As we leave the Holiday season in which we celebrated the birth of Jesus, I am reminded of those families who lost loved ones to terrorism and celebrated this Christmas without them. Our country has been spun for a loop, terrorism is back and it's worse then ever. It seems as though our efforts in the Middle East in the last 15 years has only made it worse. America is torn between a desire not to stereotype people and be accepting of all faiths and a recognition of the Muslim faith as the one behind these awful attacks. It has severely tampered with the psyche of the American population and threatens to bring with it a prejudice equal to that Judaism experienced in the distant past.
This Christmas season we celebrate the birth of Christ and indeed the birth of Christianity. We look down upon all others and their faiths while praising our own as the only way, truth, and light. Yet if Christianity is examined with even slight scrutiny something is revealed, something dark that no one else wants to recognize or even give acknowledgement to, and that is the fact that Christianity and Islam are very very similar.
Christianity has a history of murder, deception, and genocide. Christianity's god, if the bible is taken as absolute truth, has commanded the destruction of entire people groups, nations, and hundreds of thousands of men women and children. This god has been equally as busy as Allah in death and torture. Christianity promotes sexism, racism, ageism, and countless abuses of power and position.
Christianity believes women to be inferior to men and teaches in its theology that god placed the man as head of the woman. In fact some believe it is heresy and rebellion for a woman to be placed in leadership. Christianity teaches that homosexuals cannot inherent internal life. Much of Christianity does not even allow homosexuals into a community of faith and constantly seeks to drive them from the church and make them aware that god does not accept them. Christianity winks at sexual molestation and rape. Entire Christian institutions have covered up countless sexual abuses by clergy and other church members.
Yes Christianity is dark and disgusting, it is just as despicable a religion as Islam. You see it is not Islam that is the problem, the problem is conservative fundamentalist belief. The problem is the belief in a human writing as a divine and infallible work. The problem is "plain reading" of holy scriptures. The problem is blindly following other human writers without thought and personal reason. You see, radical Islam believes the Quran to be infallible and directly word inspired by God. Everything in the Quran is god's spoken word. The wars, the rape, the slaughter of the infidels was god ordained.
So why are Muslims blowing themselves up and not Christians? Well, there is Christian terrorism going on in the world to be certain, but it isn't as prevalent; why is that? Well, you see there was this man named Jesus. Jesus is Christianity's only salvation. Nothing else in Christianity is worthy of note but this one man. You see, deep down every Christian knows that Jesus was not sexist, Jesus was not racist, Jesus was not exclusive, and Jesus did not shun those on the outside. Jesus was not a conquering general, Jesus did not kill, he was not violent, and He did not desire to destroy those who persecuted him. Jesus revolutionized religion. Jesus is Christianity's only salvation. Without this man, whose birthday we just celebrated, Christianity is a meaningless, violent, dark, and disgusting religion.
As we enter this next year let's strive to make this world a better place, not by converting Muslims and shunning homosexuals, not by standing for the "right" though the heavens fall, and not by barring women from spiritual leadership. Let's make a difference by living the gospel of Jesus, which is to love others, to esteem others as better than ourselves, to love creation, to protect the widow, the homeless, and the needy. Let's care for our environment and strive to impact nature in a positive way, reduce your carbon footprint, ride a bike, plant a tree, stand for peace. How you live out your religion will determine whether or not you worship the true God of heaven and earth, or whether you are simply worshiping the god of your religion.
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