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Glad to hear it. But then, you don't see me making posts that suggest atheists are a blight on society, or that one has to be a Chrisitian to do a good deed.
Just that there are certain posters that make daily posts suggesting Christians, and pastors in particular, that are doing wrong. Or they suggest that without religion the world would be a better place. I just want to show that yes--Christians, and pastors even, can and do some nice things to help their communities.
Just that there are certain posters that make daily posts suggesting Christians, and pastors in particular, that are doing wrong. Or they suggest that without religion the world would be a better place.
Certain posters? Name them, and take it up with them. Who are "they"?
Those things are not mutually exclusive. But a pastor's job is not to bring about political change, which is what I believe you're suggesting, no?
Well, I'd argue it is every member of society's responsibility to help better the society to the extent they can. Part of that requires defining your own view of how the society should work better for the people in it.
So being a pastor, I would like to think that issues around social injustice, human living standards, and how greed and corruption go against the teachings of Christ would in some way....be topics of importance to him.
Conversely, we seem to see a lot of pastors and religious in general, falling to the far right politically. Aligning with large corporate interests, social bigotry, and economic iniquity. And this is because they put these topics (politically ) above serving our fellow man and woman.
He asked her. She called him and asked for help with gas for her car. She told him she does not have a church, and he knew she didn't go to HIS church.
On a side note, I'm told that she never did visit the church, but that's ok--that wasn't a condition of giving the tank of gas.
I like doing similar things. I've paid the restaurant bills of elderly folks and others who seem low on funds. I always ask the cashier not to tell the person(s) until I've gone.
At a local greasy spoon (best breakfast within 500 km's), in a town I lived in for a while, I kept a kitty of cash with the owner. She used it to pay for folks breakfast/coffee if she knew they could use a boost. Sadly the town had alot of low income folks. When a fellow minister found out because I topped it off when we were having breakfast, she decided to chip in on it as well.
Those who benefited from the fund, never knew who provided it.
My actions had nothing to do with being a Christian, or a minister, just being a decent human being.
My actions had nothing to do with being a Christian, or a minister, just being a decent human being.
Bingo. And the irony is, your lack of claiming that it had anything to do with being a Christian, actually makes the fact that you are a Christian more, rather than less, interesting.
I wish more Christians would grasp this concept. It is not a matter of "look at me, and my superior morality and virtue thanks to Jesus", it is just, come on folks, let's make the world a better place out of love for our fellow man, no strings attached, and anyone who wants to help, be they believer, unbeliever, satanist, pothead or whatever, is welcome.
If then Christianity is the boon to human existence that some of its members claim it to be, it will eventually become self-evident that most people who do this are motivated by Christianity and then it will cause people to say "behold how they love one another". Not how they CLAIM to love one another.
The only people in need of advertising their good deeds are Christian Pastors.
Most of us do not keep track of those things. It comes naturally. Could it be that the generosity of these men is so unusual it requires fanfare?
Allow me to provide positive reinforcement to every Christian Pastor out there. Keep up the good work. Waiting a few months between good deeds is a slow start, but a start none the less.
This is the thing. We are a social species. Even those among us who claim to be the "most antisocial" are often on the internet...hence, WAY more social than an actually non-social or actively antisocial mammal. A literally antisocial animal you can't get near, it will rip your face off. NOBODY posting here is literally non-social in an entire way as evidenced simply by the fact that we all are on a forum, which is a community even if we can't touch or see one another.
As humans we work better in groups and we work better when we have a mix of abilities in any given clan. Hence, we keep one another alive and we have a very, very strong empathy.
So we ALL love to do good things for others EXCEPT when experiences or certain issues make us mistrustful or if we are just physically, financially or otherwise incapable of doing for others. I have never in my entire rather long life met a child, for example, who didn't LOVE the look on the face of a person she handed a flower or a home-made card to. Yes, including heathen children, LOL. They love to see another person being made happy. So do non-damaged, typically social adults. We like it, we strive for it and we have an extreme form of empathy (apparently) among the animal kingdom (a few other species are probably our equals to this, perhaps greater) and if we can, and if we're overall happy, we want to help.
Religion is not required for this. Religion was never required for this. Religion is fine but it does not cause empathy. Being a Homo sapiens sapiens causes empathy.
The religious credit this to God but still talk about the amazing feeling and so on. If it's not the amazing feeling coming from having helped it's the amazing feeling of God "working through them" or simply the amazing feeling of being in concert with God. But it's still the amazing feeling that's always at the forefront, just like with non-religious people; we all do this because we are ALL DRIVEN to do it simply by being human beings.
Attempting to draw a line and say one way of wanting that great feeling is holy and the other is selfish is actually half-funny, and half-sad. IMO.
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A literally antisocial animal you can't get near, it will rip your face off. NOBODY posting here is literally non-social in an entire way as evidenced simply by the fact that we all are on a forum, which is a community even if we can't touch or see one another.
