Nickelback misses the point

I recently saw this picture

Now I'm sure most of you who are Christians are mentally trying to formulate something to argue this. Some of you may be thinking, "Good people still go to hell" If that is your response, please punch yourself in the throat and stop referring to yourself as a Christian; I'm tired of cleaning up the messes you make. In my thought process anyway, Christian should not be a title claim by individuals, but a label given by others because of your lifestyle. If such were always the case Christianity wouldn't have the reputation that it does today.

Moving on to my point. From what I can tell this picture is assuming that the point of life is to be a good person. That essentially following Jesus is supposed to make you "good" That assumption is what i disagree with. I'm sure others will argue that that's not the assumption, and I may be wrong, but that's what I'm seeing. If one believes in God then there are things that must would also be believed. Starting with God originally created everything. When everything was created there was Shalom, which is a Hebrew word commonly meaning peace, or even completeness. When everything started there was peace, unity, and love. All of us, if we're being honest, have had a part in disturbing those things in one way or another. Essentially that's what the Bible's talking about when it mentions sin, disturbing Shalom.

The point of following Jesus, isn't to be good, but to partner with God in restoring Shalom to this creation; Being a "good" person will naturally be a byproduct of that, but it's not the point. Just like the point of being in a band isn't to be famous. The point of being in a band is to work together with other people and attempt to produce something moving, a piece of art, an expression contained in music. Many people start with becoming popular/famous as their point in getting in a band, and they fail miserably coughNickelbackcoughcough. Just the same, there's people who decide to follow Jesus, and think that the point is to be a good person, and they inevitably get it wrong, and typically do a lot of damage.
If you start out thinking that by following God you're a good person, you then assume that those who aren't following God aren't good people; Then you feel better than them; Then you start telling them that they're not good people; Then no one wants anything to do with you or your god, because you're a douche.
If we start with the idea that we are trying to restore peace, unity, and love to Gods creation we shouldn't look at others as less than ourselves; We're all on the same screwed up playing field, trying to make it better. We're all essentially on the same team from a certain perspective, and we can work together to make this world a better place.

You may be thinking, "That picture doesn't really contradict what you're saying here" And no, it doesn't for the most part, but if you got this far then it succeeded in getting your attention.

Nickelback misses the point

Why I Debate

   It's not really a secret that I believe in the Bible. Apparently I have a "liberal" view of the Bible. I didn't try to obtain this view, and I don't maintain it for the sake of a label. To clarify, I say I have a liberal view of the Bible because I don't believe the entire Bible is to be taken literally; That some books (Job for example) are actually written out parables, and not historical documentaries. This is a bit different from traditional understandings apparently.This isn't to say God couldn't do the things written, like Jonah living 3 days in a big sea creature, but rather that fussing over whether or not it actually happened is missing the point of the story.
   I came to this view point gradually through studying. In my attempt to better know God I consequently learn more about the Bible. Which makes sense being that the Bible is the only official text we have to learn about God from. Through studying the Bible I've learned many things, including that a lot of people like to take scriptures out of context (whole other story). Through the process of learning I've become a bit opinionated on biblical topics. It's pretty unavoidable to anyone who studies anything. When you know a lot about a subject you develop a lot of opinions on said subject and are pretty certain that your opinions are right.
Since I apparently have a liberal view of the Bible, and a good majority of Christians I know have a conservative view of the Bible, I find that I end up disagreeing with a lot of Christians. Maybe it's the italian in me, or maybe that it's that I'm 26, or maybe it's just that I'm a jerk, but when i disagree with people I tend to want to discuss the disagreeance. Some people take that as, I'm looking to argue.
   This is why I'm writing this post. I want to clarify things a bit. A lot of Christians enjoy posting their views about God online, so since many Christians have a conservative approach to the Bible, and they like to publically voice their Bible thoughts online, and I have a liberal approach to the Bible, and I like to discuss(or debate), and facebook has a comment feature.... bad things can happen lol. I don't mean to start fights, and I don't mean to come off as "you're wrong and I'm right"(even though it's true :-P). I believe that through openly discussing our opposing views of the Bible, and actually listening to the other person, we have an oppertunity to obtain a fuller understanding God. There's a reason Jesus picked 12 guys who wouldn't necessarily get along. If we only listen to people we agree with I find that we end up putting God in a box of our own understanding and refuse to accept parts of God we don't agree with. However when we open ourselves to things that are difficult to us, that we don't like, that don't fit in our neat little box, that don't seem to make sense, then we begin to truely understand that God is far beyond our comprehension. If God were truely within our comprehension then He wouldn't be much of a God. How many "omni" words can a being be if it can be fully grasped by a being that only lives for 100 years?
So all of that to say, if I openly contradict you on something, please don't take offense, I'm only looking to engage in conversation, and hope that the both of us can gain a deeper understanding of God.

