Criticisms of Jesus

angry figures complaining

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I wrote a post recently with some criticisms that I wish I heard made more of Christians. I wrote them all in an overly positive fashion (you are too generous) rather than the realistic negatively phrases idea (you are reckless with your money and don’t have enough for your kids because you gave it all to that junkie who wasted it ….)

Anyone Charlotte left a comment that made me think about the criticism people said of and to Jesus.

[Confession time, I started this straight after the last post but delayed posting it so I could collect more examples and verses for it. In the mean time Frank Viola posted the same idea! AND included some criticisms of Paul as well! So you should probably take a look at his more comprehensive list]

Criticisms of Jesus

  • You are healing on the Sabbath
  • You are working on the Sabbath (Grabbing grain from a field is work right?!)
  • You are claiming to be God (that’s blasphemy!)
  • You are forgiving people’s sins (only God can do that! That’s Blasphemy!)
  • You are a drunk and a glutton
  • You heal using the devils power
  • Your friends are the worst people there are (prostitutes, tax collectors, working class fishermen, etc)
  • You don’t keep the law of Moses (aka the bible)

So how do you stack up to that list of criticism?

  • When was the last time someone had a go at you for healing (at all) or about how you did it (it’s just hypnosis/a placebo effect)
  • When have people criticised you for the people you hang out with?
  • Or when was the last time people… (Actually, If you’ve been on the internet any time then I’m sure some other Christian has criticised you for not respecting the bible so maybe this one is a given.)

What does this mean to me?

I’d guess there are a couple of things we should take out of this,

If they criticised Jesus, the son of God, they will criticise you

Some people know you are bad, doing bad and are causing all sorts of problems in the world. They don’t care if there is any evidence to the contrary and will keep hounding you. Nothing you can say, do or show them will be enough. Online they are known as trolls

If people aren’t criticising you there is something wrong.

I’m sure you know the famous quote by Winston Churchill

You have enemies? good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.

This doesn’t mean you should ignore your critics, This doesn’t mean there won’t be some or complete truth in their criticism but if people aren’t criticising you then you must be doing nothing!

What people criticise you for can show a lot about them but also about yourself. If you are only hearing the first set of criticisms that I talked about in my last post then something is wrong. If you are being criticised for doing good things, healing people, loving people, being a friend to the friendless, then you are walking as Jesus walked.

That’s not to say you won’t get criticised for bad things too (rightly or wrongly) but it shouldn’t be an either or.

In Discipleship , Chris Wilson —  May 14, 2013 — Leave a comment
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We do not use deception

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Photo Credit: godoftosh via Compfight cc

One of the greatest verses about mission, evangelism and preaching is Paul’s message in 2 Corinthians 4:2

  Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God

The summary is that we should be honest about Gospel and present the actual Christian message. We shouldn’t try and make it more attractive as a “bate and switch” or try to use our own methods to convince people to become Christians but instead plainly present the gospel. This flies in the face of some criticisms and what some Christians do, trying to use deception and dishonest means to convert people.

The good is that generally the rates of conversion via cult methods are low and they have high leaving rates so no matter how good someone is at deception they will be found out (after all we’d all be members of a cult if this weren’t true). The bad news is this may permanently leave them alienated to the Christian message.

But what do dishonest methods look like. I’ve started to investigate not because I want to use them but because I don’t want to use them and don’t want to wander into accidentally using it and to recognise when others use these methods to convince people of other arguments.

The following ones are taken from a Cracked article, I’ll explain the idea and then how we see them in the church (and else where)

1. Chanting slogans

This is a way to shut up critics and make people feel excluded for not shouting along. On the other hand There is definietly some benefit to chants and they are a fundermental part of meditation. They help you to focus on one thing (which makes the issue of liturgy a bit awkward though I’m still a slight fan)

However, loud chanting all together is a form of brainwashing. Let’s try and avoid this.

2. Controlling what people watch and read

Now I won’t disagree that there are some things we shouldn’t watch, they just aren’t helpful for us. But as soon as Richard Dawkins says something critical of Christianity…we dismiss it. (of course he would say that wouldn’t he) as soon as a Christian says something about abortion/euthanasia/sexual ethics/or anything else then people will just ignore it.

