Christian Belief vs Practice

Our country is often called a Christian nation and Christianity certainly has played an important role in our history. The Founding Fathers may have been deists but they certainly affirmed and implanted in the early governing documents and doctrines of this country Christian values and practices.

One could insert practically any other religion and country at this point saying they affirm the religious beliefs and values. In Muslim countries they affirm the belief in Mohammed as the greatest of the prophets, and the teachings of Mohammed in the Koran. They are not dissimilar to Christian beliefs and teachings. After all Christians and Muslims are spiritual cousins; the spiritual progeny of Abraham.

But what strikes me is the difference between the belief in Christianity (or any other religion) and the practice of that religion. The vast majority of our populace affirms a belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Son of God, which is all it takes to be a Christian.

With that said, can we make an equal claim that most of the populace practices what Jesus taught and the values and principles found in scripture? Take Jesus summation of the law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments.”  [Based on Deut. 6.5 and Lev. 19.18]

Then study the parables of Jesus, which generally turn societal values upside down, or the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the Plane, which do the same.

The point I am making is that we may believe in Christianity, specifically in Jesus, but most do not practice what he taught us to do. In fact, none of us fully practice what Jesus told us to do but some do try harder than others.

As to the institutional church it is claimed by many to be a boatload of hypocrites. If find not problem with that, the issue is whether the church acknowledges it hypocrisy.  “We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God,” as Paul said in his letter to the Romans.

Most folk, I fear in this country, follow the ethics of efficiency or secular practicality rather than Christian ethics. We don’t turn the other check to those who hurt us and even view such behavior as weak. We do not put God first in our lives but our own self-interests, enlightened or not, first. We are more often at odds with our neighbors and are quick to condemn our neighbor if they are not in agreement with us. We don’t walk the second mile we don’t even make a step.

In Genesis it says that we are to be the caretakers of the world and its contents. But in reality we have exploited the earth for selfish benefits leave the world worse for generations to come, no matter what we say. We have overpopulated the world, often with the church’s blessing, wasted its resources, and war over what we see as scarce. Then next scarcity being water that is often seen as a cleansing symbol in religion.

I like to read Politifact.com, which catch people up in their lies. I would suggest that if Politifact.com took a look the stated beliefs of Christians (and other religious systems) in the claims to practice the teachings of their beliefs they would find them “Pants on fire.”

On a more positive note it is good to see a new pope expressing and practicing Christian teachings. Recently he said, “People who judge and criticize others are hypocrites and cowards who are unable to face their own defects…Gossip too, is ‘criminal’ as it destroys, rather than exalts the image of God present in others.”

Cats, Dog, and Human Beings

Lamont leapt deftly to the top level of the step thinky and began to address his sisters, Pawline and Patchtricia. “Dear sisters,” he began. “The other day I promised you a lecture on the basic natures of furless and furred beings. I am now prepared to share that address with you.”

Paw and Patch dutifully if not happily took up positions in front of the fireplace and prepared themselves to listen attentively to their brother.

“To begin this oration I think I will begin with a fellow furred creature who often share furless beings house with, dogs, “began Lamont. His sisters both rotated their ears toward their brother with true interest at this novel beginning. “Dogs, it appears to me are for the most part pure souls who seem totally devoted to their furless owners. In fact, they seem down right dotty about their devotion. They typically jump up and down, barking, and getting overly excited at the sight of their furless owners, and I use the word “owners” advisedly in this case. They lick and slobber all over them and will perform ridiculous tricks to please their owners. And if the have a baby furless being they seem totally devoted to them and will do anything and put up with anything to keep these poor little helpless creature happy. It is no wonder that many furless beings prefer dogs over cats and other creatures they call pets. It does not speak well of either dogs or their owners.

“On the other hand, we cats understand the relationship between ourselves and our servant furless critters. Oh, like dogs, we will rub up against them, purr when the pet us, and are generally affectionate with them, because we know it is for our mutual benefit. But our human servants also know full well that in the midst of all this mutual affection we can just walk off and ignore them and spend most of our times in personal grooming and reflection. They also know that they had better be careful as we may attack them at anytime without warning with our razor like claws. We do not judge ourselves harshly for this behavior, it is just our playful nature we exhibit when we play with each other, and we forget how fragile the furless ones are. Besides, we just get bored with them when other things strike our mind.

