The Image We're SUPPOSED To Be Bearing

     I'd like to share something that again has been on my heart today. It's a situation, not a testimony this time.

     For school, I'm reading a book called Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded by John Scalzi. The book is about John's blog called "Whatever" and all of the hate mail he gets from it. He is a very opinionated man with strong beliefs and morals. He talks about politics, parenting, book writing, and religion. I bolded religion because of his first chapter.

     Since John uses a nasty word, we're going to replace it with the word "butt", okay? The first chapter in this book is called "Jesus Buttheads". That immediately made me go, "Oh great, here we go." As I begin reading this chapter, John is very logical in his sentences. He talks about how he has no hatred for Christians or any believers. But what he hates are the majority. You see, he has the image that all Christians are, well, what the title of the chapter says. He explains how he has been corrected and reprimanded and talked down on by multiple "Christians" because of the way he lives his life. He even goes on to say that because of these actions all Christians are butts. Here are some quotes:

"Whatever the rationale, they're being butts."

"At no point in the Bible does Jesus say 'be a butt in My name'"

"Lots of other Christians seem to get through life without feeling called upon to be a butt in the service of Christ."

     And there's plenty more you can tell. Although he is being irrational by assuming all Christians are this word, it still disappoints me that John has been rubbed the wrong way by people who are supposed to be representing Jesus on this earth.

     It almost makes me irritated that fellow believers have made John feel this way. We are supposed to be Christ-like, not buttheads. And now because of the selfish way some believers have been acting, John has an anger towards all Christians. This makes me mad.

     Come on! We are supposed to be living our lives as Christ would, not as jerks or rude or arrogant or self-glorifying fools! We turned off a talented writer of a man from following Jesus because of our selfishness. This makes me so sad to see this happening. If Christians rubbed one man the wrong way by acting arrogant or prideful, I don't even want to know how many other people have a hatred for Christians because of our selfish acts or our prideful speech. We are no better than ANYONE. NOT ONE! We can't earn the Love we've been given so we have no right to treat others improperly because the Love is not ours to sell! The thin lines that divide the sinner from the saint leave me no pride when it all comes down to grace. Right and wrong are both missing mark. We have no right to treat non-believeers differently than we treat other believers. Sometimes I think that we all need to re-read the Gospels to see exactly what Christ stood for instead of pushing it aside.

I am in no way calling anyone out in this blog. This is just my opinion and my feelings towards a topic that hurts me.