Today....

An event today has captured my attention and got me back on a thought that I've had for years and I've never vocalized. Ghandi had an interesting thing to say about the church. I believe the exact quote was "I like your Christ but I don't like your Christians." Brennan Manning(if you don't know who I' talking about, he's a theologian. Go out and find a copy of the Ragamuffin Gospel right now.) made a huge impact on my life when I heard what he had to say. Manning says "The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians who walk out the door and confess Him with their lips and deny him with their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
I take things like Ghandi and Manning's statements looking at my life and the world around me. The old WWJD slogan comes into my mind. The bracelets have become so uncool and cliche, and people actually chuckle when you say it. But isn't that phrase the very essence of why Jesus came? Not only did He come to be sacrifice for our sins, but he came to be an example for us.
"So Chris, what's your point?"
Several years ago I noticed how so many of my Christian friends were either 1. as easily affected by mentalities in the world as the rest of the world. Or 2. were uber judgemental toward certain people in the media. More often than not these judgements were not mutually exclusive.
"Huh?"
Well lets take for example Brittney Spears. I remember when she was the darling princess of the media. People loved her. She was respected. "All the men wanted her and all the women wanted to be her." Then slowly but surely the world started to turn on. Now I see this dynamic: the world pities her and Christians are ready to stone her. Another example? Eminem. Christians went almost militant against the dude. They get mad that the world pushes Brokeback Mountain on them, but they judge the world on how one of their darling girls is a whore because she got a breast enlargement surgery.
Speaking of Brokeback Mountain, I was thinking about this last week, but this whole mindset has come back because star Heath Ledger died this morning. I hear a couple different opinions coming out. One is sadness because such a handsome man died. Another is how people don't respect him anymore for his role in Brokeback Mountain. You know what I haven't heard? I haven't heard one Christian do as Jesus did. "Jesus wept."
"Chris, why should I weep over this?"
I've read over the reports of ledger's death. I know about his life. I enjoyed him in a couple of roles he's been in. But all evidence points to Ledger being in Hell. That my friends is a tragedy. Ledger appears to have died from od in one of the Olsen twin's condos. How sad is that? Very. He was a lead and one an award for a role that pushed forward the homosexual agenda. But did anyone ever tell him about Jesus?
Believe it or not, the rapper got it right. He didn't get there first, but KJ-52 did two wonderful tunes that really hit the core of my issue here. He wrote 2 tunes addressed to Eminem just hoping someone might someday slip them to the rap idol. KJ points out what an influence eminem is. He acknowledges the people who judge saying "so many people all they do is hate on you instead of dropping to their knees and praying for you..." We can complain and hate on our celebrities all we want. We can even ignore them, but we have to understand they are influences in our world for the good or the negative. My Junior Highers are so quick to scream "eww" at the name of Brittney Spears, and they wouldn't think to pray for them.

Take a moment and pray for a celebrity or a politician. In doing that, the life you speak over them could change the world.

New Digs

I've just started blogging here. The old stuff I have been saying for years is here.

I will be updating this site a bit more than the others. If you are so inclined, you can find me on Facebook and myspace. I tend to blog on those sites as well, but they are just copies of what is to be found here.

More to come.