http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6905543.ece

The laws are changing to remove parental ability to opt their children out of sex education in public schools. This means that every kid in public schools, regardless of religious background or the parents’ wishes, will be taught the school’s version of sex education at 15 years old. This goes into effect in September of 2011. Thankfully, this is in Britain, not here in the US. Still, it’s a big deal.

What’s so wrong with that? Perhaps little, assuming that children will be taught responsibly. My childhood sex education experience, however, was anything but responsible. I was lucky enough to have to go through sex education at three different public schools across junior high and high school. Looking back, all three of these experiences were damaging to my health.

My first experience in junior high was perhaps the most damaging. I was taught how to masturbate from a cartoon video. I won’t get into the moral or spiritual issues or non-issues with masturbation, but personally, I very much wish I had not been taught this at that point in my life.

Obviously, sex education is important, and I do believe it is necessary from a very young age. But the way I will choose to educate my children will be vastly different from the haphazard approaches used in public schools. Public school teachers cannot be trusted with such a delicate and dangerous subject; the potential for damage is tremendous, and assuming parents are doing their job, the potential for any kind of a benefit is extremely minimal.

What are your thoughts on mandatory sex education in public schools? Have you chosen to opt-out your children in the past? Why or why not? Are you concerned with this new decision?

The infographic does a very good job at demonstrating the beliefs, focuses, goals, and views of the left vs. the right. It is fair and non-biased, and though it certainly portrays political stereotypes, it does the best job possible at focusing on the core thoughts and values of both sides. I am sharing all of this because of the apparent lack of knowledge as to what conservative vs. liberal politics actually represent; far too often I find that people are glued to one side or the other not because of their personal beliefs, but instead because of a series of less important outside influences. In the past I have been guilty of this as well, but I’ve since learned how rewarding it is to define your own political stance from your true core beliefs, instead of following the crowd.

Political Pride Yields Ignorance

Political awareness and discovery does not necessarily require you to always keep up on current events, nor always be aware of the laws currently running through congress. A knowledge of these things can often be a big help, but one does not need to know the current state of the system in order to decide for himself or herself what he or she believes to be the right way to approach different political topics. What is mandatory, however, is simply to be able to set your past reservations regarding the political parties aside and instead evaluate them based on their true core views, rather than your upbringing or your surroundings.

I will define political pride as a blind appreciation, following, and upholding of either conservative or liberal politics based on the sense of “belonging” to one of the respective political parties. One cannot gain a true understanding of the core beliefs of either party without being able to set this “political pride” aside. This is harder for some than it might seem, as we are often taught to embed this political pride, ironically, deep into our core beliefs. But one cannot even begin to grasp the personally perceived advantages or disadvantages of either side without a politically open mind.

Call for a Spiritual Awakening

One of the biggest influences on this “political pride” discussed above is the church, most often pushing towards conservatism. This influence sometimes comes from the leaders of the church, but more often comes from the church’s members and the perceived need for them to choose and encourage particular political views, while frowning on others. Somewhere along the line it became popular among church members to lean heavily to the conservative side, perhaps influenced by conservative leaders who claim to be spiritually focused.

The misconception here, though, is that typical spiritual core beliefs (particularly Christian views) fit significantly better with conservatism than liberalism. In fact, there is little to no correlation between conservatism and Christian core beliefs; it often even appears to be the opposite. One of the prime examples is the theme of self-sacrifice that Christ consistently demonstrates in the Bible and that Christianity not only encourages but requires; conservatism preaches a heavy focus on “helping those who help themselves” (a quote from the above referenced infographic), while liberalism leans more towards “helping those who cannot help themselves.” Furthermore, conservatism focuses on exclusivity and nationalism, both of which do not play well with Christ’s humility-based and “least of these” teachings.

The list of conflicts between conservatism and Christianity go on and on, from conservatism’s focus on judgement (which Christ clearly preaches against) to conservatism’s resistance to change (while Christ set forth to change most of the laws of his time). In all of these topics (as well as many additional topics), liberalism, though flawed in respect to Christ’s teachings, comes significantly closer to the concepts that Christ taught than conservatism. In fact, it is easy to argue that liberalism in general follows Christian views significantly better than conservatism does. It is odd, then, that we find that conservatism seems to be more popular within the church than liberalism, which I believe is a sign of mass ignorance on the subject.

I would present some arguments in the opposite direction as well, but it is surprisingly difficult to come up with an honest argument supporting the concept that conservatism is closer to Christianity than liberalism. The topics that seem to consistently come up are Christians’ views on abortion and homosexuality, which, traditionally conservatism does support better than liberalism. These matches, however, are almost certainly outweighed by conservatism’s traditional views on capital punishment and war, neither of which fit with Christ’s core teachings.

Neither Perfect Nor Evil

Obviously, neither party is likely to ever perfectly represent our personal views. In fact, if we find that our views align perfectly with either party, perhaps we should step back and observe the situation to see if our views are simply the result of belonging to a political party, or if they’re truly a core belief that we’ve come to ourselves. At the same time, neither party is inherently evil, as often seems to be argued both inside and outside of the church. Both parties will have positive and negative qualities to the educated mind (though clearly one party will be more prevalent than the other). It is important to be able to see past the blind hatred that we often have for the opposite political party, simply so that we are able to improve ourselves and our beliefs.

