Lifestyle Christianity

Mar 21, 2005 14:40

Here's a post from one of my _gopchristians_ LJ community that I belong to:

Dear Community,

Hi! You don't know me, but that's okay. I've only joined for the purpose of making this post, and I will be leaving as soon as it's finished, as your User Info is pretty emphatic about the sort of people who are supposed to "get a clue" and high-tail it out. :)

That said, I hope you don't think of me as a troll, because I'm not here to say anything critical or hateful. Quite the opposite, in fact!

I'm Canadian, so I align myself with neither American party, and I'm a humanist (it's a form of atheist that emphasizes loving humanity through all its faults; other forms of atheism, such as nihilism, can involve a complete criticism and abhorration of everything), so I obviously don't align myself with any denomination of Christianity.

In spite of this, I do sometimes find myself perusing Republican or Christian sites. And, more often than not, I find a lot of very fanatic, hate-filled Republican and Christian LJ communities, as well as a lot of hate-filled right-wing sites throughout the net. The worst speak of oppression and are hate-mongerers of a kind that promotes violence. Just today I stumbled on www.godhatesfags.com, and its associates such as www.godhatescanada.com and www.godhatesamerica.com . To see sites that not only celebrate hate crimes but also revel in disasters like 9-11 and the Tsunami as "acts of God" sent to punish us for the sins of our culture was ultimately sickening, and devastating.

And then I found your site, and its userinfo, which is very emphatic about the sort of people just not welcome here. "Oh dear," I thought, "another one of those."

But to my great astonishment, I find your User Info to be a poor representation of the majority of people who write here. Sure, I don't agree with all your opinions, but your attitude is exemplary. In the face of trolls you act with the maturity the trolls lack, and when one of your members overreacts or goes out of his/her way to pick a fight, the greater majority of you seem intent on maintaining a level of decorum, and respect, that your opponents don't always match.

For this, I applaud you. For this, I THANK you. Though not at all religious, I recognise that religion can do tremendous good in the world - when it's used to spread love, not hate. And I recognise that being a Republican does not necessitate you being a cold-hearted, malevolent being. But I do feel tremendously saddened when some factions tarnish the name of everyone else.

In spite of this, though, Republicans as a whole can be good people, and Christians as a whole can be tremendously good people. Your community is living proof of this.

So I promise you I'm not here to troll. I'm posting here just to thank you for practicing such goodness. The internet is, more often than not, a cesspool of antagonism and hate. I thank you for creating at least one haven in it.

Honestly, I'm posting to thank you all for existing.

So, please, keep up the great work.

Peace.

END POST

So it's pretty interesting here that this nonbeliever is so touched by our Christian ethic. To be honest, it is the hope of Christians (or at least Christ's hope for Christians to hope) that the whole earth will become the Kingdom of God. What is portrayed in the media and in the culture today is that you being a Christian really sucks because you have to hate gays, you can't drink with your buddies again -- basically, you can't have fun because it's a life of asceticism. Nothing can be further away from the truth. Though there is a moral code of right or wrong, God never commands us to judge others, in fact, when Jesus was asked what was the greatest of the commandments, he boiled everything down to: 1) Love God and 2) Love others. So simple, so powerful.
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