Is it too much to ask?

[Moxie]

I am frustrated.

 

Christians say they are not perfect, but they are forgiven because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. They say the Holy Spirit guides the church. Is it too much to ask for solid proof? 

 

I see christians, or people who claim to be christians, speaking hateful racist things. I even heard a pastor publicly tell people to pray for Obama to die. I hear more Christians allude to this idea that Anglo saxons are god's chosen ones, and the Europeans are destined to civilize the world with Christianity. Even the KKK claim to be Christians.

 

Is it too much to ask for a global unity among Christians that is undeniable? An unmistakeable movement toward healing and reconciliation? When can we say, "Now THERE is a Christian!" Or "Look! What amazing supernatural things these Christians are doing!"

 

This racial animus among white Christians and the racial divide among churches in the American south makes me wonder how anyone can really believe in this religion. Sometimes I want to find a way to believe. I get nostalgic for my teenage Jesus freak days.

 

But there is too much blatant racism and hatred boiling over among Christians these days.

 

What do you think?

[sdelsolray]

 

...

What do you think?

Many religions promote tribalism in one form or another.  Christianity is one of those religions.  Racism is a sub-species of tribalism.  

 

That being said, no religion invented tribalism.  The actual evidence demonstrates tribalism is a social meme dating back perhaps to the emergence of the homo sapiens species.  In addition, social behavior of other mammals demonstrate forms of tribalism.  The evidence for genetic predisposition to tribalism is also present.  Thus, it appears tribalism has a long evolutionary history and is both genetic and memetic.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Believers live in an odd netherworld of belief in beings of fantastic magical powers while living in a world that is so clearly void of any such interventions outside of the stories they endlessly quote as evidence of power. The book becomes the measure of reality instead of the other way around. Fools for Christ becomes a badge of honor instead of a head-shaking shame. Then each congregation tends to live apart from other congregations, sometimes idolizing a particular pastor. This insular behavior can lead to some odd conclusions about things like history, purpose, the will of God, what is sin, what is important in life, and so on, even when they have scriptures that speak fairly clearly about amassing wealth, what happens to those who ignore the poor, and so on. These are simply humans with normal desires for sex (and a statistical number of homosexuals caught in belief that condemns them, leading to some terrible frustrations with their own existence), who want wealth AND the blessing of god, who want power and fame while preaching the opposite.

 

Also, it was exposed in the news this last week about how the Southern Baptists were essentially founded on the idea of the Curse of Ham (not pork, but a son of Noah) who they believe was turned into a black man, and thus being black is a curse. They only publicly rejected this concept this week, though some congregations and pastors rejected it previously. But they removed any reference to the curse doctrine from their repudiation of racism, which could be seen as either an embarrassment of their past, or an unwillingness to actually reject it completely.

[Ellinas]

Yes, it is too much to ask, and such enquiry will never be met with a satisfactory answer.

 

That's why Christianity is bankrupt as a valid belief system.