The Rapturites were asked to define the Conservative Christian lifestyle- a request that had me cackling with glee right here at my desk before I even saw the responses.
I was wondering this today. What would make the Conservative Christian lifestyle stand out?
Things like no tv or movies, or nothing like that?
Honestly, I'm confused, too. I hope the Rapturites can clear this up for us.
The obvious answer to me is to put "Christ-honoring" things in your life, as opposed to things that satisfy the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Of course, as far as I'm concerned, Conservative Christians tend to stand out from the crowd anyway, in that the things that matter most to the world, matter not to us.
Yeah, like CCs don't care about taxes or immigration or money or politics or owning stuff or status symbols or . . . um, yeah.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Yeah. CCs totally love everybody- except for gays, muslims, brown people, atheists, democrats, pacifists . . . everybody . . . who is just like them. It's love, I tell you!
The fruits of the Spirit.
Mangoes? It's mangoes, isn't it!
No one likes us because we hold to the Bible being true and the Word of God and it can be taken in literal context and no one likes us............
I don't like you because you used that smilee. Others may feel differently.
Obedience to God's will.
Dedication to daily prayer and Bible study.
Following Matthew Chapter 5.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The meek, the merciful, the peacemakers and the poor in spirit, huh? Really? That's who you think you are? Fascinating.
My idea of a conservative or fundamentalist Christian believer is not seeing or hearing or doing anything that our Lord and Savior would not want you to do.Jesus is right by our side.Should you be listening or watching or doing what you are doing with Jesus sitting by you?That can mean sacrificing alot of things that others around you are doing. But it will be well worth it when you meet Jesus face to face.
So you never urinate, defecate or bathe? Because I certainly couldn't do any of those things with some guy sitting right next to me*.
+1 Love. All the things you do and don't do on account of the love that is in you. Each of us is a unique creation, we weren't punched out with the same shape cookie cutter. We'll be different and do or not do different things, but it is God's love that is a common link and denominator among His children.
God's love . . . of hating brown people and socialism? Although, I would like the Underpants of +1 Love. That'd be awesome.
I would add: show and share the peace that surpasses all understanding, even in the worst of times. Show the JOY that that only come from God. Live by example. Of course flee all appearance of evil.
God does not want us to put on any kind of a show. He wants us to be a witness of what having the one true God in our lives can do. No other faith or religion has what we have. That is what stands out.
Show and share the peace that surpasses all understanding, but don't put on a show. Be a witness, but don't be all showy about it. Does mutually exclusive mean nothing to these people?
Well, the OP actually seems to have found wisdom in that mess, I'm just as confused as I ever was.
*Bathroom time is alone time. I cannot stress this enough.
The fruits of the Spirit bit is a reference to one of Paul's letters from Galations Chapter 5.
ReplyDeleteThey are:
love - you have already covered their inadequacies in this particularly area.
joy - Considering that most fundamentalist Christians consider most things that are fun to be evil in one way or another, I don't find them particularly joyous.
peace - They are generally conservatives which seem to be quite a bit more hawkish than liberals. They also seem to like the beat the "wars and rumors of wars" drum, because they like to see signs of the End Times.
patience - Patience I think would include tolerance of those not like you.
kindness - Condemning the behavior of everyone around you is not something I consider to be particularly kind.
faithfulness - I can't fault most of them on this one...except folks like Ted Haggard. so far they have 1 out of 6. Not a good record.
gentleness - Everyone who disagrees with them is a heathen who deserves to burn for all eternity. Not gentle.
self-control - having a fit because someone in a store said "Happy Holidays" to you doesn't really exhibit self control.
There ya go.
btw, where do you find this wealth of fundy blogs from? I am wanting to do something similiar to what you are doing with my own blog only from the perspective of a liberal Christian (though it seems that our criticisms are rather similiar).
email me: personalfailure(at)ymail.com.
ReplyDeleteI think I know how to send you my blogreader. Since you're doing this from a different perspective, I don't mind sharing.
Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteI am very new to this type of blogging and have made a few rookie mistakes.
First thing I learned was to not blog under your real name or you WILL piss people off enough to make your life unhappy.
"Mangoes? It's mangoes, isn't it!"
ReplyDeleteKumquats. I'm just sure that kumquats are one of the fruits of the spirit.
"Although, I would like the Underpants of +1 Love."
True, but I'd think that the Corset of +1 Love would, um, get in the way less.
formerconservative;
ReplyDeletewow - i hope you're safe! that's scary... really, i send GoodThoughts that you stay safe.
Michael [and PF] they're a SET: +1 Underpants of Love; +1 Corset of Gravity Defiance; +1 Miniskirt of [Booty] Appeal; +1 Choker of Arousal; and last but not least, +1 Bracers of Consent.
do you know HOW MANY DUNGEONS* i had to crawl thru the get the WHOLE set?
but seriously - this:
"Each of us is a unique creation, we weren't punched out with the same shape cookie cutter. We'll be different and do or not do different things, but it is God's love that is a common link and denominator among His children."
WTF?!?!?!? for fuck's sake, these are people who beat their infants for crying, they have "Jesus" camp to mold their children exactly, they abuse and torture their kids if they're gay or goth or punk or athiest or... there's a LOT of "or"s [i'm not saying being goth is the same as gay - i'm just saying they abuse their kids to "fix" them in either case], they raise their boys to be MEN and their girls to be WIVES; they're the EPITOME of conformity - AND they go around telling EVERYONE who's at ALL "different" that they're going to burn in hell, that God *may* love them, but the only way to actually GET anything from said love is to become a completely different person, one just like them. i'm seriously drowning in the fucking hypocrisy of that statement.
*horrible pun, but PF started it! take it either way - dungeon in the Dungeons and Dragons sense, or dungeon in the BDSM sense - i've done both lol
@denelian-
ReplyDeleteI am fine. No one threatened my life or anything.
There were cerain loved ones who weren't particularly thrilled with some of my commentary and I decided that I valued not being estranged from certain family and friends above not blogging anonymously.