Christian Stereotyping

I know!! It's bad enough being stereotyped by peopole outside the faith, but to be shoved into a niche designed by fellow Christians.

Words fail me. (but not for long )

But, I try and remember many do it out of love. Baby love. A lack of interest and ability to grow in the knowledge and spirit of Christ, but in a miminized way, a way of love. Christians withstood being transformed by the world by banding together and circling the wagons. What got lost in the circling for the protection of the faith is the openmindedness to allow others in who didn't fit the same pattern.

And hence why there are so many denominations. Everyone searching for a place where they fit.

So, oldraven, yep there will always be those of us who don't fit in. But, hey, we're in good company. Jesus didn't fit in either.

And, as for you Mr. Haynes.... ministering to the fish were you? A sunburn in chilly March. You poor baby.

This is tough! I don't even have any aloe vera, Elspeth! The ministry is tougher than I thought! As for ministering to the fish, the Word says we will be fishers of . . . (Hey, I know it says "of men," but that interpretation does not fit my current application ).

Excuse me, but I have to go lie down

No aloe vera in FLORIDA????

You do have it rough.

Very good point.

I personally believe that not fitting in is the higher ground

I do believe we are ALL guilty of pointing the finger. Reciently I've had to pull the plank from my eye. All I can say is thank God for "Amazing Grace".

I do believe we are ALL guilty of pointing the finger. Reciently I've had to pull the plank from my eye. All I can say is thank God for "Amazing Grace".

Wow, what a fascinating topic this is! And what interesting responses too... cool.

It's often been the comment of people I've met that they don't attend church because they witnessed some professing Christian do something crooked like cheat their company, or cheat on their spouse... or buy liquor, which is actually what my husband's coworker told him earlier this week. We attend church regularly but are careful to nurture our personal relationship with Christ thru Bible reading & such. So we consider ourselves Christians first and foremost, and Baptists second - know what I mean? Anyway, my husband encourages others to attend a church of their choice but will discuss what Christ has done for him personally too. Well, he works with this one guy who never talks about faith or church at all and Reid was curious as to what he believes; so he mentioned our church, something about what was going on there, then asked this guy if he went anywhere.
That cut loose the flood, man. This guy said he's totally turned off church and Christianity because he once saw the pastor of the church buy alcohol on Saturday night. We wonder if there's more to the story and don't see it as our job to judge the pastor or this coworker on his attitude... but the coworker sees the pastor as hypocritical. Reid told the guy that he enjoys an occasional beer, he said, but he didn't elaborate on what else they discussed. To turn away from church because of one pastor's action makes me think the coworker sure is missing out on something great because of what he perceives to be a transgression.

That opens a whole can of worms: are Christians supposed to drink or not?? Jesus turned the water into wine, not soda pop or fruit juice... personally I've seen a very negative side of drinking and I simply don't like the taste of the stuff so I very very rarely have any kind of alcohol. But I also searched the Bible once for every reference to drinking and it never once says its forbidden: it consistently says 'don't do it in excess.' So I'll abide by that!

We Christians do have to deal with a lot of stereotyping, but if we are well grounded in Bible teaching at least we can be armed with a Biblical response to the accusations.

Sometimes we as Christians forget we are still human.

Sometimes we as Christians forget we are still human.

You don't want to go to Florida. It is a chilly 70 degrees here right now....

Anyway, I don't immediately profess my faith, but if someone asks I will tell them. Faith usually comes up with college friends because we are all taking classes like world religions... which is an excellent open minded course at my school. I was trying to minister to my mother and a friend for a time, but I just can't anymore. I have made my peace and they have the right to full heartedly believe what they want to believe as long as they truely believe it and they aren't just doing it for kicks. We as Christians believe we hold the absolute truth on many aspects of faith but so do many other religions who are even more steadfast in holding to their beliefs. So I ask myself, how is it any different from someone in another religion telling us that we are wrong and that they have the absolute truth to salvation. Oh wait one more thing...I do get stereotyped but it is only when I ask people not to get drunk or not to do hash in a vehicle. my 2 pence

if we all give some more 2 pence we are going to have alot of money.