By doing this we ignore real criticisms of Christianity (as well as false ones). It’s a tough area but I’d rather debate these ideas honestly with someone trusting that God has the answers and will provide them rather than being afraid that they won’t appear.

3. Using shame and ridicule

This is the one I’ve seen the most from Atheist but I’m sure Atheist can point out Christian examples. The basic idea is that you don’t even have to mentally engage with the idea, instead you just say it’s dumb. The way I’ve seen this is with comments like “there is no boggie man in the sky” or saying that this happens by magic. In fact, this strategy is being promoted a lot with comments like “in order to have free speech we should speak freely” which has descended into insulting each other.

I’ve used Atheists as examples because this has been what I’ve seen more of as this is what I’m engaging with an what I notice from my perspective. I suspect that Christians do this, by saying that people are dumb for thinking all of this comes by chance.

4. Black and white choices

Science vs Religion always strikes me as an interesting one. I’ve never seen the two as incompatible but let’s imagine for a second that science did disprove religion…it’s interesting that a computer game could lead to some of the negative traits of religion as well. [seriously, read that article, it's crazy]

5. Us vs Them

Linked in with the point above there is the idea pushed that you are either part of us or part of them (which is then used to add a load of extra criteria you have to obey). Sometimes this is used to get people to leave their friends and not take information from outside sources (see previous points) or about how all Atheist are trying to destroy religion about how it’s us religious people vs the non-believers or everyone vs Muslims or Conservatives vs Liberals.

The others are always evil and stoopid, right? It’s impossible to understand them and they are just doing it for themselves.

I won’t deny that there are some evil, selfish people out there in ALL of these groups (it’s not hard to find a scandal of a leader of one of these groups) but there are also people in all of these groups who genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. there are Atheist think that all religion does hard and people should be saved from that, I believe they are wrong but I don’t think they are evil for that (Though I’d say they have a problem with sin just like every Christian does).

 

I think I have seen all of these elements in Christian groups and non-Christian groups. let’s try to keep to Paul’s mentality and not use cheap tricks like this.

In reflection Chris Wilson —  May 7, 2013 — Leave a comment
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Paying the bills

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Photo Credit: Sky Noir via Compfight cc

I’m returning back to the theme of “Are we a monastery” that I considered a few months ago but this time I wanted to develop each of the points a bit more so I’m starting with one point. Paying the bills

Every monastery had a way to pay the bills and fund themselves, buy food, build the buildings and general run. Even in the early days of the church we see different financial models so here is a quick run down of how Christians have financed the church (both congregations and larger body) over the years.

Shared purse

This is the model we saw with the believers in Jerusalem in Acts, they sold all their possessions pooled that wealth, lived together and helped each other out. Everyone had enough. (A little thought, it’s not like they needed to buy tracks, to pay for travel [No one left Jerusalem at first] or even for buying bibles to hand out. It seems that the money only went to living expenses of the followers of the way.)

Tentmaking

This was a model that Paul certainly followed at some times and seemed to fit in with his mindset of not being a burden on any communities he went to (in contrast to turning up and demanding that they give him food and water because he was going to tell them the good news). Paul literally made tents (and sold them) in the cities he went to and that was how he could live and preach in the places he went to.

Patrons

Patrons aren’t so popular now but think back to the renaissance where wealthy business owners would fund the building of a church or piece of religious artwork. In some cases this was all about the patron, receiving glory and showing off how wealthy they were, but for devote men this was how they could show the importance of God.

Donations

This is clearly the dominant paradigm at the moment and in some ways a shared purse and patrons could be called a form of donation. There are differences though. The patron funded everything themselves and sometimes received benefits as a result. When people lived with a shared purse they gave everything and then received back only what they were given, but donations are a regular payment from a collection of members. In many ways donations are a lot like membership fees which you need to renew every…

 

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By cendol from sxc.hu

Monasteries have run various models (and combinations) such as donations from visitors to see relics, shared purses when new members join and having patrons who help them stay around but a good group went for Tentmaking and running side businesses. The trappist monks in Belgium and central Europe brewed beer, Other places grew food, some made clothes. Basically different ways to make sure money flowed in.

This might seem a bit like a cop out from “trusting in God” and there are certainly cases where it can be a cop out. However,if people need clothes and food (not just the monks) and rubbing a business that produced clothes would help the whole area and ends up serving others and God at the same time (again this can be a cop out). But there is another side, where people don’t consider the money aspect and then can’t do certain things because they have been bad stewards (though this can be used to justify a worldly attitude to money as well)

Applying it?

