Superiority in being Christian

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03 Jul 2015, 5:19 pm

I've been trying to figure out how to respond to this comment, but I have no idea how. How does one combat the idea of such a driven superiority?

Quote:

It really depends on our world-views. I have talked to Christians that believe that the earth is millions of years old and that marriage was around before Christianity. In a sense, they're right. Christianity came after the events on the cross. Marriage, however, does not pre-date a belief in God or his mandate. God invented marriage when he created woman. He created a woman, not another man, to be Adam's lifelong companion. He made woman uniquely different from man and he made the two complementary. He did this because the union of the two reflected the relationship between himself and the church. One interesting thing to note is that Adam witnessed God creating. God created one of each animal in front of Adam as he named them so he could not be fooled by the serpent. The woman, however, had seen nothing. She had to take her husband's word on it- and that's who the snake went to. Adam bit the apple, knowing full well what would happen, but he was not willing for his other half to be condemned to death while he lived on. Adam and Eve's relationship reflects Christ's relationship with us. The church has far too long listened to the whispering of the serpent and has made concessions to our faith. The idea of marriage lives in all cultures because we all came from Adam and Eve and that desire for another half is as much as part of us as the moral law is written on our hearts. The other religions and faiths all share the same roots, which is why there are universal ideals such as marriage. We as Christians damaged marriage by allowing things such as convenient divorce and the government to come into the equation. We've allowed marriage to be cheapened by ignoring the hypersexualized culture stripping away the most sacred part of marriage- the two becoming one flesh.

As it not being something that will hurt us... it will. And it is. And it has. People are being forced to choose between making ends meet or standing by their beliefs. Homosexuals had the same rights as everyone else and the same benefits through civil unions. The point of this debate was never marriage- it's an attack on religious freedoms and one small step towards Christian persecution in our country.

No sin is better or worse than another. Homosexuality, however, is a celebrated sin. If there were murder pride events, parades for adultery, if they were promoting thieves and telling us that we should let them live their lives as they want I would have the same problem. The day that there are these pride events for the other sins and they are forcing the faith community to accept them is the day that I speak out against them just as loudly. However, that's not the case. Homosexuality is celebrated, and in crude and blasphemous ways. It encourages adultry, it promotes an environment of harm for those involved and any children unfortunate enough to get caught in the cross hairs. There is nothing good about the lifestyle. Asking Christians to "live and let live" so to speak is like asking us to let the drunk get in his car and drive off. He's going to get himself killed and it's likely he'll end up killing someone else. It's not loving to let him drive off because it'll make him happy, it's loving to take the keys away and get him somewhere safe for the night.

It's not that we've had power, it's just that our authority has come from God. When a culture moves away from an absolute authority they move towards a subjective one. Right and wrong become a matter of opinion and that road leads down the same road as Germany did in WWII. CHristians in Germany just sang louder so they didn't have to hear the screams of the people on the trains. They didn't want to get involved- and as a result, thousands died. By the time it got bad, they were already too far gone. THey were slaves to those in power. I will go down fighting before I let that happen.

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Campin_Cat
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04 Jul 2015, 5:11 am

kamiyu910 wrote:

How does one combat the idea of such a driven superiority?

You don't----not in THIS instance, at least. I wouldn't touch this, with a 10-foot pole! This person is CLEARLY not the type of person who can be swayed by anything you, or anybody else, might say.

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kamiyu910
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04 Jul 2015, 7:43 am

Campin_Cat wrote:

kamiyu910 wrote:

How does one combat the idea of such a driven superiority?

In other words, back away slowly, then turn and run as fast as I can...

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Spiderpig
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04 Jul 2015, 12:14 pm

Well, if you have faith in something, you believe you're right in believing it, or else you wouldn't believe it in the first place. Therefore, you believe those who don't share your beliefs are in the wrong. Now, if what you believe is a doctrine which considers belief in itself a virtue, and disbelief a vice, you're already deeming yourself superior to those who disagree with your faith, and probably regarding them with contempt. If you're in a position of power, you have a nice excuse in place for burning at the stake anyone it behooves you to get rid of.

The idea that believing what you believe is a virtue, and inherently makes you better than unbelievers, has proven to be an effective trick to compete with other doctrines through memetic selection.

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04 Jul 2015, 12:45 pm

Spiderpig wrote:

Yeah... I've been told I'm not a very good Christian because I don't mind if people do their own thing rather than bowing down to my specific religion. And if I try to point out to another Christian when they are scripturally incorrect, twisting or taking a verse out of context, or ignoring the (as close to as we have) original language... (such as how it wasn't the disobeying of God with Adam and Eve that was the big issue, it was the sin of Pride, of wanting to put themselves up with God) or how this person claims things that aren't in the scripture (the naming of animals in front of Adam and having Eve completely ignorant is pure speculation).

