Jesus vs. Christians

This is my first posting with UNIFI. So if I may I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kyle Volner and I grew up in the church. Correction I lived at the church. I was there all the time. I helped the pastor put together graphic media for his sermon, I helped with audio and lights, I went to church camp, I led my youth group with our designated youth led Sunday. My church sponsored me to join a group called YLC in which they taught us about the inner workings of a church and, as I see now, pretty much tried to push me into becoming a pastor. Later in life as I began to consider a career, being a pastor was a serious option. So I pressed into learning the roots of my Christian faith. My goal was to find a way to logically prove; Christianity, the Bible, Jesus, and miracles.

In that search I fell away from my belief. I found many discrepancies (not a huge surprise) and the more I learned the more I started to realize the fallacy that had been instilled into me my entire life. However I am not here to describe that path. I am here to address an issue that I've seen with many atheists and Christians.

Christianity is the following of Jesus Christ. This is how it differs from other religions. With my logic that means it is important to follow Jesus and study what he did. Hear his teachings. Look to him for an example on how to behave. When we do that we find that his credo is for acceptance and love. This is supported a couple of ways. Through a popular phrase "turn the other cheek," and via the fact that he hung out with whores and lepers, the scourge of the era. He was accepting and consoled them without judgment. Unfortunately that isn't done today.

If people don't follow the credo of Jesus than can we really call them Christians? Can we still lump them into that category just because they say they are representing the Christian faith? I don't think we can, bear with me through this example… Lets say I know a man, George. George tells me, "I'm a student at UNI." So I inquire to what his CatID number is. George tells me, "I don't have one." Is George really a student at UNI? No, at least not yet. He has to go through the proper channels before he is considered a student. Now this obviously isn't quite comparing apples to apples but I can only hope you get the idea. Those whom call themselves Christians need to act like Christians in order to be called Christians. When their actions are not part of the Christian credo than they aren't representing Christianity but their own personal perversion of morality.

A great example is that of Westboro Baptist Church and their website, Godhatesfags.com. This is not Christianity. There are so many things wrong with just the name of their website that goes against the teachings of the Bible, but to stay on topic of my point, God does not hate. As per the Christian belief, Jesus is the embodiment of God. Jesus was accepting of all and loved all. Hate is not apart of their emotional vocabulary. WBC and those whom follow their train of thought are not Christians. They are representing their own form of hate and can be thrown together with the KKK and Nazis.

I don't believe in God or Jesus. I don't believe in intelligent design or any creator. But as with any great literary achievement you can learn from the characters of the book and I do however believe in what the character, Jesus Christ, represented.

Love.
Kindness to all.
Acceptance for everyone.