Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 3-Why Do I Behave?

Romans 13:8-10 (NIV)
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

In What Do Christians Believe, author Malcolm Guite states that the three core elements of being a Christian is a sense of belonging, believing, and behaving. Behavior in Christianity is essential because "what we do is both the consequence and the cause of what we are" which has eternal significance (What Do Christians Believe, Pg. 3). Christians are associated with being kind, compassionate, and overall good people, but unfortunately they're also known for a lot of unchrist-like traits. So how is it that followers of Jesus Christ have earned such a horrible reputation? Our personal behavior is shaped by the other two elements of what we believe and to which community we belong, but does not confine them to these two elements. Yet how we behave is, or at least should be, the very heart to being a Christian.

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When studied through a magnifying glass, anyone outside Christianity can sort through a Christian's beliefs and community "values" to selectively pick and choose anything that might sound unchrist-like. In fact you can do this with about any major religion but this does not get to the core as to why believers behave the way they do. The person, not the beliefs themselves, chooses how to act on a daily basis. These beliefs may shape the boundaries of our behavior but only at the digression of the believer. The beliefs and teachings are there as a guide (not a rulebook) to help reform ourselves. In fact, being a Christian means that we acknowledge that we are broken and in need of help and guidance. This humbling knowledge should be enough to encourage us to behave more loving towards one another because we are all the same, we are human.

You don't have to look far to see the broad range of positive and negative perspectives, based on outsider views, of a particular faith. And this is where many make the crucial mistake in equating a person's religion with the person's character. There is just as much violence, prejudice, and hatred found in the Qu'ran as in the Bible that CAN be perceived as a window to a believer's heart. But the skeleton's in Christianity's (or even Islam's) closet should not be taken in as a generalization of the believer's heart. The same can be said of Atheist who don't believe in God are somehow immoral because they choose not to follow the teachings of the Bible. Balderdash! An Atheist can be just as loving, honest, and compassionate as a Christian since the belief in God does not give believers a moral high ground. We each choose how moral we want to be regardless of what we believe. We may choose to follow different guidelines but we all yearn to bring out the best in humanity, "the better angels of our nature."

So how can we as Christians live up to the teachings of Christ without appearing unchrist-like? By seeking to become love incarnate, like the Son! If we are to be a light onto the world we must first put down our banners and trumpets proclaiming our self-righteousness and BE love. Forget fighting over the definition of marriage, forget fighting over abortion, forget fighting evolutionists over the origins of man, forget fighting period! Go out and BE love.

If I find that something I believe limits my love for my fellow man why should I continue believing it? Because God said so in a book? Because the community says we should? We should continuously be questioning our community and our beliefs so that we may have that open window to Christianity's frontier. This, I believe, will help us in our quest to becoming love incarnate. The only problem with this is that man is too fractured, too tribal to seek out Eden. We may never find it but we may come close by doing, by being, by loving. So instead of asking what would Jesus do, let us begin by asking: what would Love do?

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Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 1-Where do I Belong?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 2-What do I Believe?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 3-Why do I Behave?

Read all three back-to-back, here.

Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 2-What do I Believe?

2 Corinthians 6:14-16 (New International Version)

¹⁴Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

[ A woodcarving of Belial and some of his followers from Buch Belial by Jacobus de Teramo (1473)]

In What Do Christians Believe, author Malcolm Guite states that the three core elements of being a Christian is sense of belonging, believing, and behaving. Belonging in Christianity is being a part of a faith community and not belonging entirely to this world. This community united by one body with Christ as the head is shaped by the other two elements of believing and behaving. Believing "arises within the community of belonging" but because of the variety of differences in expressing beliefs within Christianity has caused communities to splinter throughout history (What Do Christians Believe, Pg. 2). Beliefs define the borders between these communities and at times cause intra-faith strife.

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It is sad that beliefs have been the cause of so many wars and filled graveyards as far as the eye can see. The issue is not in the beliefs themselves (beliefs don't kill, people do) but the desire to defend them so passionately that Christians once went beyond killing fellow Christian, we had to torture them first. Why? Because in a cosmic battle between good and evil, good MUST win at all cost. Our egos, not beliefs, cause us to continue collecting eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Our beliefs define the borders between our communities but they should not be lined with razor wire and watched over by armed guards.

One of my core beliefs is the willingness to listen to our neighbors. I mean if we can't look our neighbor in the eye how are we to spread the gospel? If we listen with our eyes and ears shut to what others have to say we might miss a gem of truth that we never would have unearthed within Christianity because we, as Christians, do NOT have all the answers. How's this possible? I've stepped outside of our faith and have found transcendent beauty elsewhere. Either I'm lying, misled, and confused or I might be telling the truth. There is no shame or fear that should keep us away from learning from one another.

