I often find myself somewhat reluctant to contribute to these kinds of discussions because there is sometimes a very anti-Christian sentiment present in these types of discussions in online communities. However, I thought it would be good to share a balanced view for those who have only ever seen the legalistic side of a tradition-bound church that has lost track of the spirit and intentions of Christianity.

First, I'd like to say that I really dislike the word 'religion' in the first place (yes, this is definitely one of my pet peeves). Religion calls to mind all the meaningless rituals that institutions force onto people. "Here's a list of things to do that will increase your chances of getting into heaven", "If only I can do X, I'll be a better person", and so on and so forth. You might say, "Hey, that sounds like Christianity!" and many churches, sadly, operate like that. If you know some of the historical records of Jesus though, you'll know that his biggest enemies were the religious officials of his time. He broke a lot of their silly little rules. Who did Jesus hang out with? The outcasts of society: the prostitutes, the thieves, the diseased and the sick, the Samaritans (an ethnic group that the Jews of the time despised), and his disciples were a bunch of uneducated fishermen. Starting to sound a little less religious, isn't it?


What this thread is about, is truth. What do you believe to be absolutely true? This is a hard question to deal with for our society, because we like to be nice and say that everyone can be right. But really, everyone can't be right. To be atheistic is to say that you believe nothing is true. In this view, humans are their own measure of truth, and we can change it as we see fit. With no higher being governing our actions, we have no accountability or responsibility for what we do. There's no meaning or purpose to any of it. Right and wrong have no meaning, because they can be changed according to human whims. Sure, let's screw up the environment, it's not going to affect me once I'm dead. Who cares if people are dying in Africa from treatable diseases, it's not like it's my problem. Society can try to enforce certain expectations, but if you're an atheist then their view of right and wrong have no more or less validity than yours. Who is a human to impose their views on another human?

Agnostic is a step in a different direction. To an agnostic, there is some sort of truth they can see, but they're not sure of where it is from. There are some things that all cultures agree on. Murder is bad. Helping others is good. Hitler was a bad person. Mother Theresa was a good person. When someone treats us unfairly, we want justice, because we feel like we have been wronged, and that something must happen to make it right. There must be something that determines these standards of good and bad, something higher than ourselves, an unwavering standard that people can be measured against. The agnostic, seeing many options, essentially gives up on the enterprise, resigns themselves to not knowing, and blindly hopes that it will all work out. I have some friends who told me they viewed religion as a giant lottery: only one is a winner, so just pick one and hope that you luck out, but choose wrong and you're screwed. I think this is a bit of a fallacy because in such a case, you'd still be agnostic. You wouldn't really believe in the truth of the religion you ascribed to, and thus would still be agnostic because you haven't been convinced.

I apologize for the preamble, but I wanted to let you know where I was coming from. Now, let's talk about Christianity. And in doing so, I want you to leave behind all the negative stereotypes and poor Christian role-models you've encountered in the past. Let's talk about being Christian as being someone who follows Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. I believe in an absolute truth. I believe in a standard of right and wrong. I believe in justice, but also in mercy and compassion. I believe in a God who established these things, and embodies these things. Never would I presume to pass judgement on another person, because frankly, I have no right to do that and Jesus explicitly demonstrated that we shouldn't. The state of a person's soul is between them and God. What Christians are responsible for is to speak the truth, and to reflect that truth in their lives (the latter often missing for many that profess to be Christian). What other people do with that truth is up to them, whether they choose to accept it or reject it. I also believe that the truth is testable and knowable. Even if you're reading this and you reject what I say as truth, I would encourage you not to give up but to keep searching for truth, because the more you question and ask, the more likely you will find answers.

I'm going to skip the basic tenets of Christianity, unless you'd like me to talk about that. I'll assume most of you are familiar with the whole idea of "Jesus is God and took the punishment for our sins thus fulfilling Justice but allowing us to be forgiven and restore our relationship with God".

So what does this look like in my life? Well, first off, I'm not perfect. Though I follow a perfect God, I'm an imperfect person and I mess up a lot. But I know that I will be forgiven, and I recognize when I've messed up, and always come back to God. So does this give me license to do whatever I want? Absolutely not. Doing that would mean that I don't care about the sacrifice that Jesus made to grant me forgiveness. It would be like....if I was a heroin addict and my friend sold their house so that I could afford a rehab program, but I didn't go and spent their money on more heroin because I knew that they'd sell more of their stuff later to give me the money for the program. What kind of crappy friend would I be then? A bit of an ad hoc analogy, but you get the idea. It's not about rules, it's about relationship. It's not about forcing myself to do things I don't want to do, it's about becoming someone who sees life a little bit more each day from God's perspective, and getting to know God better. So, because of the forgiveness and love that God has given me, those are the things that I want to extend to other people. Because every person matters, I want to spend my life in a way that helps other people, no matter who they are, where they are at, or what their deal is. I'm trusting God to put me where and when I need to be.

Right now, I'm in training to work overseas with Wycliffe Bible Translators doing literacy and language development with people groups who have no written language, or have only recently made the transition to having a written language. I originally thought that I'd do this for maybe 2-3 years, but now I'm pretty certain that I want to make this my career. It's a life of poverty in harsh conditions. There's a pretty high chance that I will be placed in a country that is actively hostile to Christianity, where I could be arrested, beaten or even killed for what I believe. But I will go because it is so worth it. I know that doing this, working towards a purpose, letting God direct the path of my life, I will be happier that I ever could be working at a 9-5 job and denying this pull on my life. The thing is that God knows each person so perfectly, and he doesn't lead people to careers that make them miserable, but ones that complement their abilities and interests. For me, that happens to be linguistics, and an interest in working with other cultures.

I hope that didn't come across as preachy or anything. There's kindof a lot packed into there, so I don't blame you if you just skipped over it. I want to be completely honest and open with all of you, because it's an important thing to think about. By now, some of you probably think I'm a raving lunatic, and that's ok. Some of you might be curious or confused about something I've said. If you just want to be argumentative, please don't reply, I really dislike arguments. If you want to engage in some meaningful dialogue though, I'm more than willing to listen and respond to any questions (even in PM if you don't want to bore the community with obscure theological issues in this thread). I don't guarantee that I'll have all the answers, but I'll try my best.