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- cross-posted to:
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geteilt von: https://feddit.de/post/3766285
Years after my R.E. teacher said, “I will never fall lower than into God’s hands,” I finally came up with the retort, “Let’s go on the roof and check.”
If you can find me a Christian, any Christian that has sold all their possessions, given the money to the poor, and then lived an austere life of charity I’ll believe it. But I grew up a super devout Christian in the Deep South and lived there for 35 years total. I’ve yet to meet a single person that’s actually doing the religion as defined by its central figure.
I’m not saying every Christian is a raging asshole, that would be an absurd claim there are plenty of decent people that are Christian’s. I’m saying not a one is actually living a Christ-like life even the decent ones aren’t giving everything away like commanded by Jesus himself
I mean, missionaries. My sister was one for over a decade and during those years she owned a backpack with some clothes and toiletries and that was all. She received monetary donations that she used to travel, stayed with families in the towns she visited, etc.
You’re not going to see that in the US (especially the Deep South) or really any developed nation because churches are already established. But you will see it often in developing nations where the “message needs to be spread”.
My sister is annoying as hell with a holier than thou attitude. Or at least to me because every time I try to talk to her the conversation somehow turns to god and after also being raised as a devout Christian, fuck that bullshit.
And remember the Deep South has 2 denominations, evangelical and baptist, and both of those are fucking selfish fire and brimstone denominations.
Fair enough, and good for your sister, and while what she did is admirable I still say the fact that she ever ‘came back’ from doing that means she’s stopped following that command. Not judging her, I get it, but Jesus literally commanded his followers to give up their lives and follow him. Which means it’s not a temporary commitment.
I actually have a few friends that became missionaries and lived off donations. In Italy, because they were baptists(who are evangelical by the way, that’s the particular tradition I was raised in, they are very very into spreading the gospel through missions in the SBC) and they needed to go save the heathen Catholics.
I’m not trying to say your sister is a shitty person or anything. But mission work in my experience is usually a circlejerk where they are more concerned with conversion and preaching than actually helping people.
Particularly from the south I met a man in Haiti which had sold all of his belongings, working for Baptist Global Relief. Worked all day every day building homes for people along side locals, preaching on Sundays. A personal inspiration to me, to this day.
I had another example I knew in Russia but my post was becoming a “wall of text”.
Perhaps you are experiencing a sampling bias by looking in cushy churches?
There are certainly some cushy churches and Christian orgs in my experience, but not exclusively.
And while that guy sounds great, I’m still gonna be skeptical of anyone that spends anytime preaching rather than just living by example as Jesus commanded(‘and I will know you by your fruits’ something to that effect), which he otherwise sounds like he does. Glad you got something positive out of it. And I’m glad he’s helping people
But the fact that those are two extreme anecdotal examples kind of proves my point. It’s exceedingly rare to find anyone in the religion that actually does ‘walk the walk’. The vast majority of Christians have no interest or understanding of doing what was commanded of them. And because their belief alone confers forgiveness they are free to continue living however they wish. It’s all very convenient
No one is living 100% to ideological perfection. It’s a spectrum. Some are a lot closer than others. I’ve definitely met some ascetic non-judgemental types.