Why I Debate

The Problem Of Santa (revised)

Christmas time. I know it sounds cliché but Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. There's only one thing that concerns me about the holiday though. Santa. He needs to go. Not because of the whole Jesus vs Santa bit (that debate in itself annoys me for various reasons), but because the chubby pedo-bear is pure evil! Everyone walks around oblivious to this. If i told any normal person, "I see you when you're sleeping" I'd have some legal problems, but if I wobble around in a red furry suit and a white pedo-beard we consider it perfectly fine. Seriously?! Parents just let their kids sit on this guys lap and then pay for a picture of it! Any other time, if i see a random bearded old man asking kids to sit on his lap I'd give him a beatdown.
Then people feed the fatty cookies for breaking into their house! Isn't breaking and entering a crime? If we would finally catch him we'd be set. He'd never afford a good lawyer. He's just a homless old man living away from civilization in the North Pole. He doesn't have money. I mean he drives a sleigh for crying out loud! I don't care if its eco-friendly, it's weird. You know why he lives away from civilization? So the kids he kidnaps can't get away! You believe all that elves garbage? There's no such thing as elves! Get out of middle earth and back to reality. He has a sweatshop of children making toys so he can seduce more children! If they even bothered trying to escape they wouldn't even make it to Canada before dying of hypothermia. It's not just a coincidence that you can rearrange the letters in his name to make satan. He's evil!
Am I the only one seeing the problem here? There is so much wrong with this! People act like its cool cause he's magical and gives kids presents. I know of old men who know some slight of hand and give random little kids gifts, I saw some on to catch a predator. Chris Hanson where are you?! Will you not save us?!

The Problem Of Santa (revised)

where do we draw the line?

I've been thinking a lot lately, especially with this Pastor in florida who wants to burn the koran, where do we draw the line? Where do we stop trying to show love, grace, and forgiveness and begin to tell people how stupid they are? This isn't just towards one group. i see conservatives who will jump that the chance to inform some how wrong they are for not following the same beliefs or doctorines. Then I see liberal belivers who always speak of showing love except towards the conservative christians. They treat the conservative christians like the conservative christians treat everyone they disagree with. I see talk of grace all through out scripture, and I also see Jesus openly calling out faults of Jewish religious seemingly with no concern of feelings. I do believe it's very possible to show someone love, and in turn tell them how ridiculous they are being, but, personally, the only time I truely feel that it is effective is when there is a pre-existing relationship with the ridiculous behaving person that you intend to keep in tact through and after calling them out. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm simply saying that's the only time I've seen such confrontation be effective. Truth is a powerful thing. Like a knife, in the hands of some one who's angry and has ill intent a lot of damage can be some, but in the hands of someone with good intentions harmfull things can be removed.

I'm not posting this in a sense of taking sides I'm posting this in the midst of my on quest for what the proper place is. Maybe there isn't just one right place. Maybe some people are supposed to be brutal in their words, while others are to be gentle and reserved. Maybe God is in both.

I hear so much arguing any more and often I find myself partly on both sides. That frustrates me a little cause i feel just indecisive, but at the same time it's always been who i am. I have a habbit of arguing sides i don't agree with simply for the sake trying to get others to see outside of their own story.

I'm posting this simply to share my journey with those who for some reason seem to care, and to get feedback to learn from. To get me to see outside of my own story.

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where do we draw the line?

National Day of Prayer

Soooo, we're losing the National Day of Prayer. If you haven't looked into it here's the facts:

We're not. I was completely thrown when I first heard the news about the day of prayer, and should have known that people don't bother looking into these things, especially after the Orca, that WASN'T SHAMU, killed someone at seaworld, and NO ONE knew the facts. The only thing that happened was that President Obama isn't having a ceremony at the White House for the day of prayer. The ONLY president to have a ceremony at the white house for the day of prayer was George W. So Obama is only doing what every other president other than GW did.


I've seen various responses to the rumors from the expected outbursts of disagreance, to rebuttals at the outbursts. One rebuttal caught my attention, the person commented saying if you're only concerned about praying 1 day a year there's a problem. It's a good argument. Now were the national day of prayer really at stake then there might be more to say to the rebuttal, but it's not so there isn't.