There are most definitely absolute truths in this world, but to package a random set of believed truths and values into a box for people to adopt, believe, and be proud of is at least a little bit disconcerting. Perhaps even more disconcerting, however, is that many people will take this package, accept it as truth, preach it, and refuse to believe anything else for their entire lives, without examining it and truly grasping any of the concepts as their own. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding politics, but if one chooses to argue political concepts, it is important for them to have examined their political stances deeper than to examine a particular political party. I believe that our current political parties, as well as many adopters, often push for this blind style of following, which is more damaging both to our country and to individuals themselves than is immediately prevalent.

Call To Action

I would like to propose that we step back and re-evaluate our political stances not based on our currently affiliated political party, but rather based on our core beliefs. Truly, they cannot be completely separated, but we may find that our current political beliefs and/or the politics that we support do not match our internal core views. We may also find that we are judging a particular political party for the wrong reasons, or we might find that we are unnecessarily passionate or impartial to a particular political subject, simply because of our surroundings. We must always keep an open mind to the other side, and refrain from eliminating a possibly intelligent perspective simply because of the label that comes with it.

Further Discussion

I am very interested in your responses both to support or oppose arguments for similarities and/or conflicts between Christianity and liberalism and/or conservatism, and your observations as to how the public interprets, applies, and argues politics both inside and outside of the church. I see this as a crucial discussion, because typically it seems people are either too scared to bring it up or tend to address it in a judgmental or condescending light. Please let me know your thoughts.

The worldly freedoms that we are given by our country are beautiful things, yes, and I appreciate them every day. However, they will fail us. Happiness does not come from the ability to make decisions and choose for ourselves what we want to do. We will fail ourselves, and eventually seek out something more. Hopefully, we will seek out Christ instead of some other worldly endeavor.

I do believe that God would want us to live in and create countries that promote worldly freedom, but I do not believe that He would have us glorify it to the extent that we currently do. The glorification of worldly freedom that many Americans live by is dangerous; it leads to American pride and a “worship America” mindset that can blind us from accepting other countries and hinder our relationship with God.

War is murder on a massive scale. There are things that are worth fighting for, but I do not believe that worldly freedoms are always worth the murdering of thousands of people. I refuse to believe that anything other than eternal and spiritual matters are worth any kind of a death toll. And most often, I believe that there are better ways to resolve these matters than violence.

I am often presented with the argument that war is not murder. This is a sad justification that results from attempts to remove the natural guilt behind ending the lives of others. If one has the intention to kill, and proceeds to do so, it is murder, regardless of the reasons behind the decision they’ve made. Opposite arguments betray all forms of logic; the end result is the same whether the situation is war or domestic assault; the end result is death.

I do realize that there are worldly differences between murder on the battlefield and any form of government-penalized murder, but they are only worldly differences, and they are both murder. It seems much more brutal to murder someone’s mommy or daddy at home for hateful reasons than to murder them on the battlefield for some sort of governmental purpose (however pointless that purpose may be). It seems that we should not be guilty of murder for doing what we believe to be right. However, in God’s eyes, all sins are equal; all sins are the same. Murder is sin. And I believe that though we can train ourselves to ignore the guilt we have from murder on the battlefield, we cannot completely remove the God-given sense all of us have that killing others is wrong.

Venturing back to freedom, I am reminded of the false hope that justice often brings us. Many Americans (often those who believe worldly freedom is worth killing and dying for) believe that justice is the best way to handle all situations, and can sometimes end up worshiping justice in the same way some Americans tend to worship freedom. Justice fails us all in much the same way that freedom fails us; none of us are responsible or righteous enough to not make the mistakes that constitute us as guilty. We are all guilty, and we are all the same. Thus, none of us has the right to condemn others for their sins.

Jesus came to forgive us for this guilt that we have, so that we don’t have to live by justice. I am already guilty of murder; I murder Christ on the cross for every sin I commit. But it is through God’s gift of His son that we are free from the burden of our sins, and free from spiritual justice. God will judge us in the end, but we need only a relationship with His son to be pleasing to God.

It is by Christ that I am free, and I am free in a deeper way than my country can ever provide or take away. This is freedom that cannot be purchased through justice or soldiers’ lives, because it was already given through Christ’s death on the cross.

• I can’t invest my savings because the markets can’t be trusted to not go under.
• I can’t let the money just sit because inflation will rapidly decrease its value.
• I can’t simply spend the money because then I’ll have no savings, and since it’s an IRA account, I’d be severely penalized for withdrawing it.

This dilemma makes me hesitant to try and save much at all. If the value of the dollar decreases exponentially in the next couple of years, where will I be when my savings are worth less than they were when I started “saving”? Why am I working so hard to put away money when it could all be disintegrated at the drop of a hat?

