Missions

[Anastasis]

So I have a friend who is Hindu - and I had a long conversation with her for one of my term papers at school. Finally at the end she said, "You know you'd make a good Hindu... You don't really seem like a good Christian."
Well, after I broke into tears, she told me that she didn't mean that as an insult. She just meant that in her experience Christians were intolerant and didn't follow their own teachings very well. I tried to point out that I'm sure there are Hindus which don't follow their teachings very well either. And she said something to the affect,
"We don't bring on criticism by telling the rest of the world they're wrong."

This fall (in 5 days actually) I'm leaving for Belfast to start a year long missions trip. It's not an evangelizing trip - not in the traditional way - I'm going because I feel God calling me to serve people there, not to preach to them but simply to make a difference in their community.
Well everytime I've talked to someone who isn't a devout Christian about this trip they've instantly been turned off. It seems the popular consensus on Christians by non-believers is that we're all hypocrites.

I have to admit that I fall short my share of the time - but I don't consider myself a hypocrite. :sigh:

I guess I'm posting because I want to know how other "Liberal" Christians deal with such reckless hatred towards what we believe.

[seebs]

I try to interpret such things as reasoned criticism of the behavior of other Christians, and look for these things in my own behavior; after all, I'm one of them!

I have generally concluded that the best thing to do is set a good example, and be patient. I know the people who made Christianity look so hateful, so I can hardly blame people for reacting honestly to them.

[Toney]

Soren Kierkegaard was quoted in Time Magazine way back when as saying, "Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it."

I think that if you look into what he meant by that remark, you may find your answers. BTW, your Hindu friend should have said, "You don't really seem like a bad Christian."

If you don't mind my asking, why did you choose Anatasis as your user name?

[Bizzlebin Imperatoris]

As seebs said, be an example. Show them by your life that there are real Christians around, and that we actually do try to do what is right. If they are totally turned off by Christianity, then don't be too preachy. Just be a light in a dark world, and they will finally come to you :)

[Anastasis]

If you don't mind my asking, why did you choose Anatasis as your user name?
Anastasis = Resurrection... but you prob. knew that.

It's kinda complicated - Mainly because it means something to me.

I get tired of Christians who get caught up on Christ's death. It always seems like people get caught up with the first step (being saved) and they never move on. It's about how He lived. We're a resurrected people - reborn to live a new live in Christ. To LIVE - to love one another and treat the world with(and show the world) God's love.

If "Faith without works is dead" then I want to live a living faith.

It makes that connection in my mind but I've always been just alittle bit odd.

[Bizzlebin Imperatoris]

I get tired of Christians who get caught up on Christ's death. It always seems like people get caught up with the first step (being saved) and they never move on. It's about how He lived. We're a resurrected people - reborn to live a new live in Christ. To LIVE - to love one another and treat the world with(and show the world) God's love.

If "Faith without works is dead" then I want to live a living faith.

It makes that connection in my mind but I've always been just alittle bit odd.
No, I think you are doing it right :) Too many people have dead faith, I am glad to see you are trying to live like Christ. Salvation comes through accepting Jesus by faith, and without such faith, one cannot take the gift. Keep living for Christ!

[Toney]

If "Faith without works is dead" then I want to live a living faith.

It makes that connection in my mind but I've always been just alittle bit odd.


Perhaps a little precocious also. If you look into Kierkegaard, look into his "three stages of life" as the soul moves through the ethical into the religious or spiritual stage.

You consider yourself a "little bit odd" because you are much gifted, Anastasis.

[Anastasis]

Perhaps a little precocious also. If you look into Kierkegaard, look into his "three stages of life" as the soul moves through the ethical into the religious or spiritual stage.

You consider yourself a "little bit odd" because you are much gifted, Anastasis.
Thank you :blush:

I looked up Kierkegaard on the internet (I took 1 Phil class in college and we never covered him.) And it looks really interesting - I think I'll go pick up a copy of one of his writings - it's a long flight to Belfast. So thanks much for the suggestion.

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences like mine and what was their reaction to them? I'm sure everyone has a story like those but I really want to believe that they aren't THAT common.

[nyj]

Soren Kierkegaard was quoted in Time Magazine way back when as saying, "Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it."

Similarly, G. K. Chesterton stated: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

[Toney]

Similarly, G. K. Chesterton stated: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

I've thought about that since you posted it a couple of days ago -- what the Christian ideal is exactly?

I lifted this quote from an essay titled Violence in Christian Theology:

"I suggest that satisfaction atonement reflects the church after Constantine that had accommodated the sword rather than the early church, which was primarily a pacifist church. Its abstract, ahistorical, a-ethical formula permits one to claim Jesus' saving work while wielding the sword that Jesus had forbidden."

Is the Christian Ideal the pacifist approach written of by Tolstoy? Did the church as a social institution shift "the reference point for ethics from Jesus to the emperor?" Is that what Chesterton meant when he wrote, "...it has been found difficult and left untried?"

[Celticflower]

[QUOTE=Anastasis]I get tired of Christians who get caught up on Christ's death. It always seems like people get caught up with the first step (being saved) and they never move on. It's about how He lived. We're a resurrected people - reborn to live a new live in Christ. To LIVE - to love one another and treat the world with(and show the world) God's love.

If "Faith without works is dead" then I want to live a living faith.

It makes that connection in my mind but I've always been just alittle bit odd.[/QUOTE

I know exactly what you mean!! For a while we attended a church that seemed to enjoy wallowing in the blood at the foot of the Cross, but could never get past Friday's gloom to the glory of Sunday. On Easter they let Christ out of the tomb for 2 songs then nailed Him back on the cross. When we left and people asked us why I said one reason was I serve a risen, living Savior, not an empty shell on a tree, and He has work for me to do. It did not go over too well.

I love the idea of your mission trip! A friend of mine just returned from a 2 week trip to South Africa where she help renovate a building to be used as an AIDS clinic and worked with children at the AIDS hospice house. Most of the time she was so busy living and showing her faith that she didn't have time to evangelize in the traditional sense. But 3 people gave their lives to Christ while she was there.
Go where you feel called to go, do what you feel called to do and give all the glory to God.

Celtie