold slash my lips are burning. And not burning with the desire to share the Word of God or to sing some incredibly artsy creative song, no, I have two canker sores (sp?) on the inside of my mouth and they feel extra awesome [sarcasm] in the wee hours of the morning.

At any rate, I stole one of Kristen’s guitars and snuck away to their computer room for a little late night acousticness (I’m in denial that it is, in fact early morning. Side note: I’m looking out the window and it’s getting light outside… eew). I kind of feel bad about using their computer without asking. :S

Anyways, the concert was amazing… I tend to go into Christian events with thick skepticism, because I know a lot of people put on Christian events because it’s “what good Christians do” or because “kids who are involved in Christian activities don’t sin” etc.; however, I was comforted by the brief ‘tween-acts blurbs by the lead singers of Tenth Ave North, Mercy Me, and Sanctus Real. I don’t worship well if I don’t believe that those who are leading worship have their hearts in a good place. I don’t want to feel like I’m being conned into some manufactured emotion. If my faith is fake, I’ll happily be an honest Atheist rather than a lying Christian.

The first thing the T.A.N. guy said was how he was still working through the complications of growing up in a “Christian” community and attending a “Christian” school (by the way, I use quotes around that word, because it means a lot of different things to different people and the way I’m using it isn’t really how I think it should be used), and he touched on how we “Christians” approach our relationships with people and with God with a lot more arrogance and false-humility than we should… He said the hardest three words for Christians to say are “I don’t know”, which was said in jest but bears a lot of truth. Anyways, the overall theme of the evening was that we’re all broken people desperately in need of a God who loves us. None of us are better than anyone else. Basically, as Bethany and Derek and I phrase it, we’re all epic failures and the only way we succeed is because Jesus loves us enough to succeed for us. And that to me, far more than trendy “Christian” music and Alt-Christian clothes and even being in the presence of “Christian” music superstars, was cool.

So with that I sit here with a lot of thoughts swirling around in my tiny human brain… First of all, I wish that more Christians really believed that we [read "all humanity"] are all the same in terms of worthiness of Grace (in that we are all equally unworthy of His Grace).

Secondly, I wish people who don’t know Jesus wouldn’t associate Him with us Christians. I’ll elaborate on that one a little: Christians can be prideful and arrogant and falsely-humble and hurtful and a variety of other negatively-inclined adjectives that are in no way characteristics of Jesus nor are representative of his feelings towards humanity in general. We’ve taken His name in vain and dragged it through the mud with us and the result is that the people who are aware of their need for a savior won’t know that that person is Jesus because we’ve made Jesus look like the Devil.

Finally, and this is one that I (as an insecure person) struggle with the most; I wish that we who call ourselves followers of Christ would truly meet people where they’re at rather than lead them to believe that they need to be “good enough” to earn our and/or God’s Love. Especially God’s Love. I think we non-verbally tell people that they need to fit in and look the part before we will accept them. They need to cover up their tattoos, change the way they dress, and stop associating with their non Christian friends unless they are getting [read "pressuring"] them to come to Church.

Just so we’re all clear on this, I believe this next statement so strongly that if this isn’t true, I’m converting to Atheism straight up: God’s love for us is not affected by our performance, and if it were, we’d all be effed. There is no reason for God to Love us–we can’t earn it, it’s freely given. We can’t trick God into Loving us, he already does–we just need to accept it. God’s people aren’t shiny and plastic; God chose a people who are real and broken and scandalous and perfect only in our inability to earn His love. He knows this about each of us and this fact is deeply rooted in His passionate, reckless, scandalous, foolish, intoxicated Love for each of us.

Anyways, it’s 6:53 now and the sun is coming up and that’s an event I haven’t witnessed in roughly a decade so I don’t want to ruin such a good track record. I’m going back to bed. Good night. Or good morning. Whatever.

So it’s currently 6:08 AM and I’ve been up for the last forty-five minutes. Last night we went to the Rock and Worship Tour concert at the US Cell Center in CR [Cedar Rapids] and now we’re staying at Kristen’s parents’ house in Mount Vernon. And I can’t sleep–I think I’m catching a cold slash my lips are burning. And not burning with the desire to share the Word of God or to sing some incredibly artsy creative song, no, I have two canker sores (sp?) on the inside of my mouth and they feel extra awesome [sarcasm] in the wee hours of the morning.

