Whenever there is a disaster it is Christian relief and development organizations that are among the first on the ground. This is a fact too often lost in "sexier" conversations about politics or theology. But in Peru and in Southeast Asia, those who love Jesus and are fulfilling his mandate to care for the poor are already there. In the case of some villages ravaged by flooding in Southeast Asia, Christian organizations are the only people there to provide help:
“When you lose everything it is very hard to recover,” said Sushant Agrawal, the director of Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA). “People have lost their houses and belongings. The standing crops are gone. The flood has destroyed the total source of their livelihood.”Many families are also struggling to cope amid food shortages.
“We are constantly hungry. I do not have enough food to feed my children,” said Shifa Begam from Jithkar, a village near the Harirampur-district in Bangladesh.
ACT members are the only humanitarian support in the village, where they are running a food distribution operation.
It is easy to think of all the reasons to think Christians are fake but there are many more reasons - reasons like these - to show how real Jesus remains today.
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Something within me told me to come back to this website and read the posts.
First, I would like to ask you do you believe that there are numerous ideas and values that can transcend one's religion or personal beliefs? Could those ideas and values include the basic principles of compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and open-heartedness?
Generally speaking, most Christians to my understanding would believe--and I may well be wrong--that the highest manifestations of those values is Jesus and only Jesus (or God), and in doing something in his name or specifically as a result of following him and his teachings, per se, then your moral fabric would be of, let's say silk while others who don't follow your exact path is more so polyester--proverbially speaking of course.
And that is the issue. Have the guts and integrity to admit that no matter how much good I or the Dalai Lama or Pat Tillman or anyone who doesn't share your faith does, then in your eyes we could not share in the same after-life glory as you would have, no matter how much MORE we have in common than those elements that separtes us.
Yes, secular individuals and entities tend to point out more the shortcomings and hypocrosies of people of faith, one of whom is me believe or not--a person of faith that is. But hell, in the spirit of the good book I say an eye for an eye being that with the same regularity that secularists point out what you all do bad, you guys fail to point out what good others do and equally demonize non-christians. We all can pull an inconvenient truth out of a bag buddy.
So I'll ask for a second time, why is there a need for David to point out only the Christians who are doing good around the world instead of the common qualities that unites everyone who gives in any capacity. Could it have been another divisive tactic maybe?
Christians are there.
It's just that simple.
This is a Christian blog. If you are unhappy with the teachings of the faith, and you disagree with "Christian Cheerleading," as you call it, why read it?
Kevin, I really do believe that Jesus is the pinnacle of goodliness and Godliness. I also believe that goodness and evil are found in followers of every faith and none. Christian churches teem with scoundrels and when I bother to go, I'm probably one. I'm sure there are many people who believe and are good almost all the way through. There are other Christians so dismally corrupt that it takes Jesus to redeem them or want to.
None of that is a reason not to talk about good things Christians are doing, any more than talking about good things atheists, Jews or Sikhs are doing diminishes Christians.
Actually, no, I don't consider non-Christians to be "polyester" or assume that you will spend a worse afterlife than me. I figure that determination will be made by Someone infinitely more qualified and vastly merciful, and I have neither the qualifications nor the desire to make such judgments. That's self-righteous arrogance.
The same kind of self-rightouyesness and arrogance I sometimes encounter in non-Christians who find it easy to stereotype and dismiss me, because they have fixed and hostile notions about my faith.
I am a Christian who does not...and never has...thought that heaven is some kind of Christians-Only eternal resort.
Like Doug, I do believe that Jesus is the epitome and incarnation of God's goodness in human form. So, yes, I strive to follow him and I do so unashamedly and unapologetically. But I don't throw stones at non-Christians...in fact I helped found an interfaith organization of Christians, Unitarians, Jews, and Muslims that worked together on projects to better our community. We were in the process of expanding that group to other faiths when I had to move to another community. Those non-Christians certainly didn't seem to find me assuming a stance of superiority over them.
As for my moral fabric...I claim no superiority. I consider it a sin to do so. It's not my moral fabric that I am ballyhooing. It's Jesus'. I'm cheap burlap by comparison.
Are there values that most faiths share in common? Of course! I happen to believe Jesus' embodies those transcendent qualities in a uniquely powerful way. But that certainly does NOT mean that other faiths don't have worthy teachers, preachers, prophets and powerful moral examples, whom I deeply respect. People like Gandhi, a Hindu; and Andrei Sahkarov; a secular humanist; come immediately to mind.
When some people claim non-Christians are somehow doomed and damned, I point to Jesus' own parable at the end of Matthew 25. He sets no theological or dogmatic criteria for salvation, and many of those who are saved had no idea that they were acting in his service at the time. But that didn't matter. All that matters is the quality of their love for those who need it.
The standard by which I measure the goodness of others, and what little goodness there may be in me, is the one set by Jesus. That is what makes me a Christian.
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