Monday, March 4, 2019

As A Christian ??

The other day I heard about a woman refusing to prepare taxes for a married couple who happened to be same-sex, even though, with full knowledge of their sexual orientation, she had no trouble doing their taxes in previous years when they were individually filing as single. She prefaced her defense of this refusal with "As a Christian. . ."

Shortly after that I read a comment to a post about treating people with respect that started with "As a Christian it is a challenge because people expect you to act a certain way"

I have to ask, What way is that?


  • It is the way of Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church followers when they were protesting the LGBQT community by disrupting random military funerals claiming it was God's punishment that the soldier died?
  • Or is it the way of the all-volunteer secondhand store run by a consortium of 7 different local churches that continued to serve the economically challenged of their community by collecting and distributing goods free of charge in the wake of Hurricane Harvey despite loosing their store and inventory under 10 feet of water?
  • Perhaps it's the way of the orthodox monks on Mount Athos (Northeastern Greece.) that ban females, even non-human females, from the peninsula they autonomously rule (Under favorable European Community Legislation) lest their girly cooties defile the place.
  • Or maybe it's the way of Candice Payne who recently whipped out her credit card and bought 30 hotel rooms in Chicago on a night predicted to get down to -50, then transported about 100 homeless to the rooms in a flotilla of vehicles owned and piloted by volunteers responding to her Instagram request.
  • Or possibly it's the way of Eric Rudolph, a self-professed Born Again Christian claimed by the Army of God to be "a Brave Christian doing God's work", when he randomly killed Alice Hawthorn by bombing Olympic Park. 
That's a pretty wide moral spectrum of acts performed by people all acting "as a Christian"!

I have to admit that anymore, as soon as I hear someone say "As a Christian" I have a very un-Christian, or, on second thought, perhaps it's a very Christian,* prejudicial reaction.

The point is "As a Christian" means absolutely nothing anymore because it means pretty much anything. People need to be more specific as to what brand of "As a Christian" they are referring to.




*I have to be careful here. Did you know that an 1811 appeals ruling in a blasphemy case against a Mr. Ruggles by New York State Chief Justice James Kent, who agreed with prosecutor Gold when he argued that the common law of England as it stood in 1776, which includes criminalizing blasphemy against the Christian religion, is part of American law? Based on that it's OK for me to say the most horrible and incendiary things I want about atheism, but if I do the same about Christianity I'm breaking the law. Don't believe me? Check out the current General Laws Of Massachusetts, Part IV. Crimes, Punishments And Proceedings in Criminal Cases , Title I. Crimes And Punishments, Chapter 272. Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency And Good Order, Section 36. Blasphemy, which reads: 

Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior















2 comments:

  1. "Amen" said a voice from the choir.

    I've always liked, "what would Jesus do?" as a response to "as a christian." It doesn't necessarily change minds, but it might shake the holier than thou attitude a bit.

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    1. That's true. Only problem is the answer is going to depend on which interpretation of the Bible the answer-ee has been indoctrinated with. If the Bible was clear and concise there would be one Christian church instead of the estimated 39,000 different sects that exist today world-wide.

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