“Our human servant counterparts are not unlike ourselves. They have selfish reasons for wanting as “pets” because we entertain them, show them affection when we feel affectionate and the like. They are like that as well. They find great enjoyment in playing with us, and hearing our purrs, but they can also get bored and leave us, often for long periods of time. In fact, they can get annoyed with us. For instance, Meugh seems downright bothered when I walk in front of his computer screen and on his keyboard when he is doing things on it. I rather like seeing his reaction, which is why I do it with some regularity.

“I also am perfectly cognizant of both cats and furless ones that are downright evil in their behavior. I know cats that will kill their own and are just downright belligerent toward all furless beings. I believe this is because of early traumatic incidents in their lives. I think the same is true of furless ones who can be incredibly cruel to other creatures. They may kick dogs and the dogs often come slinking back to get kicked some more. We cats won’t put up with such behavior if at all possible. We are just tougher than dogs as any dog who has had his ass kicked by a cat knows. I also know there are furless one who go out and shoot furred critters for fun. Now we will kill, for necessity when we live outside or because our furless ones want mice eradicated. That is why we often bring these critters to them when we have done them in as presents and signs of our affection for them. And, we will play, sometimes roughly with critters like mice or bugs because they intrigue us and sometimes we get carried away with the play and they die.

“In conclusion dear sisters, I find the cat and furless servants behavior and natures are quite similar. We serve our own interests but we also have the capacity of affection between our two species. We can even be affection with other species such as dogs if it fits our fancy. Dogs on the other hand…go figure as to why they act as they do; they appear a bit simple.

“I suspect that some human beings prefer dogs over cats because dogs allow them to feel godlike as the stupidly affection dogs idolize them. This is not a good thing, they would be far better off with similar natured creatures such as us. Unfortunately not of furless servants are as enlightened to understand our similar nature. Either than or they are just too self-centered.”

With that said Lamont descended from his lecturing position and curled up with his sisters in their respective place for naps.

Saving Souls

When folk generally hear the phrase “saving souls” I think they probably think of those evangelists who want to save souls for God’s kingdom. This used to happen in revival meetings when a man, apparently more religious than local clergy would come to town and put up a big tent, holler about fire and brimstone and the perils of going to hell and then ask people to come forward to be “saved” by pledging the belief in our savior Jesus Christ.

Many evangelical churches today included this coming forward as part of their service. In both cases getting saved was a matter of confessing belief in Jesus as Savior, and that act would guarantee you eternal life.

I have a couple of problems with this concept of saving souls. First, no human being, whether they call themselves an evangelist or a prune Danish ever saved anyone else. One person, Jesus Christ, saved everybody at Golgotha when he died on the cross for human sins, or those things, which separate us from God, accomplished that. Folk who claim they save others are egotistical ill informed theologians. A side part of this is the mistaken belief that we cause our salvation by choosing to belief in Jesus. I am an old Calvinist who believes the actor here is God who calls us to belief to which we are irresistibly drawn.

The second problem I have with this is that it limits the saving of souls to just belief. At root here is how we regard soul. A common definition is that soul refers to our spiritual aspect, or the essence of who we are in contrast to just being physical beings. It is also equated with our moral aspects.

A friend of mine once opined why was it that nobody ever asked him “How does it go with your soul?” A common greeting we use is “how are you?” referring to our physical health; he was getting to why is we don’t ask about each other about our spiritual health.

As I said before, I don’t think we can do a thing about saving anyone’s soul, that’s is God’s prevue, but there is a great deal we can do about helping others with the condition of their soul, their essence the moral well being.

Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, believed that by following certain scientific principles a person could become a “clear” or their soul could be perfected. Or, more crassly put, it is found in the phrase, “I’ve got my shit totally together.” In my opinion nobody ever gets there but are always in the process of getting it together.

