Trying to keep it short. I'm frustrated and angry, as I am most times when I read/think/pray about things.
This article in particular on digg: http://digg.com/politics/Far_right_religious_group_behind_outrageous_health_care_lies
The worst part isn't the healthcare debate to me, it really isn't.
The problem is the comments. The feelings that are behind them. The reason the comments are made in the first place.
Just read through some of them if you want (be ready for profanity and anger, lots of both).
It's how we as the church are viewed.
And we deserve it.
Whether we agree or not.
Everyone in 'the church' is deserving of this attitude towards us. Whether we have helped propagate the causes for it; or whether we have distanced ourselves from it, saying "oh, but i'm not like them."
There's no variation in mindset of those in the church from the perspective of most outside. Just as the same is true vice versa in many cases.
There's no separation of 'us' vs 'them' inside the church--just as there shouldn't be such a distinction of inside (us) vs outside (them) either...but I digress--the two sides (and others) are all a part of the whole. We are held collectively responsible for each other.
I often try to rationalize to myself that there are distinctions. That there are understandable and separate divisions within the church itself. And I put myself on the more 'rational' side. I distance myself mentally from the "religious right" and "fundamentalists" while knowing at the same time to a majority both inside and out of the church that there is little to no difference when I am compared.
Carrying the title of "Christian" puts me into the same boat. I am held responsible for the horrible decisions made in the past and present. I am to blame for the judgmental mindset, hypocrisy, bigotry, racism, legalism, sexism, and butt-ton of other unsavory isms that are so rampant in the church today. All of them.
Whether by my pushing forward of the issue myself or my refusal to address the issues when they rear their heads.
I am responsible for it.
I'm often ashamed of the connotation that comes with being a Christian. But I am more often ashamed that I have done to little to rectify it.
