Speak in Love

My major annoyance right now is pretentious Christians. Before you get up in arms, let me explain.

I recently ran across a blog written by someone I went to high school with. He wasn't a "friend," per se, but we shared extra curricular activities. He is extremely, extremely smart, and he was always very nice to me. So apparently, after graduating college, he moved to Arizona to be a part of the "best church in the nation," or so he says. It's an independent Baptist church in around Phoenix. So, I started reading his blogs, and most were about his religious views, which is fine, considering I guess this is the subject of this entry, as well.

He launches into this whole story about "Satan Claus" and his 8 "queer" reindeer. This, of course, sparked my interest. I read the entire entry, multiple times, and was so completely dumbfounded and upset. He writes all this malarkey about how the other reindeer wouldn't let Rudolph play their homosexual games and how Disney does nothing but promote themes such as homosexuality and pushes that it's alright for women to work. WHAT? Ok, but here's the kicker. In the last paragraph, he goes on about how he wishes that all homosexuals would die and get the death penalty like God intended... and that he would be happy if that happened.

Fired up, I started going through his other entries. He talks about "soulwinning," which, from what I gathered, is leading people to Christ, which I'm all for. I guess his church promotes going door to door and witnessing to anyone who's willing to listen. This particular entry starts out saying that HE lead x amount of people to Christ and so on and so on. He talks about how he was catching on up "soulwinning" hours that he was behind on (he has to do so many a week?), and he was in a rough neighborhood around the Phoenix area. He says that it seemed liked everyone answering the door was a "queer" or "faggot." And he's a Christian??

For anyone who knows me, I absolutely despise those derogatory terms for anyone who is homosexual, so know that I'm only quoting him, and these terms are not personally from me. So, furious at this point, I start browsing the church website.

Now, I was raised Roman Catholic, so basically any other form of Christianity is different that what I'm used to. However, thankfully to great friends that I've met, I've been able to come into contact with many other denominations of Christianity, so I feel like I have a pretty well-rounded view of the matter. I'm still learning, of course, but who isn't? Anyway, the church website posts sermons, the doctrine, and random information about the congregation. I didn't understand a lot of what was on the website, so it took some researching to fully comprehend what the church's mission and statement was. Anyway, along the way, I got linked to YouTube, and started watching a sermon preached by said blogger.

The basic jist of the sermon was that the Bible states that women shouldn't work, and it's a sin for women to be in the workplace. Their place is at home with kids... he was pulling a full-on Donna Reed here. Don't get me wrong. If a woman wants to be a housewife and a stay-at-home mom, more power to her. But I think it's HER decision, and I don't believe that it's a sin. He mentions more homosexual bashing in his sermon, as well. I had to turn it off before he even finished.

So here's my question. When do we, as Christians (or HUMAN BEINGS, for that matter), get to judge people? The Bible tells us that God is the only judge, and that we need to love on those around us. God is LOVE, and we need to speak love to everyone we meet. Now, I know that's a hard thing to do, and I'm not always the best at it, but I believe that under NO circumstances should you EVER call someone a "queer" or a "faggot," ESPECIALLY if you're at the pulpit.

What scares me is that he talks about leading people to the Lord, and how he's a witness. So that obviously means that when he's witnessing to people, he's explaining and preaching to them in this same derogatory manner, which means that these now-Saved Christians will have the same viewpoint, at least until they can learn the actual truth. Am I wrong here?

I'm not the best Christian, and I don't claim to be, but the basics of Christianity that we learn at a very young age go like this: 1) Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we can be forgiven, 2) you must accept Jesus into your heart and life and acknowledge that Jesus died for us to be saved, 3) you can't get to Heaven by works alone (works salvation), and 4) love the Lord with all your heart, mind, body, and soul, and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. Loving your neighbor does NOT constitute judgment.

I don't know... I just so upset by this guy and church. I know I can't change the way they are and think, but it saddens me to know that there are those types of Christians out there, with skewed points of view and harsh judgment against people who have chosen something different from themselves. Love each other, no matter what. Don't judge according to looks, race, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever else. Love. That's it. It's as simple as that. God is Love.