Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Irresistible Revolution
Shane Claiborne definitely called out a lot of people in his book and I'm glad he did it. Not to say that I am anywhere close to his radical standards, I still believe that some things just had to brought to attention. As a Catholic church-goer for my entire life, I feel that I have experienced the church as it is today, the one that Shane disapproves of greatly. I have the same kind of view about these churches. When I think about my church back home, I immediately think of hypocrites and fakes. I strongly agree with his idea that the church has to be redefined and become what it is truly meant to be. One of the facts that got me a little infuriated about churches was that they keep 85% of the offerings given to them for buildings and staff. Claiborne mentions how this borders of embezzlement. I personally do not believe going to church is even necessary for someone to be a good Christian. Today, if you don't go to church, you are automatically assumed to be a bad person, while on the other hand church-goers are considered great people. We shouldn't judge people just by whether they zone out at speaker every sunday or not. Irresistible Revolution talks about making church have more action other than words. Anyone can sit and listen and then go home and do nothing. Church should be a place where acts of God happen regularly, just through kindness towards each other. Though I truly believe that Claiborne's idea of giving up everything is just simply impossible for the average human, I also believe that the church can change for the better by listening to his words. These predisposed assumptions of how Christians are good people can even scare away others by making them think they are not good enough. I thought that Shane's story about the kid who only started to believe he could be a Christian when his youth minister cursed at a tire shows correctly how Christians are viewed. We are all people and we all make mistakes and we should all give an effort to show that no one person is really less sinful than the next.
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I agree, Shane is right on about hypocrites. Think about it: millions of people claim to be Christians, so why aren't there millions of acts of radical, life-changing kindness? I was raised Catholic too and remember thinking how ridiculous it was that once confirmed I was expected by the Catholic church to attend mass every Sunday. Even now (I was re-baptized and attend a non-denominational church), people judge those who don't know as much Scripture or do "enough" charity work. I could die a martyr, but if I missed one Sunday I was a bad Christian? Christianity, above all, is accepting Christ and showing His love to others.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand!!! Christians must change! We must be examples to others!! We must exhibit in our actions that we are Chrisitians!!! We are always the ones that look down on people that don't attend church and push others away that don't fit the guidelines for being a Christian. Being judgemental is a terrible thing! Recently, in my church we had a young man that began attending! He looked about 21 and seemed as if he has had a hard life! To others he didnt display the typical appearance of a committed Christian male but we all accepted him! Well, he just mysteriously stopped coming to our church. We found out that one of our leading members in our church told he that God doesnt like THUGS!! That he must change his appearance if he wants to be accepted and loved because God wont tolerate that!! I WAS SPEECHLESS!! It just shows what Shane makes evident in the book...Christians have lost their way!! We must change!! We are suppose to be on fire for God with every action and word that comes from uses displays him!!! When will things change?
ReplyDeleteAndrew, while i was growing up i went to a Catholic church as well and i tried to be accepting and help with the church. Unfortunately, some church goers believe that are truly better than others. I find that ridiculous because God says a man who lies and a man who murders both commits the same sin in God's eyes. Just like Claiborne was talking about how we must take the plank out of our own eyes before we take the speck out of our brothers. I think that the church is extremely hypocritical and its a shame. I think that God really does want us to worship him, and church is one of the best places to have a personal experience with God. I'm not sure about whether i think you have to go to Church, but i know that many people in my church believe they are "good Christians" because they go to church every Sunday... I also liked the story about the kid on the bus, and i believe that if people understood that you don't need to be perfect to get into heaven a whole ton of people would be a lot more open to Christianity that right now.
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