Saturday, March 01, 2008 |
The "Religious Right" strikes again
It is appauling to me that the biggest hinderance to God's Church growing isn't the homosexuals or the adulterers or the ACLU or the KKK but, instead, it is the conservative Christians. I think yet another picture of this has been painted by the recent "scandal" between John Hagee and John McCain.See McCain Faces Fire Over Minister's Views. Don't get me wrong... I do think that John Hagee is a very good preacher and I can't say that everything that he said about the catholic church is wrong BUT at the same time, attacking another denomination is exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing. But the catholics aren't in the clear either. John Hagee attacks the catholics so they do exactly what Jesus would do and turn the other cheek, right? Not quite. In today's churches it is important to strike back because God can't be honored if we don't? It's seriously pathetic what has become of the Church. It's all about which denomination is better anymore.... the church has become no better than any major corporation in America. It's a sad sad thing that we've let the concept of corporate America even think about entering an organization that is supposed to be about Love and Unity..... and yet, it hasn't just enetered but its BECOME a corporate entity. We, as Christians, question why we are seen as hippocrits and we act like that answer isn't right in front of our face - we flat out our! Think of the typical Christian Church today. The preacher preaches about how God is Love and cares about everyone on week and then the next we talk about how homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to associate with the church. Yes, I believe that homosexuality is a sin but that is MY BELIEF and it is NOT for me to use to attack those that are homosexuals. Each man is judged by God and God alone and it is not our place to be attacking others. The church then goes out and violently protests against pro-choicers.... even the non-violent protests aren't out of love in any way..... Love would be getting to know the woman who is struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. Again, I am totally pro-life but I feel that I'm smart enough to realize that the actions that the church is taking is only complicating the issue more than it has to be. Instead of convincing women that they need to care for this little child growing inside of them we create a situation where now those women want to have the abortion just to spite us. Back to the issue of McCain and Hagee. I don't have many facts in front of me and I don't have the time right now to look into them. Maybe the catholic church did make deals with Hitler in the past and maybe John Hagee is a biggot..... but these aren't things for me to judge. It is God's place to judge and no one else's..... When we judge and we try to remove the sins from this world we are only doing damage to the Church. Jesus made this very clear: Matthew 13:24-29 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' " It's not our responsibility to be uprooting the sins of the world because all we end up doing is creating a mockery of the Church and rendering us completely ineffective. Do we honestly think that God can't move in a world of sin? Do we really think that if we just forget about the sin and focus on loving people no matter what is going to hinder revival? Not according to the book of Acts. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. (Acts 2:1). Its not about who's right and who is wrong but its about the Church making a mockery out of it's self. Labels: ***, christianity, church, hagee, mccain, politics, unity (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Friday, February 29, 2008 |
Open reply to This Week in Science (twis)
I received a comment from Justin (the co-host of This Week in Science) on my blog post of my Open Letter to This Week in Science. I really like what he wrote and I followed up with another comment. Since I know there is no reason for someone to continually check one of my old posts I wanted to bring these up in a new post so that anyone who reads my blog will know that This Week in Science has replied.Dear BibleBoy, Thanks for the open letter! I appreciate that you are speaking out against views you don't agree with, even if that view happens to be mine... I do understand that all christians are not cut from the same cloth, and that all religion is not at odds with science. You like Barack Obama for the same reasons i do... You’re a christian, i'm an atheist... And if JC came back, believe me, he'd get both our votes too! Not because it would prove I was wrong about God (it would prove most Christians views about him to be wrong too), but because he spoke about peace, about helping the least amongst us, amongst other things that i agree with completely. (I think he’d agree with separation of church and state, universal healthcare… I wonder what his economic plan would look like… he’d be some form of socialist that’s for sure) The groups involved in public creationism are doing so by attempting to discredit science, not by following evidence to a truth, but by starting with a belief and attempting to cherry pick the evidence for truths that will fit. It is strict doctrine religion masquerading as science and it makes a mockery of both. With the Dover case is still fresh in my mind, this is more than a matter of personal opinion or belief… It is part of a movement that seeks to destroy the credibility of science, and to put it’s own message in it’s place. A Christian message… but one even you may not relate too. The number of people they reach, whose minds are thereby closed to truth, who are trained to reject facts, to suspect science, who internalize ignorance of evolution… i often feel that science goes undefended, and i am attempting to stand up for it… and yes, i have a snarky toungue, a lack of politeness filters, and a real knack for turning water into gasoline… Well, anyhow, i have been offensive to you and i apologize for that… -TWIS Minion -j- ------ My Reply ------ Justin, Thank you so much for your response. I have since realized that I over-reacted a little bit. I think that I was more hurt than I was upset. I mean, I hear the things you said many times and I will continue to and they dont ever tend to phase me but I think what happened is that I became such a fan of TWiS and developed a lot of respect for you an Kirsten both it hit me in a much different way. Everything you wrote is absolutely true. I don't believe that Christians do anyone a favor by trying to bend the rules to fit what they believe. That would be the opposite of faith. And, quite honestly, no matter which side of the fence you are on it does ultimately get to a point of faith. Everything can be