For I was an hungred, and ye told me to get a job: I was thirsty, and ye told me I was lazy: I was a stranger, and ye left me in the cold: Naked, and ye stoned me: I was sick, and ye condemned me: I was in prison, and ye told me I should get right with God.

Unfortunately, most can’t make the tie-in between the original statements made by Christ, and modern issues. While the original verses are indeed treated as still relevant, they are still mostly ignored by the general Church-going population. And God does take these very personally. All these things, He states, were done to Him, even though they were done to others. Because, what you do to God’s children, He takes as a direct attack on Himself. But, a little modernization helps to really drill the idea in, because, these things have been done to me directly, and to friends, by the very people that repeat the original verses on Sundays.

When we drive by a homeless person, and should “get a job!” we are shouting that to Christ. I am reminded of the TV “christian” response to the Occupy protests being “get a job.” We are told they are lazy. They are beaten, placed in tiny cages, and left out in the cold. They are condemned. And in prison, they are “bad people.” No compassion for the oppressed that we sing of on Sundays, “Come unto Me.” No love for our neighbor. And those that feed the hungry are thrown in cages also. We do these things in Christ’s name sometimes! And these are things God takes very, very personally. These are things He counts as done unto Him.

How our world would be different if a consistent application was made!

“We do not acknowledge allegiance to any human government. We recognize but one King and Lawgiver, one Judge and Ruler of mankind. Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity only as we love all other lands. The interests and rights of American citizens are not dearer to us than those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism to revenge any national insult or injury…”

Tolstoy, Leo (Quoting the Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by Peace Convention); Garnett, Constance (2011-07-12). The Kingdom of God Is Within You (Kindle Locations 91-94). Kindle Edition.

This is not a quote from the Bible, but it’s still Biblical. Jesus never fought for the cause of Rome, or even the cause of Isreal. He came down that “that the world may be saved through him” (YLT-John 3:17). What are we doing as Christians seeking vengeance against a people? We should be reaching out to them, and not killing them. How is it possible to juggle the idea of winning souls and killing them at the same time? It’s not.

It is unfortunate that 9/11 has become the excuse for nationalism and blood thirsty flag worship in this nation. Instead of using the dead to encourage more death, we should be doing the opposite.

Take, for instance, the document titled, “Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Officer Roadside/Interdiction Questioning.” (LE Roadside Questioning), indicators that you may be an Al Qaeda terrorist include telling an officer that you are on your way to Walmart or the grocery store, living with other people, or answering a question with a question.

How else can you explain a cops hostilities when they encounter someone recording them not doing anything really inappropriate? Well, aside from the desire to prevent evidence of wrong doing from being made public, they are probably rationalizing it as neutralizing a threat. What threat could a camera possibly be? According to another document (GI08002-Sovereign-Militia Information) that apparently has been emailed to AZ LEO’s, if a person tries to record a police officer, they may be a part of a group of people classified by the FBI as anti-government extremists that “engage in acts of terrorism and violence” or “Sovereign Citizens.” If they call a friend to witness their traffic stop, it is another indicator that they are terrorists.

Your iPhone can be probable cause in the document forwarded to other police, “iphone apps- used against officers.doc” Because anyone with an iPhone can have these apps installed (Trapster, caller id faker, and the parody digital scale), the officer is encouraged to look through every arrestees cell phone for evidence. Trapster in particular seems to be something they are afraid of because they think it can provide criminals with realtime police gps locations (CRIME ALERT 2009-0084.doc) that can be used to ambush or kill police officers (which it can’t). The “Find your iPhone” feature of newer iPhones also causes great concern for the police, because it allows criminals to remotely erase data on their phone if it is confiscated by the police. Because of this, they now carry faraday bags to place iPhones in to prevent a remote wipe signal from reaching the phone (Find my iPhone.pdf). Because of this, anyone with an iPhone is also potentially a criminal, and using the iPhones features for “criminal” purposes.

The Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies seem to be behind many of these documents, or the ideas behind the documents. The DHS beats into the local cops head that terrorism is every where, and that the world is an incredibly dangerous place where people are just looking to kill police. This may explain the seemingly spontaneous militarization of the police, and the extreme reactions they have to people. I haven’t even gotten into the drug and illegal immigrant documents yet, and there are many of those.

There is a reason why this bothered me. I was trying to probe my coworkers beliefs (primarily because he will discuss ‘religion’ or Christ with every other coworker but me, except to invite me to his church, but also because of my curiosity). I have been trying to see what kind of a Christian he was, and if he had good reasons for his beliefs. Perhaps my conclusion is unfair, but he seems to be a typical ‘conservative’ type: he confuses faith in Christ with an unquestioning acceptance of everything taught to him in a Christian setting. Unfortunately, it seems as if the majority of Christians I meet are this way.

What kind of Christians are we if we believe this way? Of what value is our faith? We can quote scripture verbatim, but our only understanding is what has been taught to us. People ask us how to get to Heaven, and we immediately spit out an answer, without knowing if it is true. It was just taught to us. Frankly, I am not certain if most Christians even know why they believe what they believe. At all. A cab driver pointed this out to me years ago when he asked me some questions about my faith. Since then, I have tried very hard to make sure my beliefs are consistent and true. (Does anyone remember reading Philippians 2:12?) Some do not really care to do this, and get their consistent and true beliefs on Sundays.

Modern Christianity seem to be no better than the other theories of life or religions it derides. It rests simply on a teaching that has been passed down from multiple generations of teachers in a game of generational telephone with the current teaching being incredibly far from the truth it once showed, and there is no desire to go to the beginning and rework our beliefs as necessary. We say to ourselves that “This is what we were taught, and any deviation from it is heresy.” Someone raises an objection to our beliefs and instead of having an answer or researching the question, we cite problems with the questioner. Did we not read from the Bible that we proclaim to be true without knowing why that we should study (2 Tim 2:15)? We are offended by Christians in jail, forgetting in the Bible, persecution is normal. Forgetting God’s commandments, we try to force others to live the way we want. We advocate theft in Christ’s name. We serve someone other than the Jesus in the Bible, and others know this. They mock us, not to persecute us, but because our brand of christianity deserves mocking. They are offended by us, because we offend them, and not because the core of our belief itself is offensive. We even have rules just like the religious leaders Jesus criticized, but we have very intricate reasons for why our rules are not like theirs. We complain of people picking and choosing what parts of the Bible they believe, but it may better to do that with a consistent belief than to mandate that everything be included for the sole reason of a vote long ago while taking what we mandate as included and twisting and perverting it in ways the original authors/Author did not intend. There is a lot wrong with our christianity! It’s not Christian!

To be fair, people’s beliefs change over time, and I too was once a zombie-christian: eating the brains of other christians to sustain me. Perhaps I am still that way to a degree (I’ve changed, honest!). Maybe this is a rant more about myself than a plea for others to consider themselves. I could fill the rest of this spot with Philippians 2:12, but I doubt it would help; I’ve read passages hundreds of times before understanding them, and hundreds of times more before realizing I was abiding solely by a teaching rather than what the passage plainly said. Perhaps it’s worth scrapping our ideas and rebuilding them from scratch?
And the question now is “what do I believe?” I believe that there is a Creator. I believe that He came down in the form of Christ to show us how to live. I believe that he took the punishment of the world when He died on the cross because he loved us, and to show us what love truly is: not killing or oppressing others because they don’t believe like you, but sacrificing yourself for others out of love for them. I believe that when Jesus stated that the greatest commandments were to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, that He meant it. I believe all scripture should be interpreted in light of these two verses.