In the interest of honesty I want to say that I write this as a believer in Jesus and someone who tries his best to follow his teachings and example.
Everyone has a different view of God and what He wants and likes. I use the pronoun He for God because (a) I am a guy and that is the one I am most familiar with, and (b) it just seemed wrong to refer to the Supreme Being as an It. If you prefer to refer to God as a She, go right ahead, you won't offend me seeing as how God is truly neither and both.
Since everyone has their own view of God, they also have their own interpretation of what we wants from us, what he expects us to be, and how he wants us to behave. They range from the Ultra-Liberal interpretation that believes that God is ALL of us, that we are ALL God. They can be recognized by the botox smile that is frozen on their face and are usually found handing out flowers. I don't subscribe to this kind of God because I know most of humanity and if we are the best we can expect, then count me out, I hope to be better than I currently am. The other end of the spectrum is the Ultra-Conservative interpretation who are better known and "Fundies" or The Fundamentalists. This group can be recognized by the continuous scowl on their face, and their multi-purpose "Christian Army Bible" that can function either as a thick club in which to beat all heathens until they submit or as an actual "Sword" in which to send someone to their eternal judgement where they will learn the error of their heathen ways.
Now, the fundamentalists interpret God as wanting them to convert all heathens (read anyone who doesn't agree with them) in the most forceful, intensive, tough love method possible. They operate under the assumption that since Christianity began with a rigged trial with trumped up evidence, beatings, false assumptions about what constitutes sin and blasphemy, mocking, scourging, and ending with a crucifixion that that is obviously how God wants the faith to be propagated as well. They rationalize this with the claim that "if it was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for the rest of us". So following this playbook they will tend to corner a suspected heathen on a street corner, or dark alley armed with their Multi Purpose Christian Army Study Bible and immediately put you on trial. They will then bring trumped up charges about your sin and blasphemy and how it offends God, they will follow this with false evidence claiming how your belief that you have no right to judge anyone will lead to humans marrying animals and sacrificing their children to the Xbox 1 in their living rooms. If you still persist in your blasphemy and sin they will wash their proverbial hands of your fate, after all they have done their best and it is your stubborn love of sin that condemns you, and hand you over the wiser elders to be crucified in the court of public opinion. You will be shunned and banned from all good society and will only find respite amongst the great unwashed.
It is a curious symptom of today's Christian society that the worst treatment of one another we will ever witness is when we are attempting to defend God. Why exact God needs defending is never adequately explained by those doing the defending. Why the supreme creator of everything would need weak, fallible, confused, sinful human beings to defend him is a conveniently overlooked item in one's holy crusade to force everyone else to agree that MY interpretation is right. After all, the church has forcibly converted people all throughout history from the Vikings to the Native Americans and that worked out well... uhm.. didn't it? Oh that's right, it didn't.
Maybe it is time we actually read the red words in the bible and try to honestly follow them. If your Bible doesn't have red words in the NT section, then you might want to consider getting one that does. Your whole world and way of looking at the world and at your fellow man just might change for the better. No one has EVER been converted because they lost an argument with you, or by hearing how worthless, evil and sinful they are.
Jesus came to show us a better way.. a way of love, respect, and acceptance of others.. as they are, for who they are, without change. He loved us so much that even at our worst he loved us so much that chose to die for us rather than live without us. Maybe it is time we felt the same about each other as Jesus did about us. Maybe it is time we choose love, and acceptance instead of condemnation and force. After all... if it was good enough for Jesus, isn't it good enough for us?
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