At any rate, I stole one of Kristen’s guitars and snuck away to their computer room for a little late night acousticness (I’m in denial that it is, in fact early morning. Side note: I’m looking out the window and it’s getting light outside… eew). I kind of feel bad about using their computer without asking. :S

Anyways, the concert was amazing… I tend to go into Christian events with thick skepticism, because I know a lot of people put on Christian events because it’s “what good Christians do” or because “kids who are involved in Christian activities don’t sin” etc.; however, I was comforted by the brief ‘tween-acts blurbs by the lead singers of Tenth Ave North, Mercy Me, and Sanctus Real. I don’t worship well if I don’t believe that those who are leading worship have their hearts in a good place. I don’t want to feel like I’m being conned into some manufactured emotion. If my faith is fake, I’ll happily be an honest Atheist rather than a lying Christian.

The first thing the T.A.N. guy said was how he was still working through the complications of growing up in a “Christian” community and attending a “Christian” school (by the way, I use quotes around that word, because it means a lot of different things to different people and the way I’m using it isn’t really how I think it should be used), and he touched on how we “Christians” approach our relationships with people and with God with a lot more arrogance and false-humility than we should… He said the hardest three words for Christians to say are “I don’t know”, which was said in jest but bears a lot of truth. Anyways, the overall theme of the evening was that we’re all broken people desperately in need of a God who loves us. None of us are better than anyone else. Basically, as Bethany and Derek and I phrase it, we’re all epic failures and the only way we succeed is because Jesus loves us enough to succeed for us. And that to me, far more than trendy “Christian” music and Alt-Christian clothes and even being in the presence of “Christian” music superstars, was cool.

So with that I sit here with a lot of thoughts swirling around in my tiny human brain… First of all, I wish that more Christians really believed that we [read "all humanity"] are all the same in terms of worthiness of Grace (in that we are all equally unworthy of His Grace).

Secondly, I wish people who don’t know Jesus wouldn’t associate Him with us Christians. I’ll elaborate on that one a little: Christians can be prideful and arrogant and falsely-humble and hurtful and a variety of other negatively-inclined adjectives that are in no way characteristics of Jesus nor are representative of his feelings towards humanity in general. We’ve taken His name in vain and dragged it through the mud with us and the result is that the people who are aware of their need for a savior won’t know that that person is Jesus because we’ve made Jesus look like the Devil.

Finally, and this is one that I (as an insecure person) struggle with the most; I wish that we who call ourselves followers of Christ would truly meet people where they’re at rather than lead them to believe that they need to be “good enough” to earn our and/or God’s Love. Especially God’s Love. I think we non-verbally tell people that they need to fit in and look the part before we will accept them. They need to cover up their tattoos, change the way they dress, and stop associating with their non Christian friends unless they are getting [read "pressuring"] them to come to Church.

Just so we’re all clear on this, I believe this next statement so strongly that if this isn’t true, I’m converting to Atheism straight up: God’s love for us is not affected by our performance, and if it were, we’d all be effed. There is no reason for God to Love us–we can’t earn it, it’s freely given. We can’t trick God into Loving us, he already does–we just need to accept it. God’s people aren’t shiny and plastic; God chose a people who are real and broken and scandalous and perfect only in our inability to earn His love. He knows this about each of us and this fact is deeply rooted in His passionate, reckless, scandalous, foolish, intoxicated Love for each of us.

Anyways, it’s 6:53 now and the sun is coming up and that’s an event I haven’t witnessed in roughly a decade so I don’t want to ruin such a good track record. I’m going back to bed. Good night. Or good morning. Whatever.

[Reflecting on...] Differences

If people really understood my beliefs the way I mean them, would they be offended?

Should this matter?

If my beliefs are offensive, does that mean they are wrong as per God?

Is God’s truth offensive to anyone when understood properly?

What is it that actually offends people?

Is it really a difference of opinion or is it the hostility and hatred that so often accompany differences of opinion?

Can two people with major differences in beliefs still relationship with eachother?

Can a person Love another person with whom they disagree?

