Friday, May 27, 2011

Back Again

Been a while for me since I've been around here. Feel like I'm just starting to head back down the road of being a healthy person. I find it interesting that we never see how sick we are until we start getting better, and even then many times we only allow ourselves to feel better before we are off the medication again instead of staying with the prescription till we are cured. So here's to being sick and getting better; to taking the whole prescription twice a day for 30 days so there is no chance of that nasty bug rearing its ugly head again.

So over 2 years since my last post and I'm still thinking about some of the same things. In fact I see some of these things as being more toxic to the current state of Christianity than just about anything out there.

First off we have the whole dispute over Israel and the Presidents proposal that they move their borders back to pre-1967 lines. Now if you were raised in a very conservative, evangelical, baptist home this may strike a very negative chord, I know it used to with me. There is a very toxic view that Israel needs to be somehow protected because they are still the Chosen of God and "those who bless Israel I will bless and those who curse Israel will I curse." But if we start quoting the OT we have to use it all, most importantly the parts about Israel taking care of the orphans, widows, and aliens in their foreign land because they are aliens in the Lords land. Not to mention Israel broke the covenant with YHVH and was eventually destroyed both Northern and then Southern Kingdoms; which lead to Christ (the New Covenant, see Jeremiah 31:31).

It seems in fact that as Christians we should be more concerned with caring for the oppressed and persecuted, the down trodden and ridiculed, the broken and beaten, the orphans and the widows. Not to say Palestine is perfect or doesn't do horrible things but then again so does Israel and as Christians we should be absolutely appalled. Father forgive us.

If you have doubts concerning the validity of the above statements please read Ephesians, most notably the 2nd chaper verses 11-22. The whole 2nd half of chapter 2 is about Christ combining the 2 (Gentiles and Jews) into one new man, preaching peace. And peace is something completely lacking in and around Israel.

Westboro Baptist Church has Hi-Jacked Christianity like the 9/11 terrorists Hi-Jacked Islam. I think it is about time we take it back from them. Sure they get tons of press for being ignorant assholes, but perhaps we could get tons of press for being kind, loving, intelligent, Christians that are NOTHING like WBC. In fact I love what one town did Small Town Boycotts WBC

Grace and peace,
~mhb