Many people I hang out with have a Christian heritage.
Some of those people have rejected that heritage somewhat and call themselves agnostic.
Some of them have rejected it completely. Some are practicing Christians.
Some are not religious, but at the end of the day, they believe in Jesus and God.
There’s a whole variety of people in my life, personally. When I was in college, I used to have philosophical conversations with a brilliant woman who was a practicing Calvinist.
Omg, the depth of conversations we had.
Mostly, it was about morality, a concept that transcends religion. I still wonder if doing the right thing is something we do for ourselves or for some higher power. I kind of think it’s both. But I believe in karma. I try not to do bad things so bad things don’t happen to me, maybe? So I do good so that I get good. But not really; I do good because that is who I really am. As my friend and I discussed, we do good because we are inherently good. God made us good.
He also made assholes, though, so there’s that. But as a mentor told me today, “God doesn’t make people who are pieces of shit.” They kind of create themselves, no?
My friend went on to get a PhD in philosophy at an Ivy League school. I see her Facebook posts now and then and wish I could take her class. We lost touch, but maybe it’s time for me to give her a ring.
When I took my first philosophy class in college, my Teaching Assistant was an Indian guy. In my paper, I tried to prove the existence of god. Of course I did.
I think I got a B-; apparently, it’s very difficult to prove.
I think a lot of why it’s difficult to prove in America is because we are talking about the Christian God. That Christian God, though, has made it around the world.
Everyone knows that guy.
He’s a judger.
We are supposed to be afraid of Him.
However, he is also full of love and forgiveness.
He’s complicated.
But then we have Jesus. Now, Jesus, in my view, is different than God. Jesus was a really amazing man, from what I’ve read in the Bible and other literature.
We who are not Christian have an ongoing joke about Jesus Freaks. But after learning about Jesus through the Bible and through other texts and films, I understand why people are obsessed with that man.
He was a revolutionary thinker. He wanted a new world.
I am very aware of the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I’m aware that Jesus wasn’t just another prophet to Christians. I can respect that. If you think Jesus is going to save your soul if you accept him, then maybe he will.
Just don’t ask me to do that.
I took a class called Bible as Literature in college.
The Bible professor was world-renowned and so fascinating. Honestly, it was so long ago, but I remember him being so dramatic, especially about Cain and Abel. And I remember he was known for his big hands. He used to wave them around while he was speaking. He wasn’t preaching. He was doing something between teaching and preaching.
The thing about the Bible is that it’s very complex and contradicts itself, as many religious texts do. I have personally not read the Quran or the Torah; I’ve read some Hindu texts and some Buddhist texts.
So what do I think of Christians? They are people to me, and there are a lot of them all around me. The guy at the barber shop is probably a Christian. The woman who works at Subway.
None of those people care if I’m a Christian or not. I don’t look like a Christian. Do I act like one? Isn’t that the more important question?
These people I see around town care about what Jesus cared about: poverty, illness, homelessness. These are regular people who call out to Jesus sometimes when things get too bad.
I’ve called out to Jesus.
I’ve been to churches and watched sermons on television that have literally moved my soul. I don’t think you need to be a Christian to be a Christian.
A real Christian is a compassionate, loving, forgiving person.
Everyone in America is a little bit Christian; we can’t avoid it; it’s in the air.
P.S. You may be wondering why I suddenly started capitalizing ‘God’ in this particular post. The reason is that I am specifically talking about the name of the Christian Higher Power. My ‘god’ is always lowercase in my other writings simply because I feel like it breaks a barrier between me and god. It’s not grammatically correct or theologically accurate; it’s just my way.
Maybe I don’t capitalize my name because I want to break the barrier between me and you.
nina
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