I think the condition of people’s and even national soul’s are in deep trouble today. Consider the souls of crass materialists who will do anything for the almighty dollar, the bottom line. How is it with the souls of those bankers who took advantage of their customers to gamble and lose in the market and kept money for themselves? How goes it with the souls of CEO and the like who feel justified in earning 400 times of those who work in their companies? How goes it with the souls of politicians who emphasis re-election and power and jobs with businesses who give them money for their campaigns and promise to give them great jobs after their political careers? How goes it with the soul of the nation and allow a small percentage of people to have most of the wealth of the country and turn a deaf ear to those in need? How goes it with souls of employers who do not pay their workers a living wage?

I would also ask how goes it with the souls of veterans who fight for our country, who experience the hells of combat and coming home with post traumatic syndromes, and other traumas and find a country not willing to give them adequate help in helping their souls? How about the souls of those born into poverty, who though they work hard, cannot get a living wage to provide for their families? How goes it with the souls of those who are discriminated because of race, religious belief, ethnicity, sexual preference, or the sex period? Of course this list could go on and on, but you get the idea; we don’t not appear to care that much about the condition of each other’s souls.

A fella once told me that the only thing a pastor should do is save souls, be an evangelists. Realizing that anything I would say to him would fall on deaf ears, I just smiled and changed the subject, but I could not disagree with him more. As a pastor, I felt no responsibility to save souls in terms of saving them in the old fashioned sense of eternal life; that was God’s job. But I did believe I had great responsibility in helping folks with their souls. To teach them over and over again the stories of scripture that were soul building, to give the exposure to morals and values that would make for a more soul fulfilled life. As for evangelical work, meaning in this case getting more folk in the church, that was primarily the role of the members of the church.

So, I ask you my dear readers, how goes it with your soul? What are you doing to enhance your spiritual well being? What are you doing to help others in their spiritual needs? This is the giving the returns gifts manifold, and comforts our own souls.

I worry about the soul of friends and family and of our nation. I believe we live in a primarily secular materialistic society that promotes values that are bad for our souls. But I also don’t believe that God will ever give up on us, we will equip us to help us in soul mending of ourselves and others if we are just open to such a calling.

How goes it with your soul?

The Cats Converse about the First Snowfall

“I pity those poor furless critters,” said Lamont.

“Why is that?” inquired Patchtricia.

“Well, you’ve been looking out the window this morning and seeing all the white stuff on the ground. It’s called snow,” said Lamont.

“We know it’s snow dummy,” retorted Pawline. “We lived outside a long time before Meugh brought us into the Shackteau. We lived in snow almost an entire winter, and had to snuggle together in the little heated house our furless servants make for us. Yuck, we certainly remember snow. But what does that have to do with pitying the furless critters?

“It’s obvious, said Lamont. “They don’t have fur coats like we do, they are furless. Well Meugh has some whiskers, which are a little bit like fur, but he keeps them so short I don’t think it keeps him warm. And Mewreen has no fur at all. So, they have to put on layers of clothing, artificial fur to keep warm all the time. Their clothing can not compare to our nice warm fur, nor is it as nice to touch.”

“I think that is why they like to pet and brush us so much each evening,” chimed in Patch. It’s nice to have them pet and brush our lovely fur and keep it shiny. I’m not sure why they do it but I suspect they do it for two reasons.”

“What reasons?” asked Paw.

“First, of all I think it is because the love us; that’s most important. But I also think they might do it out of a little bit of envy since they don’t have nice fur coats. Furless critters are not as pure of heart as we cats you know.”

“That is a significant observation of the basic nature of furless beings and furred beings. I am preparing a lecture on that that I will share with you soon on the subject,” injected Lamont.

“Oh, we’ll look forward to that,” replied Patch with a little smirk as she winked at Paw. “We can hardly wait.”

“At any rate,” continued Lamont. “I feel sorry for those furless critters. The guys next-door working on our neighbor’s garage put on more and more layers of artificial fur each day and it gets colder outside. Poor buggers.”

“Poor buggers,” echoed Pawline and Patch as all three curled up in front of their fireplace.