If these are just simply beliefs why do we defend them to the grave? Is it because some of us etch our beliefs onto stone tablets with "thou shalt not stray" along the the top? Or do we think that our beliefs are so weak that they need defending? Since our beliefs define our community, our tribe, we feel that we HAVE TO defend them, and because we are tied to our beliefs any attack on them is a direct attack against us. Now it's personal, but there's no need to be defensive. Our beliefs do help to shape the community and the individual but we are not bound and chained to these beliefs UNLESS we let them bind us. I believe that even though the Bible, if read literally, can be read to say that God despises homosexuals that I don't have to also hate homosexuals (although the Christian stance is to hate the sin but love the sinner. Why hate at all?). And even though the Curse of Ham (Genesis 9:20-27), again if read literally, can be read as those of Black African descent being cursed to enslavement we don't have to be bound by this belief (check your history books, racism and slavery were justified by this interpretation). Interpretation of the scripture progresses along with society's progress even though at times it's a few steps (years!) behind. For the individual, moving beyond the confines of the faith community's established borders may create alienation, tension, and even new communities to rise up with new borders. I believe that revelation and religion should be progressive for it to be able to communicate with the modern generation. This does not mean repackaging faith to bring in more faithful but to reexamine our religions as a whole.

By branching beyond our community's beliefs we may find that we have more in common with each other than we thought or could even see behind our borders. I envision my spiritual journey residing on the very edge of the Christian frontier; I consider myself a Christian but those within the community would not agree. But does this really matter? I can not envision a God who would be so fickle about the beliefs of a person and gloss over the contents of his/her heart. If God really did care about the contents of the heart then why do we worry ourselves with beliefs, theology, and doctrine? What I seek is a Godly path without these man-made constraints, fears, and prejudices. What I seek is progress and growth that transcends borders.

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Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 1-Where do I Belong?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 2-What do I Believe?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 3-Why do I Behave?

Read all three back-to-back, here.

Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 1-Where do I Belong?

1 Corinthians 10:14-22 (NIV)

¹⁴Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? ¹⁹Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. ²²Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

In What Do Christians Believe, author Malcolm Guite states that there are three core elements of being a Christian: belonging, believing, and behaving. Belonging in Christianity is being a part of a faith community while also not belonging entirely to this world. This community united by one body with Christ as the head is shaped by the other two elements of believing and behaving.

Tristan Pentecostes.jpg [Luis Tristán (Toledo, 1585 - 1624), Pentecostes. Museum of Fine Arts, Bucarest, Romania.]

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I was born and raised in the SDA church up until my Junior year at Georgia-Cumberland Academy when the seedlings of doubt were planted and I began to question what it meant to be a Christian. I had (and still have) no quarrel or dispute with the church itself but this goldfish began yearning for a bigger tank. Of course any serious questioning whatsoever is frowned upon in the mainstream denominations and the SDA church was no exception. Breaking from the core beliefs in Christianity was incredibly painful on both emotional and social levels. Even though I consider myself a Christian I feel like a Christian in exile, on the outside looking in. Not because of my behavior but because of my change in beliefs. I don't believe that Jesus was exclusively God incarnate but that he resembled the spirit of the Divine, love incarnate. History can only tell us so much about Jesus but I do believe that he did exist and that he was fully man. Even bad behavior is still acceptable to a point as long as you believe. Once you cross that line of right belief there is no turning back.

There are many reason why I reject the trinitarianism view which I won't go into now, but I will say that I find it too limiting and awefully confusing. As a Christian who dared to look outside of the established borders I am now automatically associated with unsaved outsiders looking in. I was not literally exiled for my beliefs but any conversations with "real" Christians bring up that familiar "uh ohh, he's unsaved" look. For those who haven't received that look it's not the best feeling in the world espescially from family and friends. It makes you feel inferior, doomed, and worst of all, lonely. Like a puppy at an animal shelter people pity my situation. Some try to save me by bringing me back into the fold until I attempt to explain (I'm horrible at explaining my spiritual beliefs to other people) that I don't need saving which I'm sure I come across as an arrogant and ignorant soul who doesn't want to be saved. How can you save someone who seeks God on their own and is moving beyond the dualism of saved and lost?

So am I drinking from the Lord's and the Demon's cup? No, I believe that the cup of Love that I drink from is the Lord's cup. If Love is what binds Christians in one body with the Logos am I not considered one of them? My ego yearns for that feeling of acceptance found in a community to quell its loneliness. But I also feel that by seeking out the Source myself I may find a connection, harmony, and state of being that transcends the need to satisfy the ego. I believe that community is a big part of a person's spirituality, or at least for me and I lack that. I still attend church with my family but it is a large church and my wife and I feel a bit disconnected from the congregation. And the pastor's knowledge about my beliefs, or lack thereof, doesn't help much either. So where do I truly belong? It may not be with a particular faith system or it may be with multiple ones at a time. As long as my spirituality can grow I can be anywhere, or everywhere. Wherever I AM that is where I belong.

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Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 1-Where do I Belong?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 2-What do I Believe?
Inside Looking Out or Outside Looking In?: Part 3-Why do I Behave?

Read all three back-to-back, here.