the mouth speaks the overflow of the heart...

Hey Stephen.
I, myself, somewhat fall under the same category as you. I don't believe in
organized religion at all. I don't think you should put "one day" of the
week aside for church/praise/etc.
?'s
-Are you completely against using "curse" words altogether? People
(Christians) say it's a sin, and that I'll go to hell for dropping some
occasional f-bombs, but I disagree. They are just words, yes? They're not
even universal...like, if I went to Spain and started dropping f-bombs, they
wouldn't know what I was saying. It's just the English language that says
these are "bad" words. I don't think God changes the definition of "sin"
from country to country.

-Do you think that Christians are the most hypocritical of all religions?
Just a simple "yes" or "no" answer would be fine with me. I'm just asking,
because, a lot of them (most of the ones I hang out with, anyway) are bad
people. They hate other people for ridiculous reasons, and they are always
trash-talking each other. They lie to each other, and they lie about the
lies. They try and disguise all of this by going to church and saying "I'm a
good little Christian boy/girl". They think that going to Church and not
doing other things (cursing/drinking) is good enough to consider them saved.
I can openly say that I disagree with certain parts of the Bible. I think
that it has been changed a lot "through the years" as it got translated from
one language to another, by Priests/Preachers that wanted to "edit it". But
even though I don't believe in the Bible, I believe in God. And I think that
these hypocritical Christians that I spoke of, are less faithful than me.
(The non-Bible-believing jewish guy that cusses and drinks)...
Am I wrong?
-am i wry?


for starters wry,
i feel cussing simply makes you look unintelligent, people do it from stage and i think it just looks wretched. but i am not perfect, and curse under my breath now and then, (and when i am passionate about something personal*) but i realize that it is out of anger and not apart of who i am. cussing is not "evil" its just immature. (unless we are talking about using the Lords name in vain which is against the beliefs of the Jewish, Muslim, & Christian religion)
in addition it looks to be an oxy-moron of who i want present myself as.
'how can bitter and sweet flow from the same fountain?'
-st. james

no, Christians are not the most hypocritical. every religion has hypocrites, for example the Muslims claim that the word "Islam" means peace, and yet Muslim extremist's kill 3000 people in nyc.
i think you just see Christians being hypocritical because we are surrounded by a "Christian" American culture. so Christians being hypocrites is all we see.

i believe if you are looking for Christ in Christians we are going to leave you wanting.
if you are looking for God through your rabbi he will also leave you wanting.
we must find God on HIS terms, and those are not always our terms. hence if you believe in the bible, Jesus, etc. you must take the entire bible and not pick and choose what you feel is best for you. i call that "spirituality." because spirituality to me is just picking and choosing from any or all religions on what FEELS the best. a belief in a higher power comes with moral restraints, and to step into the unknown, or "faith."
-estaban

(post script: and you are very correct worship should not happen only one day a week, i feel it should be a heartfelt search every day of our lives. "church" also should not be contained in four walls of a mosque, temple, or a church; conversations with God can happen in the still of your heart, @ starbucks, listening to godspeed you black emperor, etc.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
Wow. That's definately an interesting entry. I love your reply, Stephen.
Anonymous said…
I totally agree with everything you had to say...but you seem to have forgotten to mention the truth about salvation (considering he, as well as his friends, seem to be confused about what exactly that is.)

Sin has left us, we, mankind, in debt...we are below the mark, missing it entirely, and, thusly, we cannot get into Heaven...it's literally impossible. Jesus saw this, and cared enough to take our place in paying the debt..to totally take care of it for us. All we have to do is believe that Jesus did this for us..that He is who He said He was (God)...and that He rose again, conquering sin, and death. It's a totally free gift...completely not of ourselves...for, as I've stated.. it's impossible to gain on our own, anyways.




...just thought I'd throw that out.
Anonymous said…
Hey man, it's me (Rayke, the guy who wrote you this email) again. You left me a wonderful reply...and I thank you. You're a real cool guy, and very smart. Keep it up.