What bothers me about this whole thing is that I saw very little to no love from Christians on this matter. What I did see were plenty of cutting remarks, anger, frustration, and ignorance of the issue at hand.

"If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

National Day of Prayer

The fence

My church has a few of these people. I'm sure you know the type, they're everywhere really. The type that insists on telling you what you're doing wrong, but not on serious issues but rather on pointless subjects. These people pop up everywhere, but seem especially prominent in church. I guess the term for them is legalistic. It feels as if these individuals can't wait for a moment to unleash their understanding of scripture in accordance with how others aren't living up to it. This seems to mostly happen from older traditionalist people to younger people, at least in my church. One of the favorite subjects of the people in my church is wearing hats inside the church building. Apparently this is extremely up there on the sin scale (yes, there is a scale. I believe it goes, blasphemy, murder, homosexuality, wearing a hat during service) Now I'm not saying that christians shouldn't hold each other accountable, but I believe you should have a pre-existing relationship with someone if you're going to correct them on something. It also may be a good idea to fully understand what you're correcting someone about before you speak up. Such as the hat thing, I asked someone why it was disrespectful, and the only answer I got was, "it just is" which isn't sufficient enough for me. That's language that, to me, says, "These are the rules. Follow the rules and then you'll be accepted." It's behavior modification. Behavior modification doesn't seem to be the way of Jesus to me. Behavior modification is about changing from the outside in, Jesus is about changing from the inside out. If you hold to these types of rules, that's ok, but you can't force those rules onto others. Now the legalistic people are one end of the spectrum, or at least they think they are. These are people who are judging the legalists. This is often the younger generation towards the older. They take great pleasure in attempting to bring legalists down to size. Are they really on the other side though. Sure in many ways they're different, but in the end, someone's still point fingers and making accusations. I've been on both sides of the fence, and neither one works. Why? There's no love. In 1 corinthians 13 Paul starts to list things that he could do, but are meaningless without love. You can convince someone to adhere to the way you believe, but if there's not love it means nothing. Why? Because if there's no love there's no God. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love - 1 John 4:8

The fence

Guest Post by ScoobyDrew0

Let me give a little introduction to this piece. Starting on Ash Wednesday through Palm sunday my church, and many other churchs in the same county did a fast. This fast was interestingly at the same time as lent. To which I asked, "Why don't we admit we're doing Lent?" I decided my church gave up honesty for Lent. To this Comment, My good friend Drew made this rant. Now granted he's lacking details of the whole thing, but it's still hilarious. So with out further introduction...



Let me start off with a little introduction of myself. My name is Drew, a marketing major at Slippery Rock University, and not the most religious person in the world. When I say not the most religious I was baptized as a Lutheran, raised as a Baptist, went to a non-denomination church in high school and haven’t been back at one except for wedding and funerals which has been for about 5 years).

So it has been brought to my attention that some churches in Trumbull
County, Ohio have decided to have a fast. Ok no big deal, it’s like God’s way of saying you all need to go on a diet. But wait, this fast is different than others. This fast you give up something for awhile, to be more specific you give it up for 40 days. Problem one, the dictionary defines a fast as “To eat very little or abstain from certain foods, especially as a religious discipline.” Other then little Tommy who might give up those worms he has been chowing down on during recess, I don’t see how this is a fast when you say “thing.” But let me go back on topic, so they have to give something up for 40 days. Sounds familiar…but can’t put my finger on it. So it starts from February 17, 2010 all the way to Palm Sunday. But Feb 17th was Ash Wednesday, the same day that lent starts and goes til Palm Sunday. So fast = lent is different religions.

Alright so put on your snuggie because its story time. So there are a group of rabbis sitting around a table talking about religious days. The topic of Hanukkah comes up, to which one says “I have an idea. What if we shortened Hanukkah to one day, but kept all the lights and presents to be opened on this day. And better yet all the festivities will happen on this one day” to which one rabbi replied “What day should we hold this on?” To which another rabbi said “December 25th!” Another rabbi looked confuses and asked “You just described Christmas didn’t you?” to which he received a nasty glare and said “If it was Christmas, we would call it Christmas but this is Hanukkah.”



