John 12:47 … on bullying God (05/21/15)
There are more than a few Truths out there worth noting, and one of them is the following: Within every bully who rears his angry, judgmental and aggressive head rests a heart that is wounded and in immense pain … And another Truth is this one: The only way to deal effectively with bullies is to give them the one thing they are missing — which happens to also be the one thing they most fear — flagrant Forgiveness & unconditional Love.
And so today I publicly give a shout-out of Forgiveness & Love to one of our society’s most insidious bullies —- conservative Christianity.
Evangelicals & fundamentalists, your dogma is dying and you know it … You are vainly trying to keep your exclusivist faith alive by meeting en masse in mega-churches, and yet those caverns do nothing more than boldly announce how feebly your condemnations ring … You are futilely trying to resuscitate your limiting beliefs by following the hollow words of hypocrites & adhering to the meandering messages of megalomaniacs, and yet deep within you KNOW their words are meaningless and you KNOW their sermons are sin-filled.
And so you begin to feel insecure — you begin to feel afraid — and you begin to bully … You bully others by telling them that they are sinners … You bully others by telling them that they are damned … You bully others by telling them that God will judge them … You bully others by telling them that their far more gentle (see “radical” — or even “heretical”) interpretations of scripture are blasphemy … You bully them by telling them that their lifestyles are immoral or that their wishes for Peace are flawed. My conservative Friends, all this shows us is that you are afraid — you are deathly afraid that your God is “losing” and you are not-so-subtly terrified that your comfortable culture is fading away … And this is why you bully those who believe differently than you; not because you are cruel or cold-hearted or callous or even clueless — but simply because you are scared.
And ironically, even tragically, in doing so you are also bullying The Way of Jesus Christ — you are also bullying your own Lord & Savior — you are also bullying your God.
Well, my conservative Christian compatriots, fortunately for us ALL, none of this really matters. For if one thing is certain it is this: IF your Jesus is even half as awesome as he seems to be in the Gospels of your Bible, and IF your God is even half as Loving as Jesus says he is therein, then your arrogance & your judgment & your aggression & your bullying will all be forgiven — and your Christianity will continue to smoothly evolve into a far more Loving, a far more humble, a far more accepting, and thus a far more godly form.
Amen … Let it continue to be so.
“The Father judges NO ONE, but has given all judgment to the Son … You judge by human standards, and yet I JUDGE NO ONE … Indeed, I do not judge anyone — even those who hear my words and do not keep them.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 5:22, John 8:15 & John 12:47)
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