Radagast said:
Hi, Tim has bought the book but has yet to read it. He should get around to it this week. I'm sorry about the lack of paragraph breaks. Neither of us use forums very often so that should be looked at it as newbie mistake, thank you for explaining why they help.
The reason I mentioned the hurt I felt. It was for the reason that I thought when Tim said he was on a Christian forum that someone would be able to show him a nicer, kinder side of Christians that he doesn't see. That is why it hurt me. I expected too much.
A big problem that I am having is one that Tim talked about having on here and that is everyone taking every word literally. The first example is the use of the words accepting Jesus. Tim has never pushed Jesus away and has said on this forum that he is a believer. Tim's problem is with the way Christians act, treat others, drop everything in their life to be at church at every service.
The other misunderstood part is where you say that you hope that Tim finds God through me not Tim taking myself and the children away from God. That was not what I was saying. What I said was that "I" was considering not going to church because I have started to see the hypocrisy for myself. Tim has been to the church we go to, he is stared at, he is gossiped and when he is not there, gossip starts about other members. He calls it a three-ring circus, the gossip section, the section that talk about what others are wearing and then the real Christians. I can't say I disagree with him. Tim was talked about because he has tattoos. People actually stopped and stared at him.
The next misunderstood part. Is when I said that he was called a sinner. In your post you say that we are all sinners. What you are not realizing is that he knows that, I know that, you know that and most of the people here know that. So why do you have to tell someone they are a sinner? It makes the person feel that you are looking down on them, makes them feel inferior or even worse, judging them.
As for a new church, we have been to 5 different Christian churches, I have yet to see one where Tim is accepted. His mom told him to wear a longsleeve shirt to cover the tattoos but Tim is a big guy, around 6 foot, weighs 220 pounds and trained with weights for years for sports. So you can imagine how hard it is to get a longsleeve shirt around his arms. We have found a small (50 members) church outside of the city that Tim was invited to come to. We may give it a try next week.
This is what I see. Tim spends Sundays, calling his little cousins, calling his aunts and uncles and generally doing nice things for others. Then I look at the churches I have been to and compare what Tim gets done on Sundays and it is at that point that I am thinking that he does more good than we are doing at the church. All we do is sit and listen to the sermon. Sing a few songs, then everyone leaves to go home and do nothing. I have come home on Sundays to see Tim helping the neighbors when they trim trees, helping till an elderly neighbors backyard for her garden.
My best example would be the Christmas before last. Our church had decided to do the shoe box program where you bring in a shoe box with items for children in, I believe, Pakistan. I was telling Tim about the program and he says it sounds good and all then he asked me who we are collecting these for. When I told him Pakistan, he just shook his head in disgust. He called the preacher and was asking him why would he send this help to Pakistan. The preacher told him because they need help. A few days before Christmas, we dropped the children off with the sitter and Tim took me to a very poor section in the city we live in. There was 5 or 6 kids in groups, that looked cold, hungry and scared. Tim looks at me and says, "Those kids don't even know their parents. Let alone Christmas and you all think Pakistan needs help".
Tim will read the book and should be on here in a few days.
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