I don't actually know anyone who believes all this about Christianity (or is honest enough to express that to me). I'm just going by the internet, where there seems to be a lot of awful talk about Christians.
I'm sure there will always be people who justify their deception, their manipulative use of fear, their hatred and small mindedness and plain stupidity in the name of the Lord. Jesus himself talked about wolves in sheep's clothing. And I'm just not buying all the Anti-Christian Internet Hero talk.
Take every other Tuesday at Lighthouse Church, for instance.
Every other Tuesday, a small army of people from our modest church wake up and put in an 8 hour work day, then drive through hell (route 83 rush hour traffic) to get to the church by about 5:00 p.m. There they prepare dinner for at least 30 kids, many of them too small to feed themselves. So they feed them, clean everything and everyone up, and even put the little ones into their jammies before the parents return from Bible study/kid respite at about 7:30.
What's the pay for the miracle of the feeding and the chasing and the entertaining of 30-some children who aren't even relatives? With the bonus of leaving the church between 7:40 and 8:00 in order to prepare for work the next day? I'm sure you can guess.
Lighthouse values life. We value families, which are good for parents and for children. Many of us prefer the much harder, quieter, soul saving work of our beliefs to the loud spouting about them.
Lighthouse has given thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that support and serve children. You want to talk commitment? Members of our church have adopted. Others have provided foster care. Others have regularly, painstakingly supported families who have done these things with none of the glory of being an adoptive parent.
And by painstakingly, I mean wall poop scrubbing. I just don't see any ego involved with scrubbing poop off walls. That's some of what goes on at our little Lighthouse, just like thousands upon thousands of churches across the face of the earth.
So the next time you read of bad or self serving or stupid Christian behavior, please give a nod to all the stories about small acts of kindness and huge acts of crazy love offered in the name of the Lord, each and every one of them being plain hard.
Writing good and bad things about Christians will always be easier and less rewarding than the kind of stuff that goes on every other Tuesday at Lighthouse.
"...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
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