Easter had come and gone. I immensely enjoyed the 4 days off
catching up with my gaming. However, Easter itself is not about day offs,
gaming or penalty rates. It is a major establishment in the Christian faith. A
faith a majority of western countries were built upon. It is about
self-sacrifice for the better of the world. And it is this self-sacrifice of
the Son of God that brought people together in the most loving and forgiving
manner. However, with the recent rise of the Islamic States and the increasing
fear against the threat Islam is posing on western lifestyle, I can’t help but
think why a faith with such a grand gesture is failing?
Brought up in the Anglican Christian faith I believe in a
lot of good things the faith was about – love, forgiveness and sacrifices
(although I am not big about that…call me a selfish prick). For me the faith is
about caring, loving, and hopefully see the best of other people. However, in
my opinion Christianity has nowadays lost it shiny coating and thus driving
people away from its core believes. The issue is instead of asking why good
people went to join the Islamic States and start killing other people in the
name of religion, Christian leaders or Christians generally should ask the
question of “what have they done wrong leading to their own downturn?”
The Bible forms the core of Christian faith and there are
lots of goods in the Bible. However one thing we need to understand is the
Bible we read, canon or not, is a collaboration and interpretation of human
minds. Accounts in the Bible, whether you believe in them or not, were retold
through humans’ eyes. Much had been done to make sure it is not bias and it
reflects the core values of the faith. However, this does not stop people with
agendas taking the scripture out of context to achieve their own means. And
when they have such power to influence others, use them as a weapon against
other people. For me Christian faith is a way to make sure you do good to the
world and hopefully when you meet God at the Pearly Gates you were offered a
seat at the table of the eternal of spiritual / gourmet buffet. Because there
is so much on offer, essentially you want to offer this ticket to as many
people as possible, especially your loved ones. This is where spreading the
God’s words came from. However, it is also about how you spread the God’s words
that matters. Personally I do not believe in condemnation. I mean how far would
you get by consistently condemning other people of their lifestyles, or simply
for who they are? For me this kind of actions are like you walk past a facial
product counter in the mall and the beautifully made up girl (or sometimes guy)
came to you and tell you “Oh my god your skin is so bad but no worries I have
this fabulous product that can improve your skin blah blah blah”. I will just
get annoyed and walk away. In my opinion, there are a number of individuals or
even churches making this mistake, and when being told they made a mistake,
they would go even louder hoping that this could drown out their short comings
as perceived by other people. But considering this, if God could use a
prostitute and forgive her sins because she helped her messenger and Jesus had a constant record of sitting and dining with sinners, who are we to judge
and condemn? Just remember that the Apostle Paul was once a sinner and
persecutor too. Are we just seeing the peck in others but not the log in our
eyes?
The other thing that I am particularly disappointed is the
leaders of the western countries who proclaimed themselves as Christian but
acted in every possible un-Christian way you could imagine to achieve their own
agendas. Taking the Australian Prime Minister as an example, he claimed to be
of Catholic background but then I wonder how many people could see a good
Christian role model in him from his day to day behaviour? That is if calling
your opponents a Nazi supporter when you don’t get your way, being double standard
about Australian criminal overseas and asylum seekers to Australia, and
bullying people whom you can bully because they have different opinions on your
governing, are actually Christian way of life. Then probably he is a great role
model. Also we have a lot of right wing or left wing politicians who called
themselves Christians but then pursued issues in a frantic and aggressive
manner for personal gains in politics. If that’s what Christian faith is about,
I wonder why people are turned off.
They sure are no angels from God as I wonder how could you take flight
just with your left or right wing? You will probably be falling to earth like a
meteor impact and wait a second, what do we call those fallen angels in the
Bible again?
Humanity is never straight forward, but faith – especially a
good faith helps humanity to create hope in certain capacities. Certain people
might not need it but for people who need it, it is supposed to be a means to a
better personal life. And hopefully by exhibiting the radiance of your good
life in your natural deeds, you influence other people to follow your
faith. I certainly do not agree to
what the Islamic States is doing but then consider the Crusaders in the past,
and how Australia was built in the first place, how much are we qualified to
condemn others even as Christians? When we condemn people fighting for gay
marriage equality as promoting a shameful lifestyle, are they actually
promoting a lifestyle or they just want to be acknowledged as a day to day
person in the society whom should be respected in the same way as everyone? If
God can use a sinner like Saul and turned him into one of the most influential
Apostles in history, who are we to say no and judge other people? For me
instead of condemning radical Islamic activists and the Islamic States, maybe
it is time to go through a real Christian self-examination and understand why
they succeed and Christianity is failing in the western world.
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