Christianity the pressure group Articles / All Topics Posted by andy on Jan 18, 2005 - 09:27 AM |
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We should all ban the "Jerry Springer - the Opera" because it is blasphemous. We should ban gay marriage. We should ban abortion. We should all think the same things. Everyone in the country should bend to our will. I thought we were supposed to be building relationship with our loving personal father God, but it appears that we are actually a censorship pressure group. The problem is I don't agree with everything you think is right. For example, I think the media should be largely free to show what it wants, and I feel my opinion comes out of my Christian faith, just as much as you feel that a belief in censorship does. Who is right? I don't know, but please don't make me and people like me feel like outsiders just because we disagree with you. There are lots of us, but we don't shout so loud. We don't live in a Christian society - there aren't any Christian societies any more. So we have to re-evaluate how we approach things: we can't over-rule the majority with these opinions just because God told us it was so. We need to persuade, not rule, and the most important thing we need to persuade people of is the fact that God exists and is worth listening to, not the specifics of what we think he says about these issues of personal morality and censorship. Just as Muslims or others living in former Christian countries have to accept the society in which they find themselves, so do we. When I get these emails written as if the author's point of view were so obviously correct (even though often the author hasn't seen e.g. Jerry Springer - the Opera) I think of Amos 5:21-24: I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! This is pointless, showy stuff, and there is so much we could be making a noise about that is really important: why are the governing rules of trade between rich and poor countries so unfair? Why do we step in to "humanitarian crises" in Europe but not Africa? Why are we wasting our time on "personal morality" issues when we could be spending it on situations that are just plain wrong? I think personal morality is for personal people, but injustice is a collective sin, and that is what, if we must be a pressure group, we should be pressuring about. Anyway my main point is should we be a pressure group at all? Apologies if you sent me one of these forwarded emails - this is a rant, and not one aimed at you. Really, we should ban email, and then I'd get less annoyed generally. |
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