Healing with Jesus
merciful listener
I often don't recognize the Christian community any more. I grew up in what my former neighbor called, "The Perfect Childhood." Our neighborhood was a development in the Poconos, surrounded by woods, about 20 minutes from the city of Scranton and 30 minutes from Stroudsburg. We had hills that were perfect for skateboarding and sleigh riding. Everyone went to a traditional church such as Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian. We had a few Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses at school. I never spoke to a classmate who wasn't a Christian. Not that there weren't any, I'm sure. I just never met anyone in my school in a religious discussion who didn't believe. We were raised with lots of respect for one another and for adults. Sure. We were kids and could be mean and disrespectful and scolded all the way to age 18. Families were always outside. Kids played freely far afield. We went to church, Boy & Girl Scouts, Sunday School, and Bible School. Our faith was a given. Churches were full. Parking was at a premium. Everyone would go to one another's spaghetti dinners, ham dinners, chicken dinners, fish fries, and the Catholic fair. We'd tease the kids that came back to school with "dirt" on their heads on Ash Wednesday. Christmas and Halloween were giant community events. We even had costume parties in school and in church. We trick or treated 3 times. School, church, Halloween night. Christmas was as huge in school as it was in church and at home. When something bad happened, kids not in your social circle showed up with hugs and help. I never had an argument with anyone about theology until I dated a flight attendant from Colorado who was so into Jesus as to be impossible to date. She freaked out when I watched war movies, horror movies, and lost her mind when we watched, "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life." Good thing we didn't watch "The Life of Brian." EVERYTHING was something that required prayer and scrutiny. She attended Marilyn Hickey's church, worked for Focus on the Family, and gave her widow's mite to con-artist evangelists such as Robert Tilton. Her kids would go to hell for trick or treating. Nothing I ever did was Christian enough. We broke up. I thought that was just a fluke. But, as I meet more and more mega church Christians, non-denominational, and younger believers I encounter varying degrees of "over the top" belief where everything is Jesus ALL the time, but the actions don't back up the teachings. It's like they wear themselves out with incessant worship by loving Jesus and have no energy left to put Christian principles into practice by loving others. I'm not criticizing every mega, non-denominational, or other church. I just find something going on today that was never part of a giant Christian community that was what we shared in the entire Pocono region. Churches seem to pit their congregation against others. My friend, Laura, became a Christian at a mega church after we attended the same Catholic college. She went from a normal girl to almost cultic. She would run into me, look at me like a cult follower, and ask with great concern and sternness that would make a nun flinch, "How is your walk with God?" My cave diving buddy goes to a mega church in NJ and will only listen to Christian music when we drive in his truck. "Dude, seriously, Christian music kind of sucks." It is possible to listen to top rated hits that don't have sinful messages. But, he wouldn't let me make a playlist of songs that were clean and wholesome. Even "Turn! Turn! Turn!" right from the Bible by the Byrds was cancel cultured because they weren't walking a Christian walk and you can judge their art by their works. My favorite country artist was Chris Ledoux who was a rodeo rider and singer who was a Christian. His music was out because a handful of his 80+ hits dealt with drinking, honky tonks, cheating, gambling, etc. You can judge Chris by his works apparently. So much judgment and strife in Christianity today. So much worship. No love, forgiveness, or chill pills. Just like America is living in a cold civil war of red vs. blue, in ways, Christianity has adopted an inquisition. We've lost the simple Christian life.
Very interesting and insightful comment. I would just like to say that the flight attendant and these other people aren't into Jesus. They're into a "Christian" lifestyle.
This is all-out spiritual warfare. The dark side is attempting to infiltrate the church.
I spent time at a church like this. Everyone asking how to pray for you, asking where you were if you skipped a Sunday, etc. Then when I was reeeally struggling... they let me fail, horribly.
That's not Jesus. Let's just go ahead and call it what it is: Evil masquerading as good.
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