No Longer A Christain.

I went to London on saturday.



I have a habit of noticing things that pass most people by. Like the random Banksy imitation picture some wierd stall.



That the CCTV was focussed not on the shops, but on the street performers.



Other random things.



But one of the most obvious things, was a giant poster on the side of a bus.

So really, not just random people like me would notice, but the potentially whole of London.



Do you know what was written on it?



"Fools say in their hearts, there is no God. For a free bible, call....."



I'll come back to that later. But should they get a bible, whats the first thing they'll do? Look up a verse they know. What might that one be?

Psalm 53? The one on the bus? Lets look at the rest of it....



"1 Fools say in their hearts,

"There is no God."

They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;

there is no one who does good. "



So the idea of this advertisment, was to open up people to God? Agnostics who need help deciding if God is real or not?



Do they get the love and acceptance we preach?



No.



Do they get the promise of no judgement?



No.



They get insulted. Called fools and vile.



I could blame the bible for this, but to be honest, i dont. The psalm is about Gods love for the earth and how they have changed without his influence. But in the context?



It presents big-headed, arrogant, we're-better-than-you, an i-told-you-so attitude.

The same attitude that associates us with out mistakes.







It reminds me of the time at ignite when we were shown a video someone had made.

It was a letter from an athiest to his christian friend. It screamed and cried as he was scared and taken to hell.



It was ridden with scare and shock tactics.



It made me feel physically Ill.



WHY on earth? How on earth? We preach love.



We preach forgivness, we preach GODs message.



There is love placed on our hearts to spread to other people.



We should not be forcing fear to people.

Christians have made mistakes. I have made mistakes. Its Gods forgivness that we learn to understand, and he forgives us.

But surely its a mistake to stand on a street corner and yell doomsday messages at people? Cant we look at ways to talk to people that are so much more effective? Love, one-to-one listening.

Practice what we preach.

Im just sick of the constant hippocrisy of Christainity.

Until I can get my head around it, i will no longer tell people I am a christian.

I beleive in God. I beleive in Jesus. I get that he loves people. But im sick of it all.

Out of pure curiousity I looked up christian in the urban dictionary. Most of them agree with what i say, but this one.....

"16.
Christian

A person who believes that Christ is their Savior. Most are kind and polite, but some are complete snobs about it. The latter gets extremely offended when someone has a difference of opinion religiously, but still go around saying everybody else is wrong and that they are going to hell for not having faith. Especially aggressive towards Atheists. "

Now what if everyones opinion of Christians was that??

Thats how people at school think i will be. Aggressive because I dont share their beliefs.

One for the many, but why cant we shed the label?

The term Christian comes from who we were then. The struggles early christians faced. We were Jews before! We reinvented ourselves to show a change in who we were, a concious decision to follow Christ the saviour.

So why cant we reinvent ourselves again, move past our past ideas and morals, the major mistakes christianity as a whole has been blamed for and is still blamed for?

Get rid of our insecurities about admitting to being a christian?

Become new people, in the name of Christ.

So no longer am i a christain. Im a christ-follower. =)