I think that at the core of Christianity, and most major religions, is to love and respect your others, God and yourself, and all the rest is just to help understand and rules for people who don’t know where to start.

And there is an important point- belief is up to individual interpretation, and since God gave us free will and intelligent brains to chose our interpretation, it is up to us whether we take His will to mean that we must love and serve others or to mean that, for example, if you divorce or are homosexual you will burn in enternal anguish in Hell. Any of you readers may think this, but that is your interpretation and not mine and I do not mean to judge, merely observe.

This is why not every person of the same belief is the same- Muslims, Christians, Jews, agnostics, athelists, native spiritualists, Buddhists or whatever you are, you have an equal chance of being good or being bad. It is all in the choices you make, not where you life or which kind of church, mosque, etc., or lack of one, you attend.

Cheers, and I hope you can all gain something from this post, be it insight, another point of view or merely entertainment.

Secondly, we can talk about “the church” and “christians” all we want BUT it is up to the individual to make a difference. complaining is not going to help. (exposure and education, yes. Complaining… no) Be the change you want to see.

Also, the “church” and “christians” are not our example, JESUS is. Don’t blame Jesus for people’s imperfections… Depend on him to help you love/serve/heal/grow and be what we are called to be… like Jesus. i.e. Christian

Thanks for the clarification. I think I completely agree with you.

I may have strongly stated the case for social action, but this is only because for too many years, I have been too focused on head knowledge and learning the Bible and theology, and I feel that finally, my theology is starting to result in practice. Certain areas of my theology have been influential in getting me to this point, and this post is one way of showing one of those truths of theology.

Matthew C: Who is the female unbeliever you are referring to? The friend I referred to in my post is male. Are you referring to Tia? What gives you the impression she is an unbeliever? Nevertheless, you raise a good question that needs to be asked of all critics of Christianity. Of course, we are the ones who claim to be following Jesus, not they. So it seems like we are the ones who have more responsibility to serve.

Jim: Thanks for the quote from Mackintosh. I have that volume and have enjoyed reading from it over the years.

Mike: Excellent summary. I checked out your blog. It looks like you are a pastor. Are you finding the people of your church willing to reach out with love? What has been effective?

Mark: I’m not sure if you were commenting about my post or someone’s comment. Either way, none of us said that the church is not helping the poor. Furthermore, none of us are saying that we need to neglect theology. The quote from Mackintosh comes the closest to saying that, and if you think that is what he is saying, you should get his book and read it. It’s pure theology. Finally, are you really saying that serving and loving others is a work of Satan–a diversion from dealing with our relationship with God and provides an excuse for selfish living? I am fully persuaded that one doesn’t really have an intimate relationship with God UNLESS they are serving and loving others. What good is all the theology in all the books in all the libraries of the world if it doesn’t cause a person to provide food and clothing for the hungry and naked (James 2:14-26)?