I am horrified with how Christians behave too. We can certainly start from an agreement there. And yet, I don't feel like I should sit in judgement on Christians that I don't know other than by reputation. A brother or sister in Christ that I know? Someone who I have some direct responsibility to? Yes - there I must judge, there I have responsibility to confront, to pray over, etc. (And lest our readers think that this is one way... feel free, Layla, to do the same to me anytime you see it needful).
Quick note: Please feel free to say what you need to say. We're both wearing scars from the old debate board, where the point was to win the debate not to have a good discussion. I am interested in what you have to say - including about American Christianity. And if I wince... well, perhaps it's justified! You'll not scare me off.
Our "Christian Leaders" aka Robertson and his ilk. They'd fall under "brothers and sisters that I don't know personally". I judge them insofar as it includes not listening to them and paying them as little attention as possible. I would say that American Christianity has been poorly led. We've become very much like sheep rather than thinking for ourselves. One might say this about American popular culture in general, which I can bemoan at any length you would like.
My particular variant of Christianity, and how I was raised, was to question everything the Pastor said... we were SUPPOSED to listen to the sermon with Bibles open, making sure he was working straight from the Word of God. I went to a church youth group from 1st - 8th grade (and my son goes now) that has the specific purpose of helping the youth memorize scripture. So what do you think would be my reaction, raised that way, to going somewhere else and listening to something that turned the Scriptures on end? You'd never see me at that church again!
The other thing that is important when selecting a pastor is seeing if the Spirit leads him. I know that's a popular evangelical catch-phrase, but let me see if I can clear it up, at least in this instance. When I'm in a church (or listening at my desk) to a sermon given by someone filled with the Spirit, that sermon will touch me. It will touch my heart, somehow, some way. Even if he is preaching about Levitical purity law, I'll feel the Spirit whispering to me. All Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit, and when that's what you're listening to, you can tell. When you need to say something to a brother or sister and didn't even know you needed to say it, and the words just flow... that's the Spirit (and we're promised He will do that).
American Christianity: American Christianity as seen from the outside is largely a growth of American culture as a whole. And Americans (speaking very very generally) have been taught to accept what their leaders tell them (which is totally anti-American) without question, so long as those leaders have the "right" credentials. Where is our Puritan spirit? Where is our determination to be strong individually that we can be strong as a country? Oh wait... that's the first bit of my "what's happened to America" rant... nm. :)
Mega-churches: Lots of megachurches operate in highly populated areas. My own church has 2,000 members or so - and it's one of at least five or six in my town of similar size. Then again, there are 200,000 people in my town, and half a million within a 20 minute radius. So. Some megachurches are big because of the area they are in, and some are big because megachurches focus on outreach, and it's very easy to go to a megachurch. (I've been to a few real ones). It feels good to belong to a body of believers, it feels good to say, "Oh yeah, I go to MegaChurch 2 - you do too? Awesome!" Sometimes you get a really good pastor and your church will grow by leaps and bounds. My childhood church went from 300 members to 2000 members in the space of 5 years because of a really good pastor. (And then that pastor was attacked by Pride and the church went back down as soon as he left - sad, very sad). Sometimes it's just "easy grace" and prosperity gospel. Sometimes it's the Spirit at work. I'm loving my current church and the new pastor.... he's really getting back to basics spiritually and calling us all to account. So - you won't hear me criticizing other big churches. Remember, even in that church full of sugar and fluff - there are real believers working hard somewhere.
American Christianity and social policies: A sticking point. We are called to love the sinner and hate the sin. What to do? I think that's why we have many types of members in the body of Christ. I wish we could work together, hand in hand. Take our illegal immigration problem. (And it IS a problem). If we were REALLY a Christian country, first our laws would make some kind of sense, then we'd have them enforced where they'd do some good (corporate level), and then the folks in the desert handing out bottles of water would be friends with the people guarding the border who would be friends with the people checking documentation, who would be friends with the people doing outreach... etc. Instead everyone says, "my way or the highway" and hates each other. And the laws make NO SENSE. To the point that five normal people can sit down and think up a way to deal with it that's sensible and reasonably fair in less than an hour, but our gov't won't DO that. And we have people dying to get here and endless problems with folks once they are here, from exploitation to crime to... name it. Sigh.
I think that's why American Christians as a whole start wincing when folks outside bring up stuff. It SOUNDS simple (and having read papers from outside the US, it's generally portayed as the meanie Americans), but it's not. And the spirit of evil, of hatred and division, is just all through everything. Why do you think I hate politics so? It's impossible now to simply say, "I think we should do xyz and this is why" and have other people assume you're saying that in good faith. Everything is grandstanding, everything is about profit or fame or somesuch. It's AWFUL. Why do you think I want to get away from it all? Like when my dog got turned into hamburger by the pitbulls last year... I was trying to get the city council to define "dangerous animal" to include severe dog-on-dog attacks, and people would come up to me and tell me that obviously pit bulls should be outlawed. What? No... I just wanted to be able to make my neighbor with the dangerous animals TREAT THEM like dangerous animals, even after she moved away from me. I wasn't mad at her! I wasn't even mad at her dog (he was being a very good pitbull). I didn't want revenge... I wanted to make sure that dog never lived next to a child or someone else's beloved family pet, because he'd dig under another fence and do it again. But people don't get that. If you aren't foaming at the mouth, they just won't listen. Do you want tears? That makes me cry.
So, we wince from truth - and we wince from the lies that get wrapped around it. American Christians - well, you'll not find a bunch of folks less unwilling to lend a hand, to donate a dollar, to help. At the same time, they'll support some of the meanest snakes on the planet. God knows where my brothers and sisters hearts are, where their backs are, where they work and where they slough off. And I'm glad that He's the one judging - because no one else is capable of beginning the job, much less finishing it.
I'm sure I've missed stuff, but have been typing away for about an hour now... bring back up whatever you'd like me to have another go at. :)