--Rayke
Sven said…
anonymous,
i am not quite sure what you are refering to, who is "confused" and on what topic?
Morgan said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Morgan said…
Thanks for always striving for clarity on topics that can be so easily complicated. If my two cents is worth anything, it's simply that we find the gospel, the "good news" of Jesus' death and resurrection in the Bible. It's God's revelation about Himself to us, that we might know Him, our Creator, and His purpose for us (1 Cor. 10:31, 1 Chron. 29:11-13) and how we can be saved from the wrath of God that we ultimately deserve because of our rebellion against Him and His word. Thanks again Stephen for standing up.
Anonymous said…
I like alot of what you say...But I think you are going through alot of trouble lagitamizing the f-bomb. The fact is, is that the f-bomb in its anitial context reffers to a sinnful act. When you get down to it I guess it is how it is used but i don't think it can but used to glorify God can it?
One more thing...The Muslims didn't attack NYC... An extreamest group did. Thats like saying Christians caused the Internment of MILLIONS of Jews in Germany. IT was Nazi's and not Christian.
Keep analyzing what we are told... it is the only way we can sort what is true!
Anonymous said…
i acknowledge that you and everyone else understand and know far more about this topic than i. my comment may only reveal my ignorance before everyone. but i will take that risk and say.
it is irrelevant to the main point of this topic, but having read the comment just above and reread your post, i found myself not happy with everything.

you didn't mean 'the Muslims attacked NYC', i know that well, although i understand what he/she said. but i still need to say something about this.
i think hypocrisy in that some christians behave the way which is contradicting the belief nevertheless think they will be saved just because they keep going to church and don't do so bad things cannot be equated as 'hypocrisy in religion' with, or should i say, cannot be talked on the same level as, hypocrisy in the Islamic extremets' attack. the former, i think, most of them may know the contradiction more or less. they know what they said is bad words and perhaps feel guilty, they want to be nice to everyone if only possible. as for bible edited or different from country to country, these also might have been done with dilemma and understanding of possibility of contradiction. the latter, the group of extremests should have believed what they're doing was totally right without doubt. because they didn't know (didn't try to know) anything but thier own version of interpretation of the belief. so, if the Muslim read your post, they won't feel happy.
i never mean to pick up detail to criticise. but if i were doing so, i apoligize.
overall, i have nothing to say now, for i need time to think and learn by myself.
-megumi
Anonymous said…
thanks for being a light in a such a dark place. and by the way, you rock my socks off. thats a pretty big deal.
Anonymous said…
in ur post it sounded like you were really against church...
i myself don't enjoy church all that much, its just not me
but many people do need to go to church or they will lose their faith quickly, at church you can find many people to help you through your hard times and help you grow in your faith
i just thought that you sounded a little too negative in post
Anonymous said…
Hey Stephen, I've been reading your blog for a little while. Thanks for what you do, it's so encouraging!

Anyway, I think the missing piece of the puzzle here is that there are two kinds of Christians. Christianity is supposed to be a relationship, not a religion; we're saved by grace and we do what we do because we are moved to action by our love for Jesus. There are some people though who believe in our God and believe in Jesus but they don't WANT that relationship, they'd rather do pointless rituals and look for excuses not to pray or read their Bibles, which Jesus specifically attacked the Pharisees about. I think a lot of misconceptions about Jesus come from that kind of attitude, which is all the more reason that I appreciated your response to this e-mail. It's so true, if you want to know God you've got to go straight to Him! He's given you the tools, just do it!

Again, thanks and keep doing what you're doing!
~Sarah said…
good post yet again
Anonymous said…
The truth is in your eyes, Stephen. I see it any time I cross paths with you. Thank you for being a beautiful person.

~Maryah (Longview, Texas)
Anonymous said…
I agree with you about cursing in the sense that I try to limit my own cursing. If your main point, however, was that it makes you look unintelligent, I would suggest using correct grammar and punctuation in your blog first (capitalizing the first letters of sentences, for example).
Anonymous said…
What a creep (referring to the gentleman who attempted to make you look stupid--in which case, he's no gentleman)!
Anonymous said…
this is very intresting. i agree with you on this.

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