"I Hate Christians"

"I HATE Christians…yes, I said it and I mean it!".
More than any other religious people in the world Christians are the most un-devoted undisciplined hypocritical practitioners of any religion in modern times. What's even worse is that they have the audacity to be arrogant about it."

I'm sure that by now you are up in arms ready to fight whoever has "offended" our faith, for that too was my reaction. The man who made this comment to me was in a rant about all religious people, but had the harshest words for Christians. While I was enraged when he first said the remarks, their legitimacy later bothered me greatly. I would submit to you that if you, yes you, the enraged reader of this blog channeled some of that emotion into your relationship with God, then this man's statements might not ring so true to the majority of Americans. I'm sorry, but your "what would Jesus do?" bumper sticker DOES NOT make you a Christian.

I'm so tired to people who live any range of sin-filled, hell-bound lives slapping the title "Christian" on their messes with the excuse "God knows my heart". That's not how the bible that I read works. Christianity is not some buffet religion that allows its followers to pick and choose which parts of the beliefs they will hold on to at which times. It's almost as if people in the church don't even bother reading the very book that is supposed to guide our lives. Instead of honoring our bodies "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God" teenage pregnancy rates and incidences of STD's are no lower among Christians that in the general population. Instead of honoring the vows that we swear before God to stay married "until death do us part", you are more likely to get divorced as a Christian than you are in any other American religions group. Instead of going "into all the world making disciples of all people" we are building bigger and bigger churches to make ourselves feel more spiritual. All too often though, Christians are not the modern prototypes of biblical principles and love that we should be. Instead we give in to any and every temptation of the enemy resulting in a world that devalues our worth.

There are three things that I would like to remind all of the faithful of that I think will help our situation. First, we must remember that God requires HOLINESS of his people, and grace and mercy are there for the inevitable times when you will make mistakes. We aren't supposed to live any kind of life then call on grace to cover it. God has been too good to us for us to treat him the way we do.

Next, we've got to remember that Christians do not live in an isle unto ourselves. We live in the context of the world, so there is a responsibility to show others the love of God and the joy of serving him through our lives. When we don't there is no standard and we end up with issues like the ones were facing now. Lastly, remember that it's never too late to fix what you're doing wrong. We serve an amazing God who has given us the ultimate gift, his son Jesus who is ready and willing to forgive us and to help us live right. Yet are we willing to live up to the task?

--Maurice Kuykendoll