Can God love people who don’t agree wtih Him?

Can God love sinners?

Can God love homosexuals, liberals and/or Muslims?

Can God love people who don’t follow his rules as much as He loves those who do?

Does God’s heart bleed as much for Al Queda as it does for the victims of 9/11?

Does my heart bleed as much for Al Queda as it does for the victims of 9/11?

Should it?

[your thoughts here...]

Edit: Speaking of offensiveness in Jesus’ teachings, I came across this tidbit over at WorD:

“Some people are always going to be offended when you actually teach them what’s in the Bible as opposed to what they assume is in the Bible.” – NT Wright

I don’t know exactly how that ties into this post (because I’m not making a point, really, but asking reflective questions as they come to mind) but I feel like it’s true and applicable.

Credibility

I don’t readily trust nice, polite people. I know myself well-enough to be aware of my many flaws. If someone agrees with whatever I say or pays me many compliments, my instinct is to assume that this person is a liar (whether they realize they’re doing it or not) and they have manipulative motivations. I would say that my instinct is generally right, based on my knowledge of my broken self.

I think Christians get love and politeness confused. Jesus was the single most loving person to have walked the planet and he was plenty impolite. Ask the Pharisees. Ask Peter.

The truth is we are imperfect, flawed people. There isn’t anything good about us for which we can claim credit. Anyone who tells you differently is a liar. And based on the fact that people don’t tell me how crappy I am on a regular basis, I have to conclude that I’m surrounded by a lot of liars. The fact that I don’t tell people how crappy they are on a regular basis causes me to conclude that I’m a liar also.

Of course, the opposite isn’t true: just because you’re rude doesn’t make you loving. It’s just impossible to love imperfect people and always tell them stuff that makes them feel better.

The nature of the Truth is that it convicts imperfect people. Our egos–our pride–is/are grounded in lies. The Truth doesn’t appease our prideful natures. We have to die to ourselves, surrender to God, before we can like the Truth. Because the truth stands in opposition to the masks we wear and the inflated images we want people to have of us.

One point of pride for me is my insightfulness. I tend to think that I know a lot more than I really do. And sometimes I arrogantly flex that intellectual muscle to make people think more highly of me. That’s right, I’m an ass. Anyways, I was being bluntly honest with one of my friends in a way that wasn’t loving and served the purpose of cutting them down and building me up (because one of my recent revelations is that the truth is often blunt, as I’m talking about in this post). I was trying to be insightful. She called me out on it and it certainly didn’t serve the notion that I’m an insightful person. It did cater to the fact that I’m an insecure person who believes that I am, in fact, at the center of the universe. Her truthfully calling me out didn’t make me feel good about myself. It convicted me. It made me aware of the reality that I am not the ideal person that I think I am.

This post was written to provide affirmation to loving friends of broken people who know that the truth won’t make their friend happy, but must be said nonetheless. The Bible talks about believers supporting eachother and it recons it to “iron sharpening iron”. When iron sharpens other iron, there is a lot of friction, heat, and conflicting forces. It’s not an easy process–it’s very messy, like nearly every aspect of Christian spirituality. But it’s necessary.

I hope this blesses you in some way. Sincerely.

Ugly People

So I have a problem with my local church. My problem is that I’m one of the ugliest people who go there. And it’s a biiigg church. This is problematic primarily because there are plenty of ugly people in the area and they aren’t proportionally represented in our local church. If we really accept all people the way we say we do (that being without regard for how much or little value the World puts on them) then I think ugly people would feel just as welcome as anyone.

And understand that I don’t mean to say that any church verbally rejects people based on physical appearance (although other terms of worldly value, like sinfulness, may cause you to be rejected from churches); however, nonverbal cues comprise some 90% of our communication so even if we don’t tell people, “get out, you don’t look good enough” in those words, verbatim, we may be saying the same thing via our dishonest politeness (we ugly people are good at detecting rejection or reluctant acceptance, even when cleverly disguised).

All of this is a problem. The other problem is the misconception that we shouldn’t call people ugly. If a person is physically ugly and we tell them they’re not, we are liars. Plain and simple. The problem isn’t that they’re ugly–the problem is that we don’t accept ugly people. The problem isn’t that we tell them they’re not attractive. It’s that we tell them they’re not attractive enough.

