Jesus with a Black Eye

This week, President Obama traveled to the Mideast in an attempt to reach out to the Muslim world with the proverbial olive branch. His mission is to reshape the perceptions many Muslims have of the Christian world. This will be a challenge to all faiths, because many people of all faiths believe that their beliefs are the only values good enough for them and everyone else in the world. Worse still, these extremists are willing to do anything – including murder — to demonstrate their “love” of God.

These extremists think they are upholding the highest virtues of their beliefs, but many times their actions belie the truth of religious teachings. They are exposed as hypocrites who unknowingly denigrate their own beliefs by committing all sorts of mayhem on mankind. One such act - when a doctor who specialized in a controversial abortion procedure was gunned down in his church by an anti-abortion zealot last weekend - should be considered an act of domestic terrorism.

Imagine...a slaying in a place of worship! In God’s house! Society at large is outraged at the cold-bloodedness of the act, and then the accompanying hateful rhetoric of those who applaud the executioner. These extremists condemn the act, even as they condemn the victim in the most uncharitable and un-Christian like manner.

These extremists are no better than those who fly airliners into skyscrapers. These are the extremists who believe that they, and only they, are entitled to a certain piece of land and they are willing to kill generations after generations of people for centuries on end to gain that territory. These are the extremists who believe that murder is wrong, except when it suits their own needs or they believe that their God has commanded it.

There are many people of all faiths in the world who, I believe, do lead a good virtuous life. My comments here are not necessarily directed at them. Rather, my comments are directed at those in the Christian community who use Christ’s teachings as an excuse for intolerance. The intolerance goes beyond the issue of abortion. In recent years, I have witnessed Christ’s lessons used to justify discrimination against the gay community and, in one notorious instance, outright hatred of gays in general.

In the interest of full disclosure I will say this: I believe in God, but I don’t align my beliefs with any particular religion. Yet I consider myself a Christian because I was raised in Christianity. I never have and never will consider myself better than anyone else, but this will not stop me from questioning all beliefs, particularly when they are used to bring on mankind’s self-destruction.

I am not a perfect Christian. I won’t bore you with details; just take my word for it. If you, dear reader, consider yourself a good church-going Christian, and that my admissions damn me in your eyes, then so be it. I know in my heart where my beliefs stand and I try my best to shape my daily living and behavior accordingly.
This, I believe, is what God wants all thinking residents of His good Earth to do – to live a good life for all mankind. Nothing more and nothing less.

The murder in Topeka could embolden many Christians to demonstrate their faith to the extreme. They should proceed cautiously. They should not attempt to uphold the intolerance that President Obama is trying so hard to eradicate. They should not be so anxious to deface Christianity in front of the whole world. They should not praise any acts that give Jesus a black eye.