Absent Elements

What is a Christian?

A lot of people see Christians as hypocrites and people that basically try to convert everyone. More or less, this is the general image. Throw in a that Christians are kind and nice and make up a large percentage of the world's religion and you have yourself the "standard" view of a Christian. For added fun, throw in that they are idiots, as they believe in God. (Popular view of atheists)

There is something very wrong about this. Oh so very wrong.

Christians preach that to be saved and to go to heaven, you must be born again. Hence, baptism is promoted as a born again ceremony, and is a celebrated event within the church. We believe this to be true because Jesus said it to a guy named Nichodemus. But... Jesus told a guy that we should sell everything we have and give it to the poor. Shouldnt we believe this to be true, and in essence, something we have to do to enter heaven?

Why are there only a handful of people that have done this then?

In the words of Rich Mullins: "... But I guess thats why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."

People think that if they make a donation, or sponsor a child its all good. Its not. We're called to help the poor, but how many people actually do it? In that sense, how many people can actually call themselves a Christian?

You could argue that we should contextualize the bible. In some aspects, we should, unless you think its ok to sell your daughter into slavery, stone your wife and not eat shellfish. But I dont understand why you would contextualize this particular passage. Was it somehow easier for someone to give up all their money and give it to the poor back then? No? Then why not? Why arent people doing this?

The worst part is, is that some people dont even proclaim to help the poor. I've helped the poor directly, albeit it was only once, and I plan on doing it many more times. There is a terrible desenthesizing of people going around. I guess people are just used to the poor, or worse, they're so detached from the poverty around them that all they know how to do is to send money and hope everything gets better.

Living in Irvine would probably desenthesize most people. Upper middle class, safest city in the nation, who wouldnt forget about the poor? We rarely see homeless people, and if we do we just treat them with disgust and deport them to Santa Ana.

Weird thing is, we often forget that Jesus was homeless.

I guess thats why Jesus says that when we help the homeless, we serve the Lord.






There was a teenager who was out with his family on a Saturday afternoon. They had just finished lunch and were now enjoying a frozen treat and were strolling around the buildings admiring the sights. As they head over to one of the grocery stores, the family encounters a man asking people for money for the homeless. The parents ignore his plea for money, but the boy doesnt and when asked for money, he politely admits that he has none, as he had spent it on food the past week. As he has no money, he asks his dad for some. The dad gives him a 20 and dollar bill, one for the homeless collector and 20 for himself; the dad often likes to give the teen money. Hesitantly, the teen walks over to the homeless collector, and slips one of the bills into the collector box. As he walks away the homeless collector thanks him, and the teen slips the dollar into his wallet.

Wouldnt it be great if we could all do this?