Prudes

I’m a Christian. But, I get so irritated with some of the stuff I see Christians pushing. For example, I just saw a Christian friend post a meme with a Bible verse about how in the last days perilous times shall come. “Men shall be lovers of their own selves”…, the verse says. The meme shows a picture of a guy and a girl taking selfies. Because taking a selfie is the definition of self love apparently. Now, it’s fine if someone believes this. But, this guy posted this meme from a Facebook page that has a profile pic, which is a selfie.            

The idea behind the verse is to not be selfish. It’s not condemning self love. You cannot love others if you have no love of yourself. It’s impossible to empathize with a person. You cannot treat someone the same way you would want to be treated if you do not love yourself.  You would be like “Sure! It’s ok to rob you. I think I should be robbed also. I have no self worth so you shouldn’t either. Why are you crying? I’m doing unto you what I think should be done to me. I’m not worth much.” I just get irritated with some of the ideas people have.           

I saw a Christian article that talked about how some movies are damaging to the soul. They are full of bad words, and dirty things. A part of me agrees with what they are saying, but then I think. The Bible was written by people who lived in dirt floor huts and saw animals having sex daily. They probably heard and saw their parents having sex, and brothers, and cousins. They knew what sex was from the age of a toddler. The entire world in modern times is the same way; only in America are we shielded from such things.            

People in the days of the Roman Empire when the New Testament was written, saw women breastfeeding in public all the time. It was not sexual. But today, if you see a movie that shows a breast, you are called wicked for watching it. If you are at the mall and breastfeed your kid, people want to hang a Scarlet A on your neck. It’s ridiculous, and creates a situation that has led to hard core porn. A response to denying people freedom is for the person to go find it elsewhere and get destroyed. It’s the idea of the forbidden fruit. The Bible teaches that wicked people will be wicked. They must be spiritually transformed. But, these Pharisee Christians act like laws can stop evil. Laws have value, but they cannot transform people, only Jesus Christ can do that, and we need to stop expecting the un-redeemed to act in a spiritual manner. The laws we impose, will be used against us, and are being used against us.            

King David danced through the streets naked in celebration of the Arks return. But, these folks consider nudity wrong. No your heart is wrong. The Bible was written in a time when public executions were demanded by God, and were performed at the city gate. It was legal to kill your son if he was disobedient.  Armies were legally able to keep slaves from conquered peoples. These were women who they turned into trophy wives.             

These prudes wanna worry about false teaching. They should be concerned about the teachers in their midst who are putting weights on their shoulders that even they cannot bear. It’s totally ridiculous. Yes, God ordained public executions, but folks like these say that your video game is the devil. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying anything bad about God; I’m talking about the idea that God supports some of our ridiculous notions about sex and violence. I do not think He does. His law and the actions of his servants prove it. He desires Love.            

When you preach against looking at porn, homosexuality, and fornication more than you do about loving and helping the poor, then you probably have missed the boat somewhere. Maybe if you preached about helping the poor and got your congregation to do something, there might be fewer girls willing to sell themselves for money in the porn industry. Maybe they wouldn’t feel that they are alone to pull themselves up by their own garter belt.            

Maybe if we stopped preaching about fornication, and started preaching about loving the sinner, and helping those in need, maybe there would be fewer abortions, because young girls know they have support for their ruined life. Maybe if they didn’t feel like their life was ruined in the first place, they wouldn’t think they should hide it and get rid of the baby they made.            

Is it possible that if we focused on love, and helping each other, we would be able to play a part in people’s lives, and be able to tell them about Jesus Christ? Maybe we would be in a position to explain how our life choices lead us to places we do not want to go. There are huge amounts of people who do not respond to being preached at. They respond to love, truth, wisdom, and hope.            

We focus on the wrong things, and millions suffer for it.

(Photographs: Ceiling of the Nation Museum of the American Indian in D.C. and A sculpture of Romulus and Remus suckling on the she-wolf, in the National Gallery of Art.)