As I type this, I'm simultaneously watching 46662 - The Message, an all-star concert organized by Nelson Mandela to raise awareness on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Among some of the many celebrities that have so far appeared on this show at Beyonce, Anastacia, Queen (whom I'm surprised are still alive!) and U2. U2's lead singer Bono, who is one heckuva singer yet is ever the politician at heart, made one statement on the show which is distasteful to hear for most people, but is unfortunately so accurate -"It's funny how religious people can usually be the most judgmental of people..." and he goes on to say that we all need to get past the stigmas that surround people afflicted with HIV or AIDS and open up our arms to accept them into our communities.
That statement struck me today because just a couple of hours earlier, I was out with Stuart and as he was giving me a ride home, some tension rose between us coz' I said something about Christmas that he considered very arrogant, and I suppose, judgmental. Something along the lines of, "...people celebrate Christmas for all the wrong reasons". Well, as I'm a Christian and he's an atheist, it didn't take him long to understand what I meant, get all uptight about it and start accusing me of being arrogant. I believe that the real purpose for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, whereas he believes that Christmas is for celebrating family. And I would suppose him and other non-Christians would say Christmas is for celebrating other things like being together with the ones you love and giving to one another and so on. Which are not bad reasons for celebrating Christmas, and it's perfectly fine to celebrate all those things...but the whole idea of Christmas originated from the desire to celebrate the birth of Christ. If there has been no Jesus Christ, there would be no such thing as Christmas... I mean, the word itself has the word 'Christ' in it! So it's fine to celebrate all those other things, as long as the original purpose of having Christmas is given its rightful place as being the main cause for celebration. And the reason why I said what I said is because many people do forget the real purpose, or rather, choose to ignore it, and focus more on the other reasons instead. It's kinda like having a birthday party where everyone celebrates giving presents and getting together with a bunch of other people instead of actually celebrating the person's birthday...like hello? Isn't that missing the whole point???
Even so, I still have to ask myself if Stuart was right in accusing me of being arrogant and judgmental. I actually do agree with what Bono said about 'religious' (a word that starting to make my eyes roll a lot more these days, for reasons that I will hopefully explain some other time) people being the most judgmental. It's true that plenty of Christians, me included, are somewhat judgmental, even though the Bible itself tells us not to judge others (Matthew 7:1 - Do not judge, or you too will be judged). It is hard for Christians NOT to do so, considering the Bible sets pretty high standards for us to live by. So I have to admit that yes, I was being judgmental for saying what I said. And I admit I probably shouldn't have said something as harsh and general as that. The reason why I said it was valid, but the way I put it definitely wasn't appropriate. But for Stuart to say that I was arrogant, well, that I can't really agree with that. I know he said that coz' he assumed that I said what I said because all Christians think we're better than non-Christians, and we think that we have all the right to accuse non-Christians of celebrating Christmas for the 'wrong' reasons. Well, although I agree with him that maybe a lot of Christians do think and act that way, to assume I think the same way just bugs the hell outta me. I don't think I'm better than any other person, Christian or not. How can I, when I didn't and couldn't do anything to get myself saved? I was just lucky enough to understand and accept God's salvation through Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast)! I'm just as messed up as any other human being, and I never had the notion that believing in Jesus put me on a higher level than anyone else. And any Christian who does deserves a kick in the @ss...(whoops, did I just made another judgment? :P) So to accuse me of being arrogant, well, that was Stuart spouting his own preconceptions, prejudices and judgements about who I am. I never meant what I said in arrogance... I said it, albeit in not a very good manner, because it is true.
It's also interesting to note that in all the time I've spent with Stuart, he has made quite a number of judgments himself about Christians. I've heard him say things like Christians don't think, Christians are deluded, the Bible is full of fairy tales...which sound like pretty harsh judgments to me. Considering especially that all 66 books of the Bible are actually historical documents describing people, places and artifacts that have time and time again been verified to be real through archaeology (Check this out, if you're interested)... it seems pretty surprising that those guys who wrote the Bible would go through so much trouble to be historically accurate in those areas, yet make up all the other 'unbelieveable' stuff about Jesus Christ. Pretty detailed fairy tales, huh? :P And sure, some of the supposed archaeological evidence would be fakes (people would make a heckuva lot of money if they claim to have found some Biblical artifact...of course there would be fakes!), but certainly a lot of them aren't. And to say Christians don't think, or are deluded, is an extremely unfair judgement for Stuart to make. There are plenty of educated people out there with Phd's and Masters and other big brainy labels to their names who are Christians... did these people with all their smarts just blindly accept everything they heard about the Gospel without exercising their brains? I'm just a measly third year double degree full Monash scholar, and surprise, surprise, I actually DO think about what I've been taught in church...I actually HAVE doubted many things, and I actually HAVE a billion and one questions about my faith...some of which I probably will never find the answer to until the day I get a crack with God face to face. Some of which, I'm learning the answer to along the way, coz' surprise again, I actually think about it for quite a bit. I care about Stuart a great deal, but I am no less than fully insulted by what he says about Christians. I have never made such audicious accusations about atheists or other non-Christians not thinking or being deluded, though I very easily could. But like I said before, I'm no better off than anyone else, have no right to think I'm better than others, have no right to judge anybody, and so I won't dare say such things.
I guess I've sounded pretty defensive and ticked off throughout this whole entry. But I can't help but be. I mean non-Christians always accuse Christians of being judgmental, intolerant and self-righteous, but when they do that, they're being hypocritical coz' they are being exactly the same thing that they accuse us of! They're judging the Christians by making such accusations... they're intolerant of Christians coz' we're intolerant of sin... and they're self-righteous when they think Christians are idiots and they are the 'intellectuals'. And I'm not half as mad at them for being such hypocrites as I am sad because they don't even bother to find out for themselves the evidence for the truth of the Gospel before coming to the conclusion that it's all lies. I'm sad because they consider it a waste of time to find out more about who Jesus Christ really was and whether his outrageous claims to be the only way of salvation were true...I mean, if there is even ANY possibility that the gospel is true, as unbelievable as the Bibles stories are, I think it would be worth a little of my time to try and find out as much as I can before brushing it off. Coz' if the gospel really is all lies, than fine, I just die and lose nothing except my time. But if it is true, and I don't accept it, then I lose an eternity in heaven. Logic dictates that it would be a good idea to find out more when such large stakes are at hand. Or is my logic flawed because I'm an idiot of a Christian, hmmm?
Of course, the logical argument to my train of thought is how can I can I be so sure that Jesus really is the one true way to heaven when there are so many other religions that claim their beliefs are the only way to heaven? What if I'm wrong about Jesus and I go to hell anyway coz' I believed in the wrong thing? Which is a good question... one that I cannot confidently answer as yet because to do so would require me to have a great deal of knowledge about other religions, and why I'd think they are flawed. As it is, I admit that my knowledge base has been mostly confined to Christianity's teachings... but during my summer break, I plan to do expand my knowledge base, to find out more about other religions and analyze them as unbiasly as I can. As difficult as it will be, I will try to approach these other religions with a mind of a free thinker, someone who has no beliefs in any religion. Certainly, I will be doing a lot of blogging about what I find, and along the way I have no idea if my faith will be eroded or strengthened. It'll take a heckuva lot of time, but hey, my ticket to heaven (if there is a heaven) is at stake here, so I think this will be time well spent. And if not, well, at least it'll make good dinner conversation. :P
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