This picture makes more sense then what is going on


So what am I trying to get at with that story, just because you change the name of something (especially if it’s the wrong name) it is still doing the same thing. Christianity to put it in a way is like the soda/pop industry. There are the Catholics, Baptists, Lutheran, ect… just like there is Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper. Everyone had the one they prefer, and we all have different tastes. I enjoy Coke (Baptist) and my fiancé enjoys Coke (Catholic). But the thing is that when you look at either religion or pop brands there is no point in competing. Yes I know Coke and Pepsi have ads but they aren’t to change opinions of people. But they never go to mimic each other to extremes.

So with churches trying to enforce lent…wait my bad “fasting” that happens to be 40 days that happens to start on Ash Wednesday that happens to end on Palm Sunday could be seen as two different things in the marketing world. The first part thing it just competition which…well is dumb because right now I don’t know who they are targeting by doing a fast. But anyway back on topic there is something called the product life cycle which looks like this.



This is what i was tough all through college


For a quick overview
Development = Product Design
Introduction = Product gains popularity
Growth = The Most gain, and some competition comes starts to emerge
Maturity = The peak of the product and time to do something new
Now in the growth phase the key thing is that competition starts to emerge and other products that are similar start to emerge. Well the thing about competitors is that they are trying to mimic a product, they feel that there is something that they can gain product share with. Granted I don’t know how many years lent has been around, but if you think it’s going to work right now to bring more attendance or as we call it “market share” to the other churches then wow. The other is called a market reposition where you take yourself out of what you do and completely change focus. The real definition is “involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.” So with market reposition I don’t know if the idea is to become the wal-mart value time Catholicism. Same great religion just not as much cost or repent AND YOU CAN EAT MEAT ON FRIDAY.
There is a reason why people believe in what they believe in. Some people think that the idea of lent is dumb. So if they decided that it is a bad idea then they won’t do it. Granted they don’t have to participate and the idea of what lent was supposed to be has been long gone. Originally whatever you gave up for lent you was to take that money and then donate it to a charity. How many Catholics practice this still, better yet how many people doing the fast will take part in this?
Ok so looking at it like that whenever any business wants to do this they roll it out in a small region or test market to see how it goes. So the real question is how will this go? If anyone can tell me what the purpose of this is by all means let me know. Because all this shows me is that this is a test to see how people will react to this idea and then implement it to other churches.
*Below is my theory of how this happened, if you might get offended then skip after the photo*
Because right now the only thing I can think is that a bunch of higher ups in churches did their grocery shopping last year on ash Wednesday and said “there are a lot of Catholics…what are they doing right and better yet how can we get them to convert. Wait they are all about this lent thing, what if we do lent but call it something different that they can relate to like fasting. And better yet we will become green and not burn anything and keep people clean because we won’t use ash!”



What happened when pastors and preachers did when they explained the idea...Guinness clanking and all

Well maybe I am looking at this all wrong. Sticking with the same metaphor with religion being beverages maybe Christianity is just Pepsi. I mean we could say Christianity is Pepsi, Coke is Muslim because that’s pretty big to, Judaism is Dr. Pepper, and even the little ones like Scientology could be Shasta because that both is a bunch of crap, and the church of the Jedi is like Jones Soda because no one knows what is going on there. But anyway there is Pepsi which is Catholicism, Diet Pepsi can be Baptist, Amp can be new age teen Christianity because they are so wild and spunky. So if it all comes down to where it is all the same God then why try to fight with each other if it all ends up in heaven somehow.



Christianity now in all sorts of flavors

The reason there is so much variety is because everyone has different beliefs and needs. In marketing when you introduce a new product you are once again trying to get market share from the competition. For example let’s look at the new age teen Christian, the ones that support KJ-52, East West, and Red. Well when you look at the 90’s and 2000’s there were a lot of things going on and the idea of sitting in church was not that thrilling. So a new wave of outreach went out to teens that helped bring in “generation X” back into the church. There is lots types of Christianity that appeals to all frames of life and just like Pepsi they make sure to hit the entire market. So why try to mix it up, if you think there is something that you can do to change the fundamental of the religion then come out with a new product.
As a final thought if you want to change something then don’t mimic a religion. While writing this I asked people what they gave up for lent. I kid you not it was sweets, chocolate, fries, or pop. Then I asked if you by chance were on a diet and they all said yes…thanks to lent it helps keep that new years resolution. Only thing left is Richard Simmons Sweating to the Psalms. A faith is what it is, if you don’t like it then chances are there are a flavor out there for you that fits.


Available Lent 2013!!!

Guest Post by ScoobyDrew0