religious lib writes:

religiouslib writes: Friday, March, 02, 2007 11:31 PM

sjt18,

I guess the thing many conservatives don't seem to understand is that their view of the world, politics, and religion aren't the only ones that matter.

Let’s say that I didn't get into a long explanation of my set of beliefs because the Christian community I have been involved with for 50 years uses Jesus Christ as the role model and hence, when someone says they are a Christian we take it on face value until proven otherwise.

I have been surrounded by good Christian people all my life and have never seen Christians act the way the "so-called" Christian conservatives do on this board.

One of the lessons I have learned over the years is that God is too complex to truly understand all his teachings and that being a Christian is a journey towards the truth and the light using his word as the guide.
The idea that any Christian knows everything about the Bible and God is simply puzzling to anyone who has studied the Bible for any length of time.

I grew up in a family of preachers (my brother is an ordained Baptist minister) and I have sat in Sunday school rooms and sanctuaries and discussed the meaning of almost every single passage of the New Testament again and again. Every time I re-read a passage I learn something new or see the passage in a different light.

I do know this. Christians like inkling revival obviously have not been around other Christians who were sincerely searching God’s word for enlightenment and guidance because according to him, he has it all figured out.

There is no litmus test to be a Christian. That is the reason I put down John 3:16 as a core belief. I have had that verse memorized since I was 5 years old and to challenge me like I didn't know what I was talking about is not only insulting but un-Christian.

That is the problem here, many conservative Christians have all the answers when many of the answers are unknowable until we meet face to face with God.

Yet you and others on this board want to judge others based on your interpretation of the Gospel. I find it quite telling that conservatives quote more from the Old Testament and Paul than they do from Jesus.

Could it be that their politics would not be so conservative if they had to live with the actual text of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?

To decide who is a better Christian is blasphemy on your part in my opinion. Who made you the judge of God's servants?

Did it ever occur to you that maybe God has plans for some Christians that are different than others? Some of us were meant to be missionaries, some were meant to be preachers, some to be youth directors. Could it be that some were meant to be liberal and some conservative?

Conservatives have the brazen audacity to speak for God and decide who is Christian enough and what a Christian really is?

I am sorry but those conservatives have missed the basic precepts of the teachings of Christ. The church is a community of believers and when you rule that some who gave their heart to God are not fit to worship in your church because you disagree with their politics, you have lost your way.

It comes down to this, the hatred and the name calling and the derisive comments I have received from conservative Christians on this board because I dared to be a Christian and a liberal does not speak well for their personal beliefs and their relationship with God.

May God bless you and keep you.