Why are we so squirrely about our faith? Why is it so hard to be able to stand up in front of crowd, or less yet, just among a few friends and say "I'm a Christian". I don't know if this only pertains to Christians but in my personal experience I don't see many Jewish or Islamic folks embarrassed to declare their faith publicly. When someone quotes from the Koran or Torah you don't see the backlash you do when someone quotes the Bible. You can speak of all the wonderful virtues I just mentioned but the moment you attribute those to Jesus Christ it's like the message is lost. "Yes I agree, we all need to be more loving and compassionate people. Huh? What? Jesus said that? Oh, well whatever. You're just some religious nut." I can talk to someone about all these wonderful things and I can see it in their eyes they are captivated by what I'm sharing. But the moment I say, "My Lord Jesus Christ...", I've immediately lost my audience. I don't know, maybe it's the bad rap Christianity has gained over the centuries from the Crusades, the Inquisition, all the way to our current day Televangelists. Unfortunately a lot of bad has occurred in the name of Christ. You want to wipe out a village? Just say "God wills it!" and you can light your torches without guilt. Again from my own personal perspective I think it's the self-righteous hypocrites that have driven a wedge between our Lord Jesus Christ and the masses. They stand before God and country, spewing out line and verse from the Bible, telling us how horrible we "heathens" are and how we'll never find salvation unless we follow the path of Christ only to eventually find out these same Bible thumpers live a secret life that would make the devil blush. I'll be honest I haven't spent a lot of time within the other faiths but it just seems to me that there are many people who think being a Christian some how entitles them to sit in self-righteous judgement over others. Personally I wouldn't want that job. I have a hard enough time as it is trying to keep my life in order. I can't imagine being saddled with the responsibility of having to judge others.
You can condemn all those who have social or political views or life styles you don't agree with by reciting some scripture in order to make your point that you're in the right and they are in the wrong. Why can't we REALLY be more like Christ and reach out with a hand rather than a stick to share with others the love and compassion that God shares with us? If you can share God's word without placing yourself up on some pedestal the message may be better received. If you can express love to others without making yourself look or sound better than them then maybe more fence sitters will see Christianity as a faith of love, compassion, community and charity rather than judge, jury and executioner. I'll continue to work through my insecurities about sharing my faith but I hope that those I do speak with will see that I don't sit in judgement, that I'm just like them, a flawed and insecure person who just happens to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
Whatever your views or life style, I still love you as a creation of God and I'm fortunate to experience life with you in it.
