Saying Vs Being A Christian

When I was in college, there was a movement on campus by some students, we called them god squaders, asking other students “if they had found Jesus”. My answer was always the same, I did not know he was lost, but I will help you look for him. Unbelievably, they never found that funny.

One of my degrees in college was in religion. At that time, there were essentially two types of professors and classes in the religion department. One was a group of professors who were essentially teaching advanced Sunday School. The other was an academic group with very challenging but thoughtful classes. My favorite professor was Dr. Ellie Haney and she was brilliant. She taught Christian ethics and one of the things I remember from her classes was a to be a Christian, one had to have consistent ethics. If your ethics change with the situation, you have no ethics.

A lot of people who call themselves Christians are not because they have no consistent ethics. For example, when a political leader does something which personally offends them they are outraged. But when another political leader does a similar or same thing, but is part of their political party they are either quiet or too often complicit.

When Bill Clinton was President I was at a conference in Georgia. A guy at my table was very vocal about being a Christian and also his hatred of then President Clinton. He was going off on Clinton’s sexual relations and I said “yeah, Clinton is almost as bad as Newt Gingrich because he was having an affair while condemning Clinton’s affair.” He said that’s not true and I said yes it was, Gingrich admitted it had happened. Then he said Gingrich’s was different. When I asked how, he left the table.

I doubt that the guy at my table or Gingrich for that matter had every spent five seconds thinking about the actual teachings of Jesus. If they had, they would have remembered that Jesus said look for the log in your own eyes before the speck in some else. For these two and many many other self-proclaimed Christians, their personal logs are more like a huge redwood trees.

The foundation of following the teachings of Jesus is “to love your neighbor as yourself”. Many of Jesus’s teachings were about loving one’s neighbor and it is very clear from his teachings, everyone is your neighbor. If you are sexist, racist, homophobic, you are not following the teachings of Jesus. Yet, almost unbelievably, many who call themselves Christians are some if not all of those.

A leader of the MAGA Republicans, Elon Musk, recently said in an interview “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” He is completely totally exactly wrong. Empathy is continual theme in the teachings of Jesus. If you do not agree, read the Beatitudes and keep reading them until you understand the meaning. If you agree with Musk, then by default you are not accepting the teachings of Jesus.
On November 1st, millions of America will not have food and millions will not have access to health care because of an increase in their health care premiums due to the end of the subsidies. Any President, cabinet member, member of Congress and all those supporting them may want to read Mathew 25:35-45. I have my personal beliefs about what happens at death, but I am pretty sure anyone who called themselves Christians and supported ending food and health care benefits for the poor will have a lot of explaining to do at the pearly gates. Keep in mind the majority of Americans losing benefits are children and working poor.

Jesus taught women and men are equal in God’s eyes. Men who say women should submit are often quoting a verse from Ephesians which was written by the Apostle Paul. This means it is not from the Gospels which are the teachings of Jesus but a letter from Paul to the Ephesians. There is no record of Paul actually meeting Jesus and actually persecuted Christians until his conversion on the road to Damascus. Paul’s writings are often very spiritual, combinations of beauty, empathy and compassion. But this writing is a male being a product of his times and when women were often considered to be property and almost always were second class citizens. Paul missed this part of the teachings of Jesus as have men every since. In God’s eyes and Jesus’s teachings women are equal to men and if you do not get this, you are not following the teachings of Jesus.

Saying you are a Christian is pretty easy. Actually putting Jesus teachings in your life is much more difficult. For me it starts with looking for the log in your eye, not the specks in someone else’s. It continues to with understanding loving your neighbor is the core of Jesus’s teachings and everyone is your neighbor. There is a whole lot in between, but it ends with people who say they are Christians but do not put the teachings of Jesus in their lives, are you really? If say you are a Christian but are homophobic, racist, sexist, favor the wealthy over the poor, again are you really?

Saying you are a Christian is pretty easy, actually following Jesus’s teachings is much harder.