This is one of those days when I’m actually ashamed to be called a Christian.
I’m not ashamed of Jesus. Or the gospel. Or even my church. I’m ashamed of people who claim to serve the same God as I do, 
twisted fools who have cooked up a gospel of hate and Quran burnings and have become skunk drunk on the fallout that message creates.
I’ve felt this way before—when Jimmys Baker and Swaggart took their swan dives. When a Christian family were the most immature, petty, and painfully stupid contestants on the Amazing race a few years back (I actually prayed they’d get sent home before they did too much damage). It was downright painful to watch. I felt this way more recently when John and Kate began behaving badly (yes, both of them) while wearing their casual little Christian badges for the world to see. I felt just as humiliated when stupid pastors bashed their bully Bibles over the hurting heads of Katrina victims, or claimed 9-11 was God’s judgement, or concocted another dozen or so dastardly deeds done in the name of the wonderful Lord and Saviour I love and serve.
My Jesus wouldn’t dream of doing these things.
Whatever happened to the good old days when God would just make a giant fissure to open up in the ground to swallow up believers behaving badly? (It happened to Korah, remember?). Sigh. That would be so simple, wouldn’t it?
Just take them home, Jesus. Quick.
Rumble.
Maybe I shouldn’t wish for those days.
Maybe I’d end up at the bottom of a crevasse of my own making.
I agree with you totally.
The voice of Jesus has nothing to do with the voices that are heard these days proclaiming to be his voice. Also I have to confess my heart hurt deeply when John and Kate had their marital blow up. Feeling that they had lost their first love, if it was there, for themselves and their God. For the sake of fame and fortune. Children become the innocent victims. The show was fun for a while.
Keep on preaching it is good for us to hear and think about.
I agree.
I read Licia Corbella”s article on the editorial page today of the Calgary Herald and then wrote her a thank you letter for writing it.
” Real followers of Jesus would never burn Qur’an.” A14 Friday paper. Worth reading.
She was quite eloquent on the subject and about one third of her article was biblical quotations – I am amazed they were all printed.
I said ” good for her “.
Helen
Brad, although I don’t totally disagree with you about “Christians” behaving badly; I’d like to inquire of your understanding of the Revelation of Jesus as given to us by the Apostle John. Seems to me that burning every manner of wickedness is exactly the kind of thing that our Jesus would do.
I’ve been studying Luke this past month and was struck by another John’s description of the Christ. He said that we would recognize the Messiah because He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16) What’s interesting is that John the Baptist follows up that statement by saying:
“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” (vs17)
It was statements like “MY God would never do that!!” that caused the religious teachers to miss the coming of their promised Messiah. They took offense at His behavior.
My question is, are we going to be the ones who take offense at the second coming of Jesus, when he pours out the plagues and judgments prophesied in His Revelation? Or are we going to be the ones led astray by false christ’s and their false gospels?
Am I suggesting that it’s time to start burning Koran’s? No! But with that said, my children and I experienced the joyful blessing of burning an idol this week that my father innocently bought at a flee market while in Africa 30 years ago. It was intended for warding off evil spirits, and hung in our family home my entire life. So why did I burn it? The same reason Gideon burned down his own father’s alters to Baal – because MY Jesus “loves righteousness and hates wickedness, just like His Father”.
I too get embarrassed when the name of Jesus is misrepresented. Not because people want to burn stuff, but because they are merely promoting a form of religious cleansing rather then calling sinners to repentance. They show hatred towards men instead of loving their souls! The greatest act of mercy is to turn a sinner from the error of his ways and save his soul from death. Making it an issue of books and not their eternal destiny is what I find to be the greater offense.
“They are merely promoting a form of religious cleansing rather then calling sinners to repentance. They show hatred towards men instead of loving their souls! The greatest act of mercy is to turn a sinner from the error of his ways and save his soul from death. Making it an issue of books and not their eternal destiny is what I find to be the greater offense.”
Agreed. Which is what my Jesus would never do. And yours, too, from the sounds of it. Thanks for your words. 🙂