15 Responses to “Molding God into our image”

1. 1 Drina  on Jan 22nd, 2006 at 12:11 am

   When I was a kid, I rebelled against my strict, religious upbringing by skipping church, studying Wiccan spells, and being nasty to my parents. I used to watch the 700 Club just to let myself get angry, and I hated everything modern Christianity stood for… the cruelty, the lies… I thought this was just a religion of jerks, and I took it out on God.

   In 2000 I read a book about Rachel Joy Scott, one of the students killed in the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado. She was hailed as a martyr after she was killed for allegedly saying she believed in God. I remember being so annoyed with the circus that conservative Christians made of her death. Although I never met her, I disliked her because of it. But I read the book anyway, because I was curious about her story.

   It was a really poorly written book that included some nonsense about Marylin Manson being partially responsible for the shooting. Her parents, being conservative Christians themselves, used some of the typical talking points about contemporary culture… most of which made me roll my eyes. But they also included some copies of journal entries that Rachel had written. Most of them were notes and prayers to God.

   In her journal she wrote a lot about her own failure to live up to God’s standards. This was shocking to me, because I had never before witnessed a Christian do such a thing. I had heard them talk a lot about other peoples’ lives, other peoples’ sins, but never exclusively their own. Even her parents toed the fundamentalist line; why did she sound different?

   Rachel also wrote about her desire to start a chain reaction of kindness. This was the whole purpose of her life as she saw it, and from the accounts of her friends and classmates, this was exactly how she lived. She befriended those who were outcasts, those who were unaccepted, those who were lonely… she was kind to all of them. Again, shocking.

   In one of her journal entries, she asked God to use her to reach the unreached. I think it’s safe to say that he answered her prayers, because this little high school girl was able to show so many wounded, disenfranchised, and angry people that Christianity is not just a religion of jerks. Rachel’s life (and death) is the reason I decided to follow Christ. And that shocked just about everyone who knew me, because I was the most unlikely of converts.

   There may be a lot of Christians turning God into a thug, and pushing the masses away from Christ in the process. People like Pat Robertson have done (and will continue to do) a lot of damage, but God always has a way to counteract that perversion. In my case, the antidote was an ordinary girl who just loved God… enough to see other people the way He does.

2. 2 Drina  on Jan 22nd, 2006 at 12:15 am

   BTW, sorry if I went off on a tangent. With all of the attention that folks like Robertson have been getting lately, I wanted to put a little spotlight on someone who really did walk the walk… it’s something to be hopeful about.

3. 3 Bene Diction  on Jan 22nd, 2006 at 8:37 am

   Please don’t be sorry Drina, I’m glad the post evoked such a thoughtful response.

   Christianity should be about beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. But somewhere in our society that got hijacked and became about rules and how good we think we are about keeping them.

   I think you are correct…’God has a way to counteract that perversion.’

4. 4 dh  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 7:47 am

   I know God operates like that but doesn’t God also use redemptive judgement to wake people up to who God is? An example of a true story was when a particular Hells Angel first accepted Christ. He thought of his friend who was lost and went into the bar. He then grabbed him, and pushed him into the wall and said “do you need to accept Christ?” The man broke down and accepted Christ and has been a womderful preacher ever sense. I’m not saying that this is the proper way and I definitly wouldn’t use this in evangelism, but we forget that some people have hearts who are so hard that it takes something like this to “wake them up” and it is for their freedom and love that God, in a few instances, does this. I’m reminded of Pharoah, it was by God’s Grace that He gave them all of those judgements for the judgements were God reaching out His hand to Pharoah and He still didn’t listen. How many times in this day in age if something like what happened to Pharoah happened today would people say “this isn’t from God, He doesn’t operate this.”? Something to think about. I understand it is balance. I definitely don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea. I’m just mentioning this to do away with the idea of the “absolute terms” of saying this isn’t the way God does at all. Make sense?

5. 5 Drina  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 10:52 am

   There is a place for redemptive judgement, but I will not defend men like Pat Robertson. They are liars, and God does not lead us to lie.

6. 6 dh  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 11:19 am

   So the situation between Pharoah and god wasn’t God reaching out His redemption to Pharoah and the Egyptian people? I agree they went totally overboard but the Bible does should the Lion of Judah as part with the Lamb of God. It is a balance.

7. 7 dh  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 11:35 am

   Sorry, Drina. I misread your post. I’m glad you acknoewledge redemptive judgement. To say Pat was a total liar I just cannot say. How do we know that what happend didn’t come from God? Is it possible that it was the equivilent to Mosaic Egypt. i’m not saying it is but there seems to be something beyond coincidence. NO with Bourbon Street seems like a place a vile. There might not be a correlation but it seems nore than a coinidence. I just don’t know on this and can’t say. I do know one thing that while it is terrible in NO that “all things work together for good” and to see people come to Christ is the most important thing. WE must look at the lemonade and not the lemons. That isn’t to downplay the situation but help us to understand what is important in God’s eyes redemption of people to Himself. That isn’t sayin NO was a total redemptive act but you get the point.

8. 8 Drina  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 3:16 pm

   The compulsion to attribute every natural event to God’s judgement on someone else smacks of paganism.

9. 9 dh  on Jan 23rd, 2006 at 5:08 pm

   So it as paganism to attiribute the judgements on Pharoah as from God? I don’t think so. What is paganism to believe that God is control of everything? I would say it is paganism to think there is other ways to Christ besides Christ. That is true paganism, “having other gods besides Me.” Like Jesus said.

10. 10 Drina  on Jan 24th, 2006 at 7:02 am

    dh, keep in mind that while the idea of God ‘getting those gays’ or ‘punishing those prostitutes’ may sound apealing to you, it’s not the seedy side of New Orleans and Biloxi that got hit so badly. The French Quarter is already back in business. Poor, black Christian communities were the ones to suffer so horribly. What did they do to earn this type of redemptive judgement from God?

11. 11 dh  on Jan 24th, 2006 at 7:23 am

    I never said that what happened in NO was from God or not from God. I learn toward not but I do believe that partially it was in that businesses in the French Quarter had to pay a greater price than otherwise for the type of businesses they were doing. I do feel many other good people suffered and so that is what makes me lean toward not. However, many terrible sinful areas were hit hard and hey paid a price.

    Also, it is not appealing to for God to judge like He did in Pharoahs day but I do believe God at times does that for His redemption. If He didn’t care Pharoah He would give him chance after chance to turn to Him. Sin is sin and until we realize the price we pay for that whether individually or collectively people will continue in the terrible path they currently on. My story of the Hell’s Angel above explains that in those particular times.

    Again it is paganism to say other gods are additional ways or are part of God ways or saying certain sins are not sins thereby people get a false idea that they are on the right track when in fact they aren’t.

12. 12 Drina  on Jan 24th, 2006 at 11:10 am

    [I learn toward not]

    [many terrible sinful areas were hit hard and hey paid a price.]

    Some consistency would be nice.

13. 13 dh  on Jan 25th, 2006 at 10:16 am

    It was consistent. Look at how big an area was hit. I also am consistent in that we are finite and God is infinite. All we can do is get an idea.

14. 14 dh  on Jan 25th, 2006 at 10:17 am

    You might need to reread my previous post before this latest one.

15. 15 Drina  on Jan 25th, 2006 at 5:25 pm

    I know, it wasn’t God’s punishment, but it was.