interpreted differently depending on who is doing the interpreting and in ALL cases its going to be slightly skewed because of the way the person thinks. If you've ever seen the "spinning lady" graphic to test whether you are using your right brain or left brain then you know what I'm talking about. Two people can see things completely different and it doesn't mean either of them has to be wrong. I have respect for every human being and I feel that is the most important thing that everyone needs to work on. I have faith in God and I believe that God created everything.... on that same note I do believe that evolution exists to a point because all lifeforms do adapt over time. What complicates things is when "evolution" becomes a swear word inside the Church and any mention of it means your tagged as a sinner. This is the opposite of respect and a true representation of how not respecting someone will hurt BOTH sides. On the other hand, many atheists begin treating concepts of creation in the same way. I appreciate what you and Kirsten do and I am glad you have the beliefs that you do because each week they work in to a podcast that helps me grow in understanding of how aspects of the world work and, while it may seem odd, help me increase my own faith. No matter which side you are on, everyone has to agree that there are some incredibly amazing things that we may never come even close to understanding. If anyone isn't awestruck then he obviously has lost any kind of joy in life. Oh... and GO OBAMA :) Labels: christianity, discrimination, religion, science, this week in science, tolerance, twis (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Friday, February 08, 2008 |
An open letter to This Week in Science
Dear Kirsten Sanford and Justin Jackson,I began listening to This Week in Science in December and it didn't take more than 2 episodes to have me completely hooked. Being able to hear news about things I am interested in with it being presented in an extremely entertaining way is a difficult thing to find and it seems to be exactly what the two of you do every week. During the couple of months that I have been listening I have noticed a somewhat anti-Christian overtone which is something that I could easily deal with simply because I understood that point of view. Before I go on, let me tell you who I am. I am a person who certainly is a Christian by the actual definition but someone who is sometimes affraid to call himself a Christian because of the stereo-type that I seem to constantly be faced with. I am someone who had devoted his life to helping people and respecting people for exactly who they are. I am someone who does my best to hear what every single person is saying because I have a strong belief that I am able to learn something from anyone whether they are like me or not. I am someone who is irritated how most of the Christian Churches preach love and then practice hatred by denying people such as homosexuals the respect. As this person, I am understanding of the way people feel about Christians in general but it is very hard for me to understand people that have a closed mind and I think when it's someone who deals with the sciences, I find it even harder to believe. While I can understand there may be skepticism I can't understand and I can't support someone who completely denies someone the chance to be heard simply because of their religion, race, nationality, and so on. Growing up I learned that in order to move beyond the mediocre and investigate the sciences you had to have an open mind and be able to listen to everything no matter where it was coming from. I think back to Christopher Columbus's era. The entire world believed that the world was flat and would completely denounce anyone who believed as such. I often wonder how many people wouldn't even heard Columbus's reasons for saying the world was flat simply because he was a believer in a round earth. The episode that was released today has me extremely upset and personally hurt. It hurts me even more because the beginning of the show had a rather large endorsement of my favorite presidential canidate, Barack Obama and then later in the show many supporters of Obama were attacked because they didn't believe everything that another supporter believed. Personally, I am a strong supporter of Obama because he is all about bringing people together. He does not draw the line at any group of people but says we all need to come together. His slogan "Yes We Can" doesn't say "Yes most of us can".... The contradictions infuriate me. To be completely honest, the group of people that you are attacking with the peer group I am not familiar with and, as seems to be evident, you are neither. I am not, in any way, defending this group of people because I just simply don't know what they stand for -- but that's just my point. I am not able to judge until I hear what they have to say and weigh their words for myself and investigate such. Even if the group of people are entirely off their rocker maybe they will make one point that makes sense that none of us would have learned unless we listened. My point is this: Any person who denies another person the right of being heard based on their religion, race, etc is someone that should not be honored. The words you said tonight were absolutely no different than the racist bastards who say a black person can't do anything except violent crime. Those words contradicted the spirit that you are fighting for -- both as a scientist and a supporter of Barack Obama. I sincerely hope that the points I made will make sense to you. I'm not meaning to defend anyone or anything but I am asking that you think about the words you said and how they may have really hurt a large group of people -- especially those people who are trying their best to spread the message that everyone deserves respect. Sincerely, Bob K Mertz For my readers who are not familiar with This Week in Science, they are a weekly podcast that reports on scientific issues facing our nation and the world. Their website is www.twis.org. The episode that is referenced in this post is the Feb 5th edition. If you would like to hear a snip of the section in reference, please use the following link: TWiS - Feb 5th 2008 / Answers in Genesis Segment Dr. Sanford did say that she wants to expose the flaw in the scientific process which is certainly a respectable thing to do but the attitude that was presented was obvious that there was no interest in hearing what these people had to say. Labels: christianity, discrimination, religion, science, this week in science, tolerance, twis (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
(C)2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved
BibleBoy's Blog by Bob K Mertz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
