How can I not love this Christian?

Question

Sweet little Italian exchange student staying with me. He's appalled at what Christians do in the USA. He insists it's not like that in Europe. That Jesus taught about love. And we should stay out of politics. And why in the USA do Christians reverse Christs message?

He's weathy, handsome and when I asked him "where in the world, do you most want to go next?" he said "My aunt's mission in Kenya."

He's everything Christ would be proud of. Abortion, homosexuality? He could care less. Why do USA Christians have it so wrong? What happened here that messed us up?

Answer 1

You could look at the Pentecostals and the right wing politics they love. It is more of a problem in America because they were isolated from the rest of the world for 200 years and are still wanting to fight the religious wars of Europe's history. The reformation was fought out to the end in most of Europe. It never got fought here because the States Separated religion from politics after the American Revolution.
With the easy availability of cheap TV in the early eighties the extremists in American Christianity had a perfect propaganda tool with the perfect audience. The cheap channels actually selected the poorer, less educated and more gullible people for them to target.
So now you have the hyper religious Seven Hundred Club fans who received a constant diet of Oprah, Springer, Falwell and Robertson with more soap operas in between.
People exposed to that have very little grip left on reality, and it was likely fairly tenuous to begin with.
The other feature is how education works in America compared to the rest of the world. You can look that up on your own though because if I told you how poorly USA was performing you would never believe me.

Answer 2

It's simple....It's all about which region of the world you've grown up in. Most people have no choice but to follow or believe main stream systems within their communities. There are exceptional people who are the exections to this.

Each part of the world has a mainstream belief system. As for America, well we kick *** all over the world. We are the most powerful country in the world, so of course this lust for power will be absorbed into the church's within it.

Just expand your view of things from a worldly perspected. Your question is a strong example of why I cannot find God. Too many people with too many opinions about one God.

I follow my own path and not that of weak minded sheep.

I knew one man who was a christian, but he tried very hard to live the life that Christ did. He was humble, very educated and had the ability to listen and respect people with other beliefs. He was not judgemental at all. Most if not all other christians I've met could not come close to living that kind of life.

Answer 3

We live in a country where religion is not what defines us individually- as a belief- but rather, we try to define it in our own terms to conveniently fit our life styles. That is another reason why it has lost its purpose in our lives, and has become a routine and the center of almost every debate instead of a strong principle and value we live by.
Comfort, a sense of superiority and liberalism have had a lot to do with the deterioration of the meaning of christianity.
However, love the guy not because of the kind of christian he is but because as christians, we are called to love everyone around us. And of course, there are some special individuals that deserve a bit more of our affections : )

Answer 4

Now perhaps you can see the reason people like Thomas Jefferson wanted a wall of separation between church and state. They were not worried that the state would be corrupted by religion, but vice versa. And now that the wall is crumbling, you see this happening.

One political party in the US has co-opted a large swath of Christianity. They have corrupted certain high-profile religious leaders who now push a political message along with their message of faith, who conflate political ideas with religious ones and teach their followers that it's their Christian duty to vote a certain way.

Abortion and homosexuality have been deliberately engineered as 'wedge' issues to polarize Americans and set us against each other. Not that they're not important issues, but the way we talk about them has been set up in such a way that the issues can never be reconciled or resolved, instead they remain generators of political power. 'Weapons of mass distraction' you might say.

Christians of other countries, free from the cynical influence of political opinion-makers, see this better than American Christians, who have been 'conditioned' not to be able to distinguish between matters of politics and matters of faith.

Answer 5

Taking anything too seriously is not good. The only thing that really matters are moral standards such as be respectful to others, stealing is bad, etc.

I like to keep my beliefs to a minimum yet stay open to other people's ideas. I kinda ended up being an atheist that way though.

Answer 6

Christians in the US used to be like this, until the NeoCons decided to try to put Leo Strauss's political ideology into practice, and paid off the evangelical preachers so that their followers would become loyal voters...

Answer 7

Seems kind of lukewarm to me. I agree we should love others, however, that doesn't mean staying out of politics. We certainly should try to influence the decisions made in the country bc we must live under those decisions, and by influencing them, we can help to make good decisions, if only indirectly.

I agree that opposing abortion and homosexuality shouldn't be the focus of any Christian's life, however, if we don't take stands against them, how can we represent God's righteousness? God declares these things to be sinful, so how can we condone their occurrence through inaction? there are good and bad ways to oppose them, however, we should oppose them as Christ would. Note, I speak of the behaviors, not the ppl doing them.

Answer 8

I've heard many American Christians who have lived in Europe say European Christians are appalled at the way Christianity is practiced in America. Maybe we should take notice.

Answer 9

That makes me smile and feel very good inside. I'm happy he thinks this way. There are more of us out there! :)

I think in the USA we care to much about what other people are doing. We are far to nosy.

Answer 10

The First Amendment is what happened here. Although I am completely opposed to it, there is something to be said for a government that has complete control over what its populace sees, reads, hears, and even believes.