People are seeking purpose and truth, but are often met with resistance, hypocrisy, and Christians who are unlike Christ. In current news, this video reminds me of the pastor who advocated the rounding up of homosexuals, and sending them to concentration camps (0:24 - 1:01). Definitely not demonstrative of the redemptive love of Jesus.
The song/video is a tragic reminder, and as well, an important warning.
My rant:
ReplyDeleteThe type of person looking up why all the people in a certain religion are a certain way through Google, rather than asking a person in that religion is irrational. Use Google to look up any other religion you'll get very similiar results.
Why would someone use a search engine to find that, anyway? How does one come to that sort of conclusion about someone else's religion without knowing those people well enough to ask them? Why do people trust what they read on the internet over what is told them, personally?
Very emotional film, but not very logical. Do you really want to point fingers that badly? Pulling that mote from my neighbor's eye doesn't work, so well, until I have pulled the beam from my own.
Thanks for your thoughts. Just in case it isn’t clear, I’m a Christian, and all of my comments come from that perspective.
DeleteI think you’re correct in saying that the search results are more skewed to be negative. People who have a question about “why Christians are so [insert negative characteristic here]” are not likely to have a strong enough relationship with a Christian to be able to ask the question in person. Alternatively, someone who has a positive relationship with a Christian, and is wondering “why Christians are so [insert positive characteristic here]” is more likely to just ask the Christian, rather than Google-ing it.
So, it’s true, search results like this aren’t representative of the entire culture. They aren’t representative of those who have a positive view of Christianity. But, in my opinion, that’s okay.
If people view Christianity positively, because of the way we act and who we are – then that’s awesome. We’ve represented Jesus well. But, if there are still people out there who view Christianity negatively, because of the ways in which we are unlike Jesus (as the search suggestions bear evidence of) – we have more work to do.
I’m certainly not intending to point fingers. (If you’re referring to the link to the pastor’s comments – it was something I had been thinking about, and it seemed like an applicable example. I don’t believe that either the words, or the attitude in which they were delivered, are a good way to represent Jesus.) More generally– this video inspired me, and I shared it hoping it would inspire some of my other Christian friends. On a tangentially related note, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that “Christians need to do X” or “The Church should be more like Christ”, without also saying that “I need to be more like Christ.” “Christians” aren’t an entity. “The Church” can’t change on its own. Any transformation occurs on the individual level. The video refers to Christians as a group, but I believe that each follower of Jesus watching should evaluate the search suggestions on an individual level.
tl;dr – If a video with an empathetic message will help motivate each of us, as individuals, to transformation, then I think it’s worth watching.