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The following message depicts the sad and scathing truth from the perspective of an 18 year old whose eyes have been forcefully opened to the pitiful irony of being an “American Christian”. If you are afraid of stepping out of your turtle shell of comfort, or dislike the times of change, I strongly encourage you to go cling, like Linus van Pelt, to your blanket of familiarity.
I have come to a sorrowful conclusion today, a very sorrowful conclusion indeed. Now don’t get me wrong, it just didn’t dawn on me today; I always knew deep down somewhere that it was true, but then again I also always wished that maybe it was some giant myth to the same notoriety as Zeus. However, and it pains me deeply to say this, it seems that the pseudo-Christian transition is in full swing. Let me pause for a moment to explain what I mean by pseudo-Christianity before I continue onto how my bubble of naivety was popped by the cruel world.
This term can be explained by exactly what it says; False-Christian. A pseudo-Christian is one who claims to be a follower of Christ, but could not be further from Him; someone who proclaims to know Jesus with their mouths but their actions speak far from it; and someone who believes that they believe they are Christian , but in fact are chasing after their own American forged idols in the dark. You see somewhere, somehow, someway it seems to me that American Christianity has put down their crosses, laid down their Bibles, cast away their Savior, and instead have used the umbrella term to hide themselves from the searing sun.
A prime, fitting example, seeing as I’m writing under the Waco stars, would be David Koresh. For those of you who don’t know, in a very streamlined summary David Koresh was the leader of the Branch Davidian’s, a religious cult who under the name of Jesus Christ, committed the murders of others and themselves via burning in an inferno of flames. Basically David Koresh claimed to follow Christianity, and yet simultaneously claimed to be the final prophet, and the one who would father the Chosen One. However, a simple look into the majority of the books in the New Testament quickly testifies to his falsehood. Mr. Koresh masqueraded as a Christian, but yet his actions can be considered anti-Christ (not as in the Anti-Christ, but merely as someone who does things against the teachings of Christianity).
In a way, and I know this will stir up some disagreements, most modern day Christians are the David Koresh’s of our generation. Sure we may not form cults elevating ourselves to Christ, but do our actions, and I mean true actions, place us any closer to God than Koresh’s did?
And my friends, this leads me back to my point.
As Christians, we have been given the titles of “hypocritical” and “judgmental” and truth being told we wear these crowns magnificently. You see instead of loving one another, we fiercely examine our brothers and sisters like they are ants under a magnifying glass. Our scorching eyes pierce all of their actions making them feel naked, exposed, and undignified. We are quick to scrutinize and critique every single flaw, every single mistake they make and yet all the while ignore the massive log of imperfections that blind our own eyes. We honor and “ follow” Jesus as long has what he says follows us. At the slightest notion of an inconvenience or an awkward situation we take off running faster than the roadrunner.
My experiences today confirmed these heart wrenching claims
It was almost exactly 12 hours ago that I pulled into the parking lot outside my Residence Hall; nearly 12 hours ago when I spotted a man that quickly caught my attention; and about 12 hours ago when my heart broke.
As I got out of my car I was confronted with a peculiar situation. Across the street from me there was this elderly gentleman dressed in a suit and tie combo. However what caught my attention was the way in which he was walking and acting. He walked with a cross between a gait, a limp, and baby steps. Inch by inch he inched forward, as if keeping rhythm with some unknown snare drum. Even more unusual than his walking technique though was the way in which he nearly collapsed onto every object that he walked past. I promise, from my very own eyes, that it looked as if he could be blind, or at the least reminded me of a man nearly collapsing out of fatigue. Before I could traverse the busy intersection, nearly 20 people, ranging from runners to fellow recent church attendee’s, passed him by without even so much as a glimpse back. To them he must have of been as invisible as Casper, because no one took enough time to stop and ask if he was ok. To my dismay the situation only became more depressing as I got within ear shot of the man, seeing as his wails resounded like a wounded animal. By the time I reached where he was attempting to walk, I could see tears gushing out from under his black sunglasses; the drool dabbling down his chin; and the extreme anguish that he was currently in. To keep a long story from being even longer, the man, named Ron, told me through choking sobs, that I was the only person in his 30 block walk to stop and ask what the matter was with him. 30 BLOCKS! For 30 blocks this man, who was well into his late 60’s limped along with a high ankle sprain (as I later found out), and out of his hour and a half walk I was the only one who stopped to offer assistance. There were over 20 people who passed him by in the time it took me to walk across an intersection. Think of how many must of stepped around, or should I say on him as he made his long and lonely 31 block walk. Ron only wanted to go return a book he borrowed from a member of his church and promised to give back. For crying out loud he just wanted to be a man of his word! Baylor is a Christian campus (and I know this does not insinuate that everyone on campus is a devout follower of Christ, but you would think that somewhere in our deep traditions of Christianity, we would have bred at least ONE Good Samaritan).
But alas my intervention with Ron, taught me that just because you claim to be a follower of Christ, does not make you a Godly individual. Jesus himself warns against those that claim Christianity with their tongues but deny him with their actions when he tells the story of the Good Samaritan, in which only the one viewed as lowly as a dog, stopped and tended a man who had been mugged.
In America it seems that the current Generation Me has been named for a reason. We spend our lives hanging out with friends who can serve us in some way; trying to aggrandize our wealth and horde the comforts that come with; and of course seeking the safety of personal security, whether it be professional, socioeconomic or personal. We spend our days working a 9-5, coming home, kicking off our shoes, and go into a vegetative state of TV watching, sleeping, and eating till it’s time to rinse, lather, repeat. This is how we spend our time; this is how we waste our lives. We spend more time sitting than we do standing, and more time lying down than we do running.
Bottom line is that we love our comfort and abhor anything that attempts to snatch that away from us.
But is this how we, who claim to be Christians, live? Are we suppose to retreat from opportunities to reach out and help, love, and build relationships with each other? Have we become Hermit Crabs? No. Are we encouraged in any way throughout the Bible to ignore a man wailing and limping in the streets? No! And yet we do. How dare someone ask us to crawl out from under our comfort blankets? How dare someone else’s situations put our own plans on hold? How dare someone else require our assistance when we have our Football game to watch? This is what our faith has come to, this is American Christianity.
I did not forfeit my time to criticize or critique anyone. It was not my intentions to call anybody out. My intentions were simple, and yet I seriously doubt anyone will adhere. I simply wished to poke the bears with a stick, get you riled up, in the chances that maybe just maybe one of you will rise up, and become the selfless, caring, compassionate Christian that is found in many of your gold leafed paper weights.
So what say you; will you cast off the chains of American Christianity and take on a new mold, a mold modeled after the One who sacrificed not only his comfort zones but His life?
What say you?
