Friday, February 04, 2005
Biblical Weight for standing tall
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Calling Christians to some sort of movement. Fr. Jake offers a selection of passages from the 23rd chapter of Matthew that gives us a Biblical basis for standing up against the Christian "Right" who have given Jesus and God a bad name. It is important to remember that while Jesus preached universal love, he also taught his followers to have a spine.
Having a spine, according to Jesus, does not mean punching back when punched. Having a spine does not mean 'an eye for an eye' but means 'don't the the bastards get you down,' as my father said.
As a child I was taught that it was okay for boys to cry, and I apparently found a lot to cry about. For years I was picked on because I would cry as soon as I was hurt. Finally I heard my parents advice, which they'd been feeding me for years, and that was to not give in to the bullies. Don't play the game by their rules. By the sixth grade the bullies had stopped bugging me. Once I got into middle school I was attacked by a different kind of bully, but I had learned to ignore them.
What I didn't learn (and I'm still learning this one) is how to turn those bullying moments around. Jesus seemed to be a master at it, looking a bully in the eye and saying something that stopped the bully dead in their tracks. That's a skill I still need to learn.
When would I use that skill? Any time I heard a self-proclaimed 'holier-than-thou' Christian say something like 'SpongeBob Squarepants is a tool of the homosexual agenda.' When an athiest says something anti-Christian like 'all Christians hate gays.'
I hope to have more on this in the future.
¶ 9:41 AM
Having a spine, according to Jesus, does not mean punching back when punched. Having a spine does not mean 'an eye for an eye' but means 'don't the the bastards get you down,' as my father said.
As a child I was taught that it was okay for boys to cry, and I apparently found a lot to cry about. For years I was picked on because I would cry as soon as I was hurt. Finally I heard my parents advice, which they'd been feeding me for years, and that was to not give in to the bullies. Don't play the game by their rules. By the sixth grade the bullies had stopped bugging me. Once I got into middle school I was attacked by a different kind of bully, but I had learned to ignore them.
What I didn't learn (and I'm still learning this one) is how to turn those bullying moments around. Jesus seemed to be a master at it, looking a bully in the eye and saying something that stopped the bully dead in their tracks. That's a skill I still need to learn.
When would I use that skill? Any time I heard a self-proclaimed 'holier-than-thou' Christian say something like 'SpongeBob Squarepants is a tool of the homosexual agenda.' When an athiest says something anti-Christian like 'all Christians hate gays.'
I hope to have more on this in the future.
¶ 9:41 AM