I believe that our language school is providing a valuable service, helping students to get work for themselves and their families, but we are also providing money so that we can serve more as well. On a personal level there are Christian groups I support financially as well (though I want to increase here). This is how I am personally applying it so far. Maybe these questions will help you think about money in a good way.

Your current position

  • First think about how you currently support the Christian activities you are involved in? Are you a supporter? Are you a Tentmaker? Do you have a shared purse?

Imagining

  • What would your life look like if you took up one of the other approaches?
  • If you weren’t a Christian, how would you approach money? How do your friends approach money?

Comparing

  • How different are these ideas? Are they different at all?
Should you change your attitude?
In Discipleship , Chris Wilson —  April 29, 2013 — 1 Comment
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Prone to wander

This is part of the Christian bloggers community on Google plus challenge for the week.

I’m sure many bloggers will post Contemporary Christian music here as it is the music that most people sing week in, week out. It’s the music I grew up singing (interspersed with some hymns as well) but over time I’ve actually come to enjoy Hymns more and more. My favourite song is actually a hymn. (Although I’m going to post Sufjan Steven’s version of this song)

Just check out the lyrics (there are several versions so I’m including the 1973 version you can see others here.)

1. Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise His Name I’m fixed upon it
Name of God’s redeeming love.

2. Hither to thy love has blessed me
Thou has brought me to this place
And I know thy hand will bring me
Safely home by thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

I want to look at the part that I really love in this song

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Maybe you can see yourself in the first part “prone to wander.” Do you see that temptation in your heart for the easy way, or the alternative route, the latest gadget, the “good life” and not the narrow path. But the amazing thing is the response.

Here is my heart Lord, Take it!

The hymn writer didn’t just accept this wandering in their heart, instead they pray that God will seal their heart.

[Side note: is it just me who get's really annoyed by partially modernised versions of classic songs. They usually have an irregular pattern of contemporary and traditional words with some of the words that they replace easily understandable where as the ones they leave are less clear]

In Challenge Chris Wilson —  April 19, 2013 — 1 Comment
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angry figures complaining

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There are a lot of common complaints that I hear about Christians.

  • You don’t think
  • You ignore evidence
  • You are Homophobic
  • You are sexist
  • You spend too much on your churches
  • You are deluded
  • You are immoral
  • Basically, You are evil

Sometimes I want to argue against these claims,  sometimes I know that they are true but I wish these were the things people complained about Christians for.

  • You are too generous with your money and your time
  • You love people you shouldn’t
  • You are too forgiving
  • You are too accepting of outsiders and losers
  • You are too loving
  • You are too devote to God
  • You aren’t like the rest of us
  • You raise your children to seek other things and not “the good life” first
  • You are too honest with your faults
  • Basically, you lives are different from ours because of your faith.

I’m sure there are more that I should add to both lists but what do you think? What things do you wish Atheist/agnostics complained about your faith for?

 

 Posted by Chris Wilson  onApril 15, 2013 In Challenge ,
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A lesson I’ve learnt

A small orthodox church in UkraineA little over two years ago I moved from England and went to Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine. It was a time of great upheaval (no Shoot) but also a really exciting time. I’d been mentally preparing for moving abroad for a few months but in reality this amounted to very little actual prep and I actually only had a week to get packed, sort out my certificates, tax status and a whole host of other things.

One of the things I didn’t sort out (but did a brief Google search though) was church.

My Google search revealed that Ukraine had a large Christian population (in fact, the largest in the ex soviet states) and I found a large church network but not a church that I could actually check out. So I went out, with no Christians with me, with no fellowship out there and no links to a formal church.

I wasn’t attending a “traditional” church before I left the UK but a more informal, “house church” style group and I was a firm believer in “being not doing” church. I thought that although it probably wasn’t the best idea to not have a formal church institution to go to, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

I was wrong.

I quickly found that I was suffering, I couldn’t Skype with people back home so easily and I wasn’t connecting with people back in England as much as I had. I had lost my old network. I also didn’t replace this network with a group in Ukraine quickly. I didn’t meet any Christians to start hanging out with and I couldn’t find out where any churches were.

