‘Believers’ Who Don’t Love Others Should Question Their Beliefs
Without love, religion’s meaning is lost.
When I was ten, I made an altar call in summer Bible School. I circled the date on my calendar. It was official: I had declared Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
No hell for me from that day forward.
That is, until I grew up and met the world.
Like waking up after several strawberry daiquiris, the effect of the declaration wore off when the world’s sobering lack of love hit me head on.
Which does the Creator of life care more about: declaring ‘Jesus is Lord?’ or loving each other?
Did the God of life create a special club for people with special thoughts?
Does God, like Trump, require extreme loyalty to avoid dire consequences?
No.
No.
We need to stop projecting a deity in our own fearful image.
It’s nonsense.
It’s a problem when a Christian forsakes teachings of love yet clings to their declaration.
It’s off base when a ‘believer’ who loves people less than a ‘non-believer’ tries to convert the latter to Christianity.
Devotion to the one who taught ‘love neighbor and enemy’ while loving neither neighbor nor enemy is like devotion to French fries while disdaining potatoes.
It’s like going to a restaurant and ordering an empty plate.
Theological beliefs that stress a declaration of faith more than loving others is not a Christ-based religion.
Unloving Christians need saved from their fear of loving others.
Eternal life for those of ‘right mind’
Often this declaration is based on the promise of eternal life. (This sounds medieval even saying it, as though God dangles eternal life in front of humanity dependent on one’s allegiance to a specific religion. God’s not a mob boss.)
When you’re surrounded by people who believe the same things you do because it’s what you’ve all been taught, it’s as though an internal alarm short-circuits reasonable thought and says, ‘Don’t you want eternal life? How can you pass up such a generous gift after God was so great for sacrificing His Son for you?’
Is that what happened, or could there be a slight misunderstanding?
What if Jesus came to teach love, and fearful people felt threatened and killed him to kill the threat his words of love posed?
What if he never intended to be worshipped personally, but that mankind take to heart the words ‘love your neighbors and your enemies’ because those words needed to be heard and were worth the price of death?
Some who make the Christian declaration and have their Ticket to Heaven see themselves as God’s holy warriors on earth, defending God from all enemies. They have God’s back and God has theirs.
For this version of God, they must have this God’s back because this version of God holds no merit. If it’s not propped up, it crumbles.
Putting emphasis on the afterlife ignores here and now.
The fact that Christianity can be twisted from ‘love your neighbor’ to ‘do what’s prudent to your neighbor and necessary to your enemy while accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior’ worsens societal discord here and now, where and when it counts.
It saves no one right now.
It’s defended as “God’s ways are not our ways. This is why they call it ‘faith.’”
It’s easy to divert conscious thought in the name of a distant deity. It’s tempting. Why? Because love can be much harder to find within oneself today than fear.
Much, much harder. Fear takes no courage, no vision, no patience, no discernment, and, in fact, little thought at all. It’s the simplest thing in the world to get swept up in fear.
Fearful Christians often worship a fearful God with a mighty, swift hand to smite enemies.
Fear sees itself everywhere — here, there, below, above.
Love seeks more of itself, here and now. It seeks to always expand.
The bandage that covers fearful theological beliefs needs to be ripped off so fears can bleed out and wounds can heal.
Who Goes to Heaven?
A voice in my head is telling me that clarification would be useful about who actually gets into Heaven.
“It may come as a surprise to some Christians in light of their pledge, but let’s lay these out anyway.”
Here’s who’s not going to HEAVEN (though Heaven is the state of mind when connected with God aka Source love here and now which is as real as any reality after death but some don’t want to hear this so just sneak it in even though it might not register given that what counts for some folks is) AFTER THEY DIE:
- Those who can’t remember the words of the Guy who did the talking about loving people. They worship the man and ignore the words. Humans must understand that Heaven and love are linked.
- Those who hate the state of life on Earth today, holding it as too complicated or confusing, and thus can’t wait to die and meet either Jesus, peace, or a great void. These people are needed to help resolve Earth’s problems by learning to love others and then demonstrating it. If they die, they’ll be returned to earth immediately to learn more lessons of love so they can teach others and help heal the planet.
- Regarding those who think theirs is the only way to Heaven, here’s clarification. If they’ve taken the Christian declaration and also love enemies and neighbors, they’re especially needed on Earth to help others like them learn love. They find love on Earth as in Heaven. They’re already there. If they’ve made the declaration yet lived an unloving life, they’ll return to Earth for more love lessons. Earth has such rich opportunity to learn love.
If every Christian who believes their declaration to Jesus is primary before the depth of their love for humanity were to examine whether this makes sense, there’d be more honest, productive discussion around the primacy of the love of mankind vs. ‘being saved.’
Do you have voices in your head about God, fear, Heaven, love, and ‘being saved?’ What are they trying to tell you?
