This post follows hot on the heels of the last, The One Year Hurrah! It’s a quite moving piece from one of our readers, @MarcGeorge from Twitter.
Marc commented that one thing he likes about CoolRel is…
“the humanity and pants around the ankles exposure (so-to-speak) approach to exploring faith and Christianity in relation to people and how it works in people’s lives.”
In characteristic CoolRel style he then emailed me the following. For me, it’s an impassioned message that Christians would do well to listen to. But I’ll stop wittering on and let you get on to reading it.
Why I Fell Out With Christianity
I’m not a Christian anymore, even though I believe and love Jesus Christ. I’m not a Christian even though I believe and love God, even though I pray twice a day.
Am I religious? Yes but not in an orthodox way. I pray twice a day; once before breakfast and again before I sleep but I pray to God, directly.
I believe in God but my view of God isn’t one of Charlton Heston sitting on a cloud judging me. My view of God is of an all pervasive force of spirit that connects everyone and everything in the ‘perception’ of our world.
If you want to go into Philosophy, for me, God lives in the space in between atoms and particles, He is the Force that triggers that kinetic energy, the spark if you will that energises atoms and particles that lead all the way up to us.
While I’m on the subject of God – I see God to be found in many forms and in many aspects of religion. Christian, Pagan, Muslim, whichever religion you wish to choose – they all worship the same God as far as I’m concerned, just in a different way and to a different aspect of the same being.
Am I a Christian? No, not anymore. I was bought up as Christian. I attended Sunday school, Bible studies, church twice a week but as I grew my perception of Christianity changed. My view of Jesus changed.
I still love Jesus, I still consider him to be one of the most important figures in history. I recognise him as being the Son of God. But I will not worship him as a Deity or even God Incarnate.
He was a man. Same as me. Same as you. He was a great man to be sure. He was someone to listen to and adhere to but he was still a man. He had temptation, weakness, strength and all the other wonderful things we people experience.
Which makes Jesus, in my opinion, an ever greater person than he’s given credit for. How? Well if Jesus was just like you and I, he overcame all of that, saw through humanity and raised above petty everyday things. He did that well enough to transcend and become one with God.
Surely, that was the example and point of Jesus Christ? That through the lessons he left us, we too can transcend and join with God as Jesus did?
Or not. It’s just my opinion.
Christianity seems too pre-occupied with the message and the messenger for my tastes. What about God? He sent the message after all. God & Jesus are too intertwined for me.
There are other things I dislike about Christianity too. I can’t be part of intolerance on any level including sexual discrimination and I’m talking about Gay Bishops and Women priests. Who in my world, are welcome to the roles in church if they have or had the calling.
Who are you, or for that matter anyone else, to judge who is holy or not? Who is it that says one person is more holy than another? Surely it’s down to the individual and God to deem if they are or not.
How arrogant are those nay’sayers who say it’s against God’s will?
If someone wishes to devote themselves to God, who are you to object? Religion, doesn’t even come into this debate. God doesn’t come into this.
Do you really think God cares who sleeps with who? What does it matter if someone is gay or not? Sex and Christian worship don’t mix unless things have changed in the last few years.
Sexuality shouldn’t come into the realms of Christianity. Tolerance for all, remember?
Also, What can be more Holy than the creation of life? Surely, women, who are biologically designed to create and carry and nurture life are (by that definition), holy. They carry the physical embodiment of creation (in our own image) when they become mothers. It makes no sense at all.
What an arrogant lot Christians are.
I’m not a Christian anymore.
__________
MarcGeorge is a regular reader of CoolReligion and a writer in his own right. If you feel like you fancy commenting on his piece then feel free to do so below.
What can I say, Marc, but thank you. What I would like to say, in response, would require several evenings, and lots of your favoured beverage ;).
The one thing I most agree with: yup – Christians are too arrogant. If they spent more time pondering such statements as, “with the measure you judge, you shall be judged”, and that most wondrous of stories of Jesus’ response to situation of the woman caught (more like entrapped) in adultery (John chapter 8 for any who read this and don’t know), then I genuinely believe they would be a great deal more gracious and forgiving.
That Jesus is fully human I have no doubt, but I do part the ways with you otherwise, as C S Lewis famously put it – Jesus didn’t leave us with the option of simply calling Him a great teacher. Particularly in John’s Gospel (though there are plenty of examples in the Synoptics), every time you have a statement beginning ‘I am …’, one is meant to think of the OT background, and the Burning Bush in particular (Exodus 3 for those who don’t know).
But, enough for now. I am honoured to have read your thoughts on this, and would love to see more from you.
Thanks, again, for sharing this.
Derek
Hi Derek, thank you for your kind comments & fair point about your belief of Jesus. I admire and respect your point of view and will read the Synoptics – I’ll be as open minded in arguments for and against.
Beautifully spiritual. Sums up my feelings perfectly. I’m glad I found you over twitter and think, if we were on the same continent, we’d be friends. But, for now, I’ll continue to read your posts and pass them around.
As a Christian, I must agree, the Christian Church has gotten far to arrogant for its own good. I left the church years ago for much of the same reasons the writer and a few of my own, but I still count myself a Christian. I view all faiths that hold to something sacred as worthy of respect and not something to be looked down upon. Heck. My girlfriend is a secular humanist. She believes equality for all possibly more strongly than I believe in God and I count that worthy of respect.
No matter where you go or what you believe, stay true to yourself and remember to love others as you love yourself. Because I think that is probably the one thing that all enlightened people can get behind, regardless of the specifics of all other beliefs.