If we tell an ugly person they’re pretty, we’ve given them something other than God and themselves in which they can put their identity. They’re putting their identity in a lie. They think they can be loved for something or someone that they are not. This is known as flattery and for all practical purposes I would think it would apply to non-ugly people as well. They think their reason for being loved is that they look a certain way.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to let a person think that they’re physically unattractive and show that we love them anyways. That they don’t have to look a certain way to fit in. Could you imagine? Perhaps ugliness isn’t as insulting as our society has made it out to be? Perhaps physical attractiveness, like wealth, intelligence, or any other concept that leads us to believe we have power in our world and control over our reality is all a lie. Maybe we’re not the gods we think we are over our little realms? Perhaps this is the same lie that the snake told the first people in the garden: “Eat of this fruit and you will be like gods.”

Perhaps the first people were terrified that God wouldn’t love them if he saw that they had failed to earn God’s love for the first time. Perhaps that’s why they hid themselves. “Who told you that you weren’t good enough for my Love?” Is that what God’s asking us?

All I know is that since the beginning of time people have prided themselves on how much they have and what they’re capable of, as if this is why they should be loved and respected. And since the beginning of time, God has favored the weak who have nothing to pride themselves in, as if to show humanity that he loves our non-fake bad parts infinitely more than he loves our fake good parts. We can’t earn this love by being good enough, strong enough, etc. We are what we are and that’s all it takes for God to love us (of course, he loves us too much to let us stay that way so he encourages us to grow but doesn’t make it a requirement for His Love).

Sometime I’ll tell you the tale of how I came to concretely realize this, but for now it’s time for work!

Think about this stuff. Srsly. And read the beattitudes for a glimpse of who has power in God’s Kingdom.

Communal Living Remixed

I chose this title because I already made a post called Communal Living which will most likely get rewritten/deleted (or already has been, depending on when you’re reading this) when I have more time to sit down and write about it (and with a clearer, more orderly mind). Also, I chose this as a kind of salutation to Empire Remixed, the blog I just discovered and from which I’m going to copy/paste some stuff. The following ’stuff’ is an excerpt from an entry about intentional community. This is what immediately caught my attention, but I would say the rest is worth reading as well. Here is the link.

In the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross and God in His offering of love, we find a model to emulate in our communities. Intentional community is a choice to open your arms, heart, and life in love and allow the broken to reject you. Though we carry Christ, and in His image are holy and wholly unique, we do not always reflect His beauty.

In our brokenness we choose to hurt each other, we choose bitterness, and we choose a lifestyle that puts a way of having over a way of being. When we choose intentional community, we say to the real people within the community “I am broken. I will let you see my brokenness, and allow the possibility that you may not love me knowing all of this pain.”

Edit: As Tyler pointed out on my Facebook note (it’s a copy/paste of this, except for this edit which I’m making now), the rest of the article is tremendous. I do recommend you read it. Also, I found another authentic, intentional community that seems to seek to be the Kingdom. Link here.

Love Somebody

This is a copy/paste of one of Derek’s Facebook notes.  We’ve been talking a lot about this lately and I’m really glad he wrote this. I know it’s something he’s been frustrated with lately, so it’s pretty raw, which is great. Here it is:

I have a lot of frustration with my world lately. I feel like no one wants to be honest. No one wants to seek the things that really matter. Everyone is so concerned with what everyone else thinks of them that they end up wearing a mask in every setting they’re in. Someone who is blatantly honest about the way they are feeling is seen as rude. It’s socially unacceptable. It makes people uncomfortable when someone shares what is really going on inside them. But isn’t that the most important? What is a friendship or relationship based on if that isn’t acceptable?

We all act like everything is 100% peachy all the time. There is no way that is reality. In a world as messed up as this one, someone we interact with on a daily basis is probably having a bad day for one reason or another. Either we don’t care enough to really ask someone how they’re really doing or when someone does ask us that question, we don’t say how we’re really feeling. We lie. We put on the happy mask that says everything in my life is great! How do we ever expect to help each other and really be there for each other if we aren’t transparent enough to tell people how we’re really doing? How do we ever expect other people to overcome struggle in their lives when we won’t even admit our own?