But this didn’t matter did it? Being church not going or attending church means that I just need to live the Christian lifestyle and it will all be great, won’t it? Revival for sure, right?…wrong!

Hard Times

It was tough. Really tough. When you have a language barrier with many people and limited group of Friends its going to be tough but take away your fellowship with other Christians and it really sucks. It should come as no surprise that Paul always took someone with him on his mission trips and this seems to be the main model that I see.

Things did turn around though. One of my colleagues (who was away when I joined the school) was a Canadian Christian who had married a Ukrainian and spoke Russian fluently so she helped and translated the sermons. I was latter joined by another Christian who I ended up living with. This was when things really became amazing, we were attending a traditional church service on Sunday’s, occasionally visited orphanages, prayed nightly and shared great times together. There was something magic that happened when there was a group of us.

Menu Ukraine stuffed by shrimp

Find the interesting translation from Russian to English. You’ll never look at celery the same again

Doing things differently

When I left Ukraine and looked at places to work next knowing that there was a church in the place I was going to was a big priority for me. I also have very big respect for any missionary that sets out but I don’t know a single Missionary who has set out on their own, they always have a partner with them and I can understand why.

I still don’t think that people “have to” go to a traditional church service but a weekly service is a good way to ensure you do have fellowship and is a way that new Christians can find you as well.

In reflection , Chris Wilson —  April 12, 2013 — 3 Comments
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Frank Viola on Mental (and physical) Illness [link]

I saw this article by Frank Viola today and I thought it was worth sharing.

In it he discusses the trend to treat mental, physical and spiritual as different entities (Which originally comes from Plato who viewed the Physical as bad and the Spiritual as good and separate.) Where as the Jewish view is that they are intertwined and together not Separate. It fits in well with what modern science tells us about Mental illness, that there is a chemical imbalance linked in but this can be a cause or a symptom (and often circular causing things to get worse).

Anyway check out the article.

 Posted by Chris Wilson  onApril 10, 2013 In Link
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The fear of losing faith

sign shadow doubt

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I had a conversation on Sunday morning with a friend online who was contemplating whether or not to go to church, having doubts about religion and all those things. It’s not unusual for people to doubt their faith and I would like to meet someone who has never doubted their faith but one of the things that surprises me is when people get scared by their doubt and start to panic.

Having said that I have certainly had those feelings at times.

At university I became slightly obsessed by the arguments for and against God’s existence and trying to prove that he existed. I started to get down by reading all the arguments for and against and even more depressed by the people who put the arguments forward. Generally I found them to be aggressive, angry, and insulting (from both sides).

This was partially me taking personal offence where there really wasn’t a reason to, but also because most people who argue so forcefully for or against God seem to have personal hangups over it which they let out on people.

Why are people scared of Doubt?

Maybe some of this explains why people don’t like doubt, the fear that they will end up like the person making the argument (even if they agree with it) but one of the biggest reasons is changing your beliefs is a very uncomfortable experience. It causes people to look over past experiences and decided that it was different than they thought and it leads to a change in relationships. Sometimes this is how other people treat you but also it is a self-fulfilling aspect as well.

I have had friends who have turned away from faith and when we sometimes talk about faith, some of them view every occasion it is “I am forcing my opinions on them” yet this happens when they rattle on about their beliefs for 30 mins and then I ask one question or when I speak for 30 mins (I’d like to repeat that this isn’t everyone and there are friends I can have a civilised discussion with). This is self-fulfilling. They think that people are going to be forceful and harsh to them so every thing said is forceful and harsh [oh it happens the other way as well, I do it with my interpretation of what non-christians are saying]

Maybe we are worried that Christians will view our doubts negatively and non Christians will view our doubts as a sign that actually it’s all a lie.

An alternative attitude

The first thing I’d say is stop worrying! When you worry about your doubts…it makes them grow, doubts are okay and you may realise you were wrong but that’s okay [you may be right and then change to being wrong so let's not rush this]. If you worry then you won’t look at things clearly, you will miss out on things, you will be blind to the truth and you will probably make the wrong decision (you better not worry about worrying about your doubts now! That would just be weird).

Instead its much better to enjoy the doubt, enjoy the uncertainty and learn to be comfortably uncomfortable.

This partially comes from trusting that if God is real he will over come your doubt (so in a way it isn’t doubting) and so really it is a deeper trust of God.

