For the last week I’ve been bombarded with the concept that life without Jesus (or Christianity) is pointless.
I was at a clinic that has a Christian radio station playing. There was an ad about being a father. It said that there was no way to be a good father unless you had a loving relationship with your heavenly father.
Then I was watching 30 Days. It was an episode where an atheist goes to live with Christians for a month. The Christians were suprised that the atheist was a good mother with kids who were not running out of control. They wondered how she could impart ethics to the kids without basing them in a religion. (I remember having that discussion in a philosophy class in college. Unfortunately I don’t remember the fancy reasoning for a non-faith based ethical system because I was firmly of the Christian camp at the time.) They also said that if Jesus wasn’t in your life there was no point to your life.
Then I was working at another clinic on Thursday and one receptionist asked hia client where he got a pin that said something about if you don’t have Jesus in your life there was no point. I was staying the back because I didn’t want to get involved. But he went to his car and brought back pencils that had erasers on both ends. It said “If you don’t have Jesus in your life then it is like this pencil. NO POINT!” He ever so kindly brought in one for everyone. Just what I wanted.
So, has there been a memo sent out to registered Christians that this is their new talking point? I’ve heard it before but never with such saturation. I think it is pretty arrogant. If we don’t subscribe to their way of thinking then there is no point to our lives. We must be horrible parents, too. No wonder was husband was scared about me identifying my real religion on the adoption forms.
I think it implies that Christians don’t trust themselves to refrain from their baser instincts without fear of punishment. What about dong something for the greater good? We could even borrow from the Bible and use the “Do unto others” rule because it actually requires no diety for it to work. It is just a good idea.
So how will I teach my kid values without being a Christian? By modeling them. By discussing things we see around us – both good and bad. By reading. Just by living. Because comtrary to what seems to be the new popular belief you can be ethical and not be Christian.
Glamour Photography
hey great stuff
Going to church doesn’t make someone a Christian any more than
going to a mechanic makes someone a car. It’s a choice you make
to follow Christ after you believe in him and know him. I’m a HUGE
sceptic and I never believed that going to church and listening to a
preacher scream at me was going to get me anywhere, especially
when I knew him and his family were far from perfect. I refused to
care about anything but myself and what I believed the entire time
I was MADE to go to church. It was only AFTER I started reading the
Bible many years later that I truly believed the scripture and came
to love the
Lord. Before judging Christians as a whole,read about the ONLY
one
we should
model ourselves after, Jesus. Then after reading, choose for
yourself and try not to look at someone who is flawed, like
we all are, to base your decision on what Christianity is. May I suggest an easy to read version, there are many
free online versions.
Even when I went to church, I could not stomach people who tired to shove the whole you have to be here to be good down my throat. My own mother is like that, She keeps telling me if I would just go to church my entire life is going to be ok. I’m like oh yea right. wouldn’t that be a magic pill. If so everyone would be there every time the doors open. I usually just smile at people like the one you had with the pencil, and then forget about them as soon as they walk out the door.
Hey, now don’t be forgetting the whole “republican” tie in. Not only can you NOT be a good person, a good parent, if you’re not christian, but you can’t even be a christian unless you’re a republican. 😉
I mean, don’t you know (serious snarkiness ahead) that in order to have Jesus’ approval of your life, you’ve got to rob from the poor and give to the rich; starve the widows & children so that the pharasees can line their pockets; turn your tabernacles into marketplaces; stand on the street-corners praising God that you’re not like the rest of the unclean heathens in the world; drive the biggest, fanciest gas-guzzler that you can find unlike the Savior who walked (oops, shouldn’t have mentioned that, republicans like to forget that part!)….. Yep, in order to have Jesus’ approval, these days, you’ve got to turn around and do EVERY LAST LITTLE THING that Jesus preached AGAINST. But, at least you’ll be a good Repub….. And that REALLY IS more important than being a good Christian, these days, after all!
Sorry…. I’ll shut up now. 😉
I find it funny Christians using that “no point” argument. It’s like they need to convince themselves. For me, I saw no point to life in Christianity. The whole point seemed to just be Christian. Once you have that down, you just wait to die and maybe pick up a few converts along the way.
As far as their view that you must be Christian to be good, I had a friend who was like that. I’ve found some people don’t understand being good because it’s what you desire to do. I’ve just assumed that those who make that kind of statement really don’t desire to do good and only do so to please their god. It’s like when a parent makes a kid apologize for something he’s done, but the apology isn’t sincere. I don’t take anything nice they do to me as sincere anymore.
As far as the adoption thing, I was thinking – some children may find great comfort in routine religious observation. For those children, to ease transition, they may try to match them with like religions. Could you imagaine a Jewish kid who looks forward to Hannuka every year sent to a non-Jewish family and told they couldn’t celebrate Hannuka anymore? Or a Muslim child sent to where they no longer do their prayers several times a day?
If they have a kid who either doesn’t have an attatchment to their religous background, if any (I’d guess this is more common than not), or one who is Pagan, they’ll probably try to match them with you. At least that’s my guess as to why they’d do that.
Hmmm…first off, I’d have to honestly say I don’t like going any type of business where christian music is playing. It makes me uncomfortable. Although I wouldn’t complain to them about it, I just wouldn’t go back.
I’m not anti-christian…I just don’t like other religions shoved up my nose and christians seem to be the worse at doing this. I wouldn’t have accepted the pencil (and there have been times when I’ve turned down these types of “gifts” from fundies).
I tend to think of christians that believe there’s “no point” without Jesus as cattle. They can’t think for themselves and believe in a mythical person to run their life. They don’t do the intelligent work into their religion…who wrote their bible and what parts were left out. They blindly follow the leader of their church like a bunch of cattle….without questioning why? Why seems to be a “bad word” in the christian faith.
I’ve raised my daughter with strong morels and conviction without the help of scare tactics and following some mythical person. Sorry this seems so negative…it’s just a very hot button with me. =)