As I am wont to do, I spent some time online tonight, looking at quotes. This time, I stumbled onto one by Mark Twain.
"If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be - a Christian."
For those of you who don't know who Mark Twain was, he was one of the greatest American authors who ever lived. He died in 1910, and he held strong opinions on things like abolition and civil rights.
When I saw that quote, however, it got me thinking.
How many of us, here on this forum, have been insulted or even threatened by Christians? How many of us would categorise the behaviour of those Christians as 'Christian' at all?
In many cases, the self proclaimed Christians on this forum make personal attacks, and generally conduct themselves as though they were getting ready for a bar room brawl, rather than having a rational debate.
Instead of sowing doubt in the minds of the people they argue with, or even fostering a feeling of tolerance, all these christian soldiers ever do is reinforce the notions about why we all hate the organised religions SO much.
Even for me, who is not a christian, that goes against the predefined notion that was drummed into me about what Christians are supposed to be. From what I gather, both from the aforementioned drumming, and from what many Christians claim, it all boils down to living like Christ, but what does that really mean?
Would Christ be a christian if he were here today?
According to the bible, Christ was many things.
He was humble. He washed the feet of beggars. He lived like a pauper. Would he be enamoured of the christian tendency to being everything BUT humble?
He was forgiving. Turn the other cheek. When last did we see that from any self proclaimed christian on this forum?
He shunned wealth. Remember the story about kicking the merchants out of church? But what is the modern day church but a money making machine?
There are countless other examples of the acts and actions of Christ that are directly at odds with the behaviour and attitude of the modern christian, so I have to conclude that were he actually real, and were he here, Christ would himself not wish to be associated with his followers.
Which brings me to another quote by another famous man: I like your Christ, but I don't like your christians. Ghandi said it, and I agree.
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