There was a study done that showed that when people were less certain of what they believed they would more vigorously defend their positions. I’m sure you know some people like this who don’t really know what they believe and yet are the most fierce defenders of those beliefs (or lack thereof)

So Wait are you telling me to just give up and not believe

If you are thinking that’s what I’m saying then I’d like to give you A big no to that question!

I’m not saying you should think about your faith (you really should, any doubts you have, a non christian is having for sure) I’m not saying you shouldn’t look for answers and I am certainly not saying that you won’t find them.

Instead I am just saying that God is God, he is all powerful, he is just and he is bigger than your doubts, it’s a weapon of the enemy to tell you that your doubts are bigger than God and is a ploy to make you fear that there aren’t any answers (when in reality you may just have to wait to find them) that a little issue is a big issue (but wait! you mean one genealogy follows one track and another follows a different track! how can this be! it’s not like it’s possible to have two or more sons is it!!!) or to make you not investigate your faith and not have answers for sceptics.

A bit of closure?

For the record I am not sure that this is the best answer and maybe my doubts are as real (strong?) “doubts” as some people which maybe explains why I am so okay with having doubts. There may even be some negatives of having this laissez faire attitude towards doubts I’m not sure really but I’d love to know your thoughts.

Do you ever get worried by your doubts? Is it okay to not worry about your doubts?
In reflection , , CadminW —  April 9, 2013 — 3 Comments
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How to use AutomateIt to simplify your Android [link to guest post]

I haven’t put a link to a guest post I’ve written in a long time but I thought I’d break that trend for this one. Lifehack is a blog I’ve followed for a while and so getting a guest post there felt great and ego boosting. I will post some more there on different topics but if you are an android user, you might want to check this one out.

 Posted by Chris Wilson  onApril 2, 2013 In Link
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I will let you down

love will only let you down

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For the last few months I’ve been slowly working my way through a book called mastery. It’s a really interesting read by Robert Green on how to become a master at something (called Mastery). It looks at lots of past masters and what they did to become amazing.

I’m currently working my way through a section on Social factors that is framed within the perspective of Benjamin Franklin’s success.

Why Social Factors Were Important for Ben Franklin

In this section it has told stories of how Ben misread some social situation ad they really harmed his career. Some people felt threatened by him, some just wanted to use him and others just didn’t care. At first Ben was jerked around by these people but after a while he became more socially astute and instead managed to align his interest with theirs and become a master of social interaction (truly all things to all people).

Shattering The Naive Perspective

The interesting point that Robert Green makes is that when we are young we have a naive perspective, we see people as generally good, wanting the same as us working in co-operation. If we carry on like this people take advantage of us for their own goals.

Then this illusion shatters.

We realise people want different things, people use and abuse people. People don’t care about what you are doing only about what they are doing.

We feel let down, disappointed and betrayed.

If we have poor social awareness then we will continue to fall into one of two traits.

  • being used by people
  • or never interacting with people.

In either case we miss out on doing something amazing. As I was reading this I realised something.

I will let you down

That’s right, I don’t know when but it will happen. At some point I’m going to do something you don’t like or not do something you want or act selfishly because I am a sinful human being.

And you know what, you will let me down as well for the same reason.

There is a real problem in culture today that we get too easily shocked when “heroes” turn out to be human. Some people seem to reveal in the whole experience and take great pleasure in tearing other people down but I don’t think that’s right. I think that maybe we just need to expect it more and understand that it will happen.

Now that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t resign when they commit offences or that there shouldn’t be consequence but just that we shouldn’t cast them out, we should try to help them.

Grace

Robert Downey Jr gave a very impassioned speech recently (well the end of 2011) about Mel Gibson. He talked about how when he was suffering with addictions, couldn’t get any work and had been rejected by everyone Mel took him and and gave him a second chance. Now he is making films again and part of a huge franchise.
Meanwhile, Mel Gibson has gone awry, I don’t really want to look at the details of his life but Hollywood has turned it’s back on Mel as it did to Robert. In his speech Robert asked for Grace to be shown to Mel, for people to give him another chance just like they gave him another chance.

Mel let them down, you will let people down. Grace gives another chance.

In Discipleship Chris Wilson —  April 1, 2013 — 3 Comments
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