Saying it on Sunday morning isn’t the same thing as living it

I’ve written about fun stuff, family trips and the like. Sometimes I’ve tackled serious topics. A couple times I even went so far as to write about politics. Let’s see if I can tiptoe a little closer into “taboo” territory and talk about — gasp! — religion.

Quick disclaimer: I’m not a pastor, priest, bishop, elder or any other official of any church. I’m just a guy who was raised going to a Presbyterian church with his grandmother. Since then I’ve attended Baptist, Catholic, Assembly of God and other churches. These days I prefer to call myself simply “Christian,” as I get tired of the frequent infighting between the different denominations. It’s silly. I like to think that there are people arriving in heaven all the time saying, “Gee, guess I was wrong about that aspect of my particular church.”

My mother is very dedicated and involved with the Mormon relgion. My stepmother is Catholic. I have good friends who are members of so many different churches that I can’t keep them all straight. And I’m proud to say that I have many very, very close friends who are atheists. Yes, you read that right, I’m proud of it.

When I see blogs or conversations regarding Christianity, I’m sometimes sad to see very hateful or condescending comments from non-believers regarding the Christian faith. But you know, I must say that I often don’t blame them. From their points of view, Christians are frequently guilty of the “holier than thou” mentality that seems to be running rampant across all denominations.

I have personal experience with church members quizzing me about my beliefs and either becoming upset with me or mocking me for not agreeing with how their particular denomination interprets this or that. I’ve seen parents refusing to allow their children play with friends after finding out that child’s parents either belong to a different church or aren’t Christians. It’s not too hard to find instances of Christians giving unsolicited lectures or reprimands to people who didn’t ask their opinions in the first place. This hardly endears anybody to you or your religion and gives the rest of us a bad name.

Pardon me, but when did we become a snobby club? It seems to me that Christians are supposed to live as an example. We’re supposed to live our lives and treat others as a reflection of what it means to be a Christian. I don’t think running around and browbeating others, being overly forceful or otherwise using aggressive tactics wins very many people over. Now I’m not saying I live like a Saint. Heck, nobody does. But when you try your best, isn’t that what it’s really all about?

Looking at the Bible, I don’t see Jesus spending all his time hanging out with people who already believed. What would be the point of that? Didn’t he spend most of his time in the company of people who were, especially in their time, considered to be outcasts from society and the Church? To behave like we’re some sort of exclusive club and only socialize with other like-minded people serves little purpose but to reinforce the image that we consider ourselves to be above others. I’m happy to answer when asked about my religion and I even enjoy a respectful debate with my non-believing friends when they bring it up. I try my hardest to point out when I’m going off on my own opinion regarding what the Bible says and what I think it really means or what really happened (feel free to hit me up sometime with one of the zingers I frequently get, “Do you REALLY think God flooded the entire Earth?”). But I don’t think it would accomplish much if I began pushing my faith on them until the only thing I accomplished was to push them away.

Perhaps the biggest complaint I read, hear, or witness is the problem with people who call themselves Christians and use that as some sort of license to judge others. And again, I have to say I see their point. Even in mainstream news I can constantly read about people who claim to be “on the side of God” using their supposed elevated status to lay out judgment to people they claim are sinning. The irony is, by doing so they are committing a sin themselves.

I’m willing to bet that even those of you who don’t believe in God are at least aware of the Bible verse that says: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” There’s more, but you get the idea.

Basically, it means God is pretty direct in telling man not to judge others. It’s his domain and his alone. I find that far too many of my fellow Christians can’t seem to comprehend the difference between recognizing the difference between sin and a sinner. To make it simple, a sinner is every single person on the planet, including those people trying to dole out judgment, which makes them hypocrites. Last time I checked, there isn’t a ranking system in the Bible for which sins God only finds annoying vs. those who anger him. All sin is equal in his eyes, so to equate that with a popular hot topic in the news today, homosexuality, how is it that I can claim to be a Christian and yet have some very good friends who are homosexual?

Fellow Christians have hammered me for this more times than I can count. And yes, I have even lost their friendship over my refusal to distance myself from homosexual friends. But here’s the deal. If I threw away my friends who were homosexual because they are “sinning,” then I have to start ditching all my friends who sin (including those church members trying to judge others) and pretty quick … I don’t have any friends. Also, how could I expect anybody to accept me, as I am, if I’m not willing to do the same for others? This isn’t the same as condoning, by the way. Yes, my homosexual friends know where I stand on the issue, but since we’re all clear about it and I don’t feel the need to constantly try to beat them up over it, we’re able to get along great. I don’t have to agree with everything they do and they don’t have to agree with everything I do in order to get along.

I have faults. You have faults. We all do, and anybody who feels otherwise is ridiculously arrogant, Christian or otherwise. There’s a lot of talk about accepting each other for who we are, but I find it a lot harder to actually see it. “Hate the sin but love the sinner” seems to be forgotten. And for my fellow Christians, it’s sure easy to stand up and say it on Sunday morning, but are you actually living it?

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column under the tagline “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.