I have a new story from the coffee shop and I was wanting to write about it anyway. I was running an errand to the post office for my friend 2 days ago, and so I decided to stop in the coffee shop to grab a bite. This is the coffee shop in Quaint Small Town that stays open really late- so instead of closing at 5pm it closes at like 6:30. And once I went there because I was early to the movie theater- a whole 30 mins early and the guy wasn't even at the ticket booth!- and it was already closed before 6:30.
But it was open this time because it was only 4:30. I got myself some soup and sat down. In walked a guy that looked about as old as me, but was actually still a college student home for the break. He was as chatty as I am- a nice surprise to find in the world! Quite quickly I learned that he had traveled all over Asia and he was studying political science at JMU. He said he was agnostic. He somehow volunteered that he was in an international relations class at JMU and that the Tea Party kid always said dumb stuff. I think we got on that point because he was talking about the difference in quality of health care everywhere else in the world.
He also volunteered that the Tea Party kid and the Christian fundamentalist had a hard time in the international relations class when they had to argue views different than their own in class debates. I was intrigued by this so I asked the guy, we'll call him College World Traveler, what his opinion was of the Christians at his school. He said that he mostly associates them with the people who come from Lynchburg to protest things at the beginning of the month. I asked him what they protest. He said social issues, but he said they mostly upset the minorities. When I said what he meant he clarified, "You know, like the views of Falwell."
'Wonderful,' I thought to myself. College World Traveler said that he had encountered too many different religious views to believe one. He had an imam friend, a pastor friend, and a Buddhist monk friend. His grandfather was a Baptist pastor.
We didn't discuss religion specifically really. I was too busy soaking up information from his travels, such as why Singapore has such strict laws about cleanliness. I always thought it was uptight of them to make chewing gum illegal, but he informed me that Singapore used to be filthy and completely infested with rats- who knew?!
I needed to get going, so I just said that I knew he had a good head on his shoulders and that he'd go far in life. But I was just left thinking about what a sad Christian witness there was on the campus of JMU. It reminded me of the pro-life protesters at my Christian college that would set up their 30 foot tall graphic images of aborted fetuses and string signs along the sidewalk saying, "Warning, images of genocide ahead."
There is SO much wrong with that- the main thing being, "hello, what would Jesus say to someone considering abortion?" Would he say, "Be warned murderer!" or would he say, "Come to me troubled daughter"? But also, what about the fact that some people are on the campus to, I don't know... get an education... and probably had tests to go take. What sort of unsettling purpose does that serve? What impression are these protesters trying to leave?
From College World Traveler's report, the idea of Christians was that they were closed-minded, incapable of embracing a perspective outside of the limited understanding they had of the world- being AMERICA- and that they were out to offend people whose beliefs differed from theirs.
Where in that perception do we see the character of Christ?
I remember that I used to have the same view of Christians as College World Traveler. I saw them as anti-abortion Disney boycotters. That is, until a friend invited me to church. At church people loved and accepted me. Was it not Gandhi who said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"?
So people- fundamentalists, Tea Party people, "church people" please stop misrepresenting Christ. Take all that energy from your protests and go home and read your Bible. Please read where Jesus talked about LOVE. And please sit in your house and think about what that looks like and don't come out until you can live what that looks like in public. Or if you REALLY want to be so political, please stop slapping the name of Christ on it.
That is all. And for New Year's please resolve to be more Christ-like!
No comments:
Post a Comment