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Okay so basically this time last year, I was content with my spiritual life/self. Then the Christian Ed teacher left and was replaced by a much keener teacher: Miss Grady? lol I think that's her name. (Why do we even have Christian Ed as a subject anyway? It's not a catholic school, and we live in Australia for God's Sake! Seriously, we're as multicultural as it gets! We should have Religious Studies instead!!) Woops..side-tracked...
ANYWAYS, Mr Tav - our first CE teacher, was more easy-going, and wouldn't mind us slacking off. He'd basically put on a nice christian movie or something and tell us a bible story every now and then. But Miss Grady is more interested in seeing that we are all like, saved from Satan. Once she came, I found myself getting all annoyed at Christianity and the ways of it. Before I knew it, my faith in God was slipping and I found myself asking all different kinds of questions in class.
"Apparently God loves us unconditionally, but everything sounds like a heck of a lot of conditions to me."
Miss Grady was also telling us about her church friends who were off in Iraq or something spreading the word of God and converting people. I was appalled by that because sure - it may be acceptable for people to do that in Australia or America even; where the nationalities are more diverse, but in a country in the middle east? Who's to say your religion is the right one? If someone came to me and tried to tell me that my beliefs were wrong and theirs were right and they have proof - the Bible - I would slap them across the face. There is no right or wrong. People should leave other religions alone instead of this converting crap. This is why wars break out. Usually in "God's name" or whatever. Dudes - if you are doing this for God, do you think he'd really want you to murder other people? And for him? It's one of the ten commandments anyway. Geez!
But what really led me away from God was the lesson we were having on relationships, and Miss Grady said "when Sin entered the world, so did things like rape and homosexuality". And I was all "hellooooo? You can't just say those things in the same sentence!!" Seriously. It made me so mad that those two things were basically being linked together in God's eyes. And I believe, that people are BORN with their sexuality. It may just be realised later in life.
Miss also told us that she had a friend who was a homosexual and he is currently taking therapy to change himself and be right in the "eyes of God" so that he can go to Heaven. And I'm all; sure. That's his choice, but can you actually imagine changing whatever your sexuality is just to be right in someone else's eyes?! I think it's pathetic. God should love us for who we are, not who we can be (I love that saying). So yeah I'm not actually a lesbian but I still think this is wrong and this shouldn't be taught at our public schools and stuff.
If anyone would like to try help me understand all this stuff about God and his views on us being the perfect lil un-sinners then feel free to comment and try help me see this from another angle. But before you try to do this, I recommend reading "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult. It is a true test for faith - and don't worry. It is written in multiple minds so it's not biased. Like, there's a catholic priest, a man claimed to be the re-incarnated Jesus, an atheist lawyer, and her father; a Jewish rabbi. It was such a good read and it, is my "Bible".
Apparently God loves us unconditionally, but everything sounds like a heck of a lot of conditions to me.
Sorry, I know you have no comments for this one, but it's actually my favourite one. Not trying to be bitchy, just makes me smile everytime i read it
ReplyDeletefuck you lachlan
ReplyDeletehahaha
Hey Dannie, totally agree about the religious studies thing. It would make people more open to the idea of religion in schools and give us a better understanding of how Christianity compares to other religions.
ReplyDeleteUm, so first of all you talked about missionaries and how we can't shove our ideas in other peoples culture if they are against it. But the thing is if we are right and we couldve helped these people know God and did nothing... I mean... its out of love that we tell people. I believe that we are saved from an eternity of separation from God when we become Christian... Like, its more important than what they think about us.
Also, in God's eyes sin is sin. We have all fallen short of the glory of God and 'there is not one righteous; not even one'. Sin can be external or in our thoughts and desires. We are born into a world broken by sin. The beauty of this is that 'it is by grace we have been saved, through faith'... you said he was changing himself 'to go to Heaven' which is absolutely not true. God loves everyone but the problem of sin is that God who is perfect will not tolerate it (and this is a good thing because he won't let murder, hate etc. go on forever). But, the second we believe and are saved by faith and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are accepted by God and adopted as 'sons and daughters of God'.
This might lead you to ask then why do we try change ourselves if we are forgiven anyway. The answer is that our sin displeases God and as Christians we are much more aware of this. We can become slaves to sin which takes away from our relationship with God. We are 'new creations' because of what God has done for us. Also, think about it. If you saw people who became Christians carry on living as if they were not, you would probably doubt the sencerity of their faith and the Gospel in general.
So basically, God knows we can never fulfil His requirements which is why He sent Jesus for us. This shows how much God loves us hey.
Love graceful swan. (you know who it is) hehe I would love to talk to you if you still have questions. This stuff is definately worth looking into. Love you x
Oh hey Ash
ReplyDeleteSo pretty much - look at the date of this. I wrote this almost three years ago, so of course my opinions may be slightly altered, and much more mature than those portrayed here.
However, my views on this subject are also still quite similar.
My first point: Christians need to think about others and not just themselves. They need to be respectful of other cultures and other ways of life - it would be like Muslims entering England and spreading their news and forcing lower classes to partake and bribe them by feeding them and clothing them.
My second point: Yes, "sin" is bad. But who's to say our world is BROKEN because of it? Our world is beautiful. There are some truly inspiring things out there. And you say we become slaves to sin? This is untrue. These so called sinners are slaves to no one - they live their own lives. They have their own views. THEY are the free ones in this world. Christians become slaves to "God". They bow down to this so called power, which has no grain of proof, except the vouches of its followers and a single book and story - which if were true, other religions/cults could also be deemed real (for example Scientology).
You say that God loves us because he sent Jesus, yet there is no proof of Jesus ever existing (especially no proof of his tomb) and for all we know, his life could just have been a snowballed life spun out from a spur of adultery by his unmarried parents who were scared of being stoned for their passions.
I don't mean to trample on your beliefs, but you told me your thoughts - and I've answered with mine. Don't take it in offence, since I didn't take your comment in offence.
You ask if I have questions?
Then please answer:
1) If God only created Adam and Eve, then they would have had kids, and then their kids would have had to mate with each other and so forth - so how come we're all not mutations? It is disgusting to think of this as true.
2) Do you honestly think the world is only 6000 years old?! When there is geological proof that our earth dates back much further?