These thoughts have once again shown me that my worldly efforts are most often worthy of nothing. I need to take my finances to Christ, and have faith that He will provide for me whether I’m financially well-off or hurting for money. I’m reminded of these famous verses in Matthew 6:

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I praise God that I have faith and do not have to worry about my future. Otherwise, I think I might worry myself to death. If my pride were in my finances or my material possessions, I would likely be too depressed and burdened to keep pushing forward. Likewise with any other worldly area of my life.

Of course, this is not to say that financial planning and responsibility is a bad thing (it is important, in fact), but it is something that should be prayed about and spiritually considered, rather than observed from the typical hoarding perspective. Those who hoard live in constant risk and will eventually lose everything; those who share will gain life and salvation.

So here are my questions for you:

• What are some of the ways you are able to seek financial guidance from God?
• Does anyone have a real-life story that drives this point home?
• Does anyone disagree with any of the points that I’ve made?
• What has God taught you in managing your finances or dealing with our current economic state?

I’ll look forward to your responses. :)

The passage that sparked the discussion was James 4:13-17:

¹³Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Specifically, verse 17 was the verse that sparked the discussion: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

Personally, I’ve pretty much always believed that Christ calls us to give up everything we have and give it to the poor, which ultimately means to give it to Him. This then, combined with the above verse, leads to the conclusion that not giving up everything we have is a sin in itself, which I do believe. This is what my Bible study friends seemed to struggle with; they did not believe that it was necessarily a sin to keep any material possessions for themselves. They didn’t necessarily see anything wrong with storing up or consuming more than they truly need. And they seemed to believe that it was possible to be “entirely sanctified” (without sin for a period of time) while still owning more than the bare necessities, and not giving up everything to the poor.

Granted, as humans we do have needs, but God wants us to come to Him for our needs, and tells us that He will provide for us. Matthew 4:1-4 reads:

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus’ response does not mean that we should refuse to eat; it simply means that food is not the most important thing in our lives. Instead, God is the most important, and bringing our needs to Him will always ensure that they are met, whatever they are. I believe that we are closest to God when we are self-sacrificing, and I believe that giving everything we have to the poor is likely the best way to remove the distractions that we have in our lives that keep us from spending time with Him. It is obvious that we are closer to God in times of need; why is it so difficult to grasp the concept of God asking us to give everything away to remove our obvious distractions?

I realize that this is a pretty unrealistic requirement, but what does Christ call us to do that isn’t unrealistic by the world’s standards? Christ calls us to be perfect, as He is perfect. In the words of Jesus, Matthew 5:43-48 reads:

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The end of this passage reads “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” If we have any “luxuries” in our life (meaning anything that we don’t truly need or has the potential to distract us from God), I believe we are called to give these away, so that we may strive to be perfect as Christ was perfect. Christ had nothing more than He needed, and calls us to do the same.

So why don’t I get up myself and give away everything I have? Because I lack the faith. Because I’ll never be perfect, like Jesus. Although, the more I think about this topic, the more I want to give away myself, and the less interest I have in any material possessions. I truly believe Jesus has called me to give away everything I have.

So then, here are my questions for you:

• Do you believe that you would be closer to God if you had less material possessions? Why or why not?
• Do you believe that Jesus has called you to give away all material possessions?
• Do you believe that Jesus calls all Christians to give away all material possessions?
• Do you believe that it is possible to be “entirely sanctified” (without sin) without giving away everything you own?

Feel free to answer any or none of these questions, but I am very interested in your thoughts on the topic. Please let me know in the comments!

It should come as no surprise to you, then, that I will express my views on faith openly and without restriction.  I will hold these views as the truth, as I wholeheartedly believe them to be true.  And I will not be surprised, nor will I be thrown back, by any ridicule that is the result my expressing these views.

This is not to say, however, that I am a judge of others.  I do not consider myself (nor anyone else) to be qualified enough to judge another person, and I work extremely hard to keep my thoughts humble and to help others around me feel like they can confide in me without me judging them.

So what do I believe?  I believe in Christ.  I believe he died for me to set me free from the sins I struggle with every day.  He is my best friend; I believe my faith is simply the relationship that I have with him, one that needs nurture, time, and trust just like any other relationship.  It is this relationship that I have with Christ that has set me free from the restrictions that I feel society has tried to place on me.  And for that reason, among others, I feel very blessed to know Christ and would not want to face tomorrow without him.

Religion, however, as we often think of it, is damaging to ourselves and others.  It wages war and murders thousands.  It leads large groups of people astray, and spreads lies across the world.  Religion, as we know it today, is simply humanity’s corruption of faith and God.  There are huge differences between faith and religion, and I make an attempt to disassociate myself from it as much as possible, for reasons that are obvious.

This does not mean, however, that I am against organized faith.  Church for me is a way to meet with, encourage, and be encouraged by other believers, and not a place to follow traditions and truths set forth by a particular religion.  Religious influences do have unavoidable effects on the church, but I am in no way required to participate in these rituals.

I say all this as an introduction to possible future discussion.  Like everyone else, I can be hurt by harsh words, but I will make every effort to make each discussion constructive and without judgement.  This is an open invitation to pick at these beliefs of mine, try to break them down, and try to prove any part of my beliefs wrong (or agree with me if you so choose).  I will not hold back.