What is and isn’t socially acceptable annoys the crap out of me. If someone says “Come and talk to me if you need anything,” then mean it. It’s that simple. If you want to be there for someone, then be there for someone. That person is not usually going to ask you for help when they’re really down. They’re not going to want to talk about it. IF you’re a true friend, then love on them. Do something. Take initiative. It doesn’t mean you need to be the Dr. Phil in their lives. Just be there. It doesn’t take much too really show someone you care about them.

It seems to me that there are so many things that are backwards in my life. I would tell you that the friendships I have in my life are very important to me. I feel like they should be more important than a night of studying. Yet how easy is it to use school as an excuse to not spend time with someone? “Oh, believe me I would hang out with you, but I’ve got a busy next three weeks. How about sometime during Christmas break?” Congratulations. You’ve just succeeded in making someone feel like they don’t matter to you. Of course you’re busy. We’re all busy. Busy is easy to do in our society. It’s slowing down that’s hard. Take time to love somebody.

How the Hell should I title this?

Ugh… Will I ever conquer myself? I made great strides tonight (I’m writing this at 5AM)… I laid down pieces of me, confessing some of the deepest parts of my being to people and putting myself totally on the line. I mean these are parts of my depravity that I rarely let myself see, much less God, much less other human beings. The Truth kicks my ass. A lot. I’m totally vulnerable, but after having worked through it, I’m at peace with even the worst possible reactions to these confessions. I’m confident in myself again. I have some measure of my security and self identity in God where it needs to be and not in my masculinity, fake-spirituality/religiousness, or even my “normality”. I’ve allowed the Truth to wittle me down to a very little man, but a little man who can only rely on God for his identity.

Cliche as that sounds, it’s a great place to be, methinks. Blessed are the poor in spirit and stuff, right? I’m starting to understand why the first are last and the last are first. I’m starting to realize why there aren’t losers when Jesus wins, because Jesus makes himself a loser so we can win. I’m starting to realize that that’s how we are to live. Submissive to others. Vulnerable. I’m re-understanding this death-to-ourselves concept about which Paul spoke so passionately. I’m a little, itty-bitty man who thinks I’m a lot bigger with a lot more power, influence, and control than I really have. I can say that now. And I don’t give a damn if other people think that’s a handicap.

I’m secure, healthy, whole, mature as my heavenly Father is mature, at least for the time being. Depravity will probably seep in and mess with me for a while, but for now I’m resting in God. And there is peace.

Blessings,

Craig

Truth

My facebook status currently reads “Craig is learning about Truth.” Last week, Craig was learning about Love. It’s interesting to note that I couldn’t tell you when I stopped learning about Love and started learning about Truth. This is because, I think, the two flow together seamlessly. Just like all themes of Christianity (except it seems to me that good themes flow together on an opposite pole from bad themes like selfishness, pridefulness, and dishonesty).

Anyways, I’ve learned a lot about truth and about the lies I tell myself lately. It’s been an amazing past couple of weeks as I’ve realized that the truth is convicting to those of us who are perfect. It, like exercise to the body, makes us feel good about ourselves in a healthy fashion, unlike lies which, like sweets and excessive video gaming, are instantly gratifying and pleasurable. My decreasing fear of the Truth has caused me to put more of myself into relationships (that is, make myself more vulnerable in conversation–giving my friend power over me in a sense) which has yeilded fruit in the form of more trusting relationships and friends who are willing to tell me intimate details of their lives so that I can have something of them to love and protect. Truth is amazing.

Anyways, I regard everything pro-Christian with extreme skepticism as I’ve found more-often-than-not the case is that these slogans, movies, policies, etc are driven by hateful intentions and seek to elevate Christians above other social groups. This is the worst place for Christians. Christianity is good, but it should never be powerful in worldly ways. As such, it should not successfully be attractive to the world as many Churches try to make it (however, the opposite–that which is unattractive or boring is Godly–is not necessarily true).

All of this was going to point to a quote that I saw, but it’s deeper than I can really grasp so I won’t comment on what I don’t understand. But the above pretty much points to what I thought it meant. :p