I have been hurt by more Christians than any other religion. My pagan friends have actually been the ones who have stood by me through everything. It doesn't change my belief, but that's just it, it's what I believe and I'm not going to force anyone to believe it (that does not make a true Christian!) nor am I going to condemn anyone to hell. That's not my job. If someone wants to talk to me about our different beliefs, I'm more than willing to share, but I won't cram it down peoples throats and gloat saying I know the only true way (because logically, there is a possibility all Christians are wrong. Still doesn't stop me from believing, but well... I can't not think about how we know barely an atom in the universe of all the knowledge there is to know, and how there are so many things that are unprovable - like unicorns and faeries! lol)

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envirozentinel
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04 Jul 2015, 1:24 pm

I like your refreshing "take" on these things. I grew up with a fundamentalist mom and as I still see her at least once a week or so I know there are certain things she'll never shift her position on. There is so much we don't know and we never stop learning new things about the universe around us all the time.

Nowadays I prefer to avoid talking about stuff that I know she won't budge on. She's very good to me, and she looks after my dog whom I can't keep where I stay, but apart from accompanying her to church from time to time, I rather talk about uncontroversial things whenever possible.

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MiLK
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04 Jul 2015, 9:32 pm

kamiyu910 wrote:

Spiderpig wrote:

Do you have something like a concordance? Look up humility and arrogance and see which one gets the most thumbs up. I think you have more humility than (s)he. Not to mention (s)he's in an environment where he's been brainwashed constantly.

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05 Jul 2015, 1:07 am

MiLK wrote:

kamiyu910 wrote:

Spiderpig wrote:

I do have a concordance, Strong's Exhaustive. My dad learned Hebrew and my brother learned Ancient Greek and we grew up studying the bible in depth and I'm so glad we found a church that does that too, and the pastor tells us to call him out in the middle of a service if he gets something wrong. I'm so thankful I grew up in a studious family who taught me that it's good to question things (even God says to test him).

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Lintar
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05 Jul 2015, 10:28 pm

You don't need to respond to this, except to agree with them 100%. That will make him/her very happy (who wrote this, by the way?), and then they will go away and pester someone else.

kamiyu910
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05 Jul 2015, 10:43 pm

Lintar wrote:

You don't need to respond to this, except to agree with them 100%. That will make him/her very happy (who wrote this, by the way?), and then they will go away and pester someone else.

I'm certainly not planning on responding, just backing away slowly... it was just a comment on deviantArt from someone who is very deeply into their faith.

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06 Jul 2015, 12:55 am

I find it weird how Christians in America like to claim that every little thing is some great big persecution of Christianity. The fact is, three fourths of America is Christian, anything from Episcopalians who marry gays after Sunday services to far right evangelicals who truly think that Jesus is gonna show up tomorrow. The thing is, these Christians sitting in upper middle class suburbs and driving Mercedeses to Sunday services in some great big huge megachurch which cost several million bucks to build (never mind the lighting and heat/AC bills!) where the preacher has gotten rich from donations don't have a clue what REAL persecution looks like. People marched through snowdrifts until they drop dead or renounce their faith. There's a movie called Sandstorm that was made (and banned) in China that deals with the persecution of Falun Gong devotees, using the same techniques used against Christians. It should be on Youtube. Gays marrying is NOT persecution of Christians! :roll: :roll:

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06 Jul 2015, 11:03 am

First off I want to commend Kamiyu910 for sharing an honest question and her own struggles with faith. The other Christians who think of you as Less probably need to review the whole concept of God’s mercy and grace.

Let me share a story from my life- I think it could be similar to our overall struggle.

I am a Southern Baptist and was an Army Chaplain for over 30 years. While in Chaplain School, (Ft Monmouth, 1981) I encountered chaplains of many other denominations- Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Pentecostal, Catholic, Jewish, LDS, even other Baptists … For that class, there were over 150 in all. I had no problem hearing, discussing the differences in our beliefs accepting they were of different faith traditions. But of that group, 15 of us were Southern Baptist and our “discussions” would get heated because we did think we had to be the same. Probably the reason you have so many Baptist churches is they fight with each other, then split and start another church down the block from the first.

My analogy, Christians many times think we all have to be the same but God does try to tell us, NOT to compare ourselves to each other, but to try to become more like Christ.

OP- God created each of us as a Unique Masterpiece, it is only His voice that matters for any of us.

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