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Monthly Archives: May 2024
The Judgmental
Above is yet another excellent post by Chris Kratzer. He has a real talent for seeing through the smokescreens and calling out religious judgmentalism where he sees it. And before anyone accuses him of judging others, which he shouldn’t be doing, then remember the words of Jesus saying not to judge others because if you do then you’ll get the same back in spades (Mt 7:1-5)
Well, I’ve said this before, but sadly, and indeed damagingly for most of humanity, it seems that the sole purpose that some people exist is purely to judge others. That’s it. Nothing else. Not to eat, sleep and reproduce. Not to do works of good service. Nothing, except to judge others.
It makes me wonder if their lives are so tiny, so dull, so samey, so boring, so grey, that this is the only thing that keeps their tiny, empty minds occupied. Just to judge others.
If so, I pity them.
And it’s also likely the reason that the main things that they attack are the joyful things: people having a drink, people loving others, people enjoying themselves, people being happy. They are so deprived of the basic joys in life – probably because of religious prohibitions and hang-ups – that they hate to see others having fun.
And therefore they label it as ‘sin’. If you are happy, then you must be ‘sinning’. Or, to put it another way, the only way you can be happy is to ‘sin’. And because you’re not allowed to do that, then you are not allowed to be happy. So the only thing that remains in life is to project that on to others as well, by judging them and expecting them to follow the judgmentals’ miserable mould. Because you’re not allowed to enjoy anything else.
Oh, I should maybe mention that for a spiritual person (however you decide to define that), you can judge all things, but you yourself are not subject to merely human judgments. And yes that is in their Rulebook, at 1 Corinthians 2:15.
So, a far as I am concerned, the judgmental can all go and take a hike[1]. And when they get there, they can keep right on going.
Footnotes
| ⇧1 | I was going to use a more colourful phrase, but some people might be distracted by it |
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Just Stop It
Dear Christian.
Have you ever wondered why it is that you believe in Hell?
I mean, who in their right mind would just assume that this is the way the universe works?
It’s likely that you were taught to believe it from when you were a small child.
You were conditioned to believe it.
Deep down inside you know that it is a false teaching, after all you are not a sociopath. That is why you can live a normal life without being haunted by the thought of billions of souls being tormented by a god who claims to be love.
The idea of an all powerful being punishing his creatures infinitely in unthinkable agony for eternity for finite crimes is not tenable scripturally, morally or philosophically.
The idea of being harshly punished for committing a crime against one higher in position than you comes not from scripture, but from medieval justice (gee, thanks Anselm and Calvin)
The concept of Hell you were taught to believe is not even in scripture. Any serious student of Koine Greek and ancient near east culture who is familiar with metaphors and euphemisms of the time can tell you this. (A couple of fantastic resources on this subject are: “Her gates will never be shut” by Dr. Bradley Jersak and “That all shall be saved” by Dr. David Bentley Hart)
Dear Christian pastors and teachers. Teaching people about eternal Hell is not gospel. It has nothing to do with the life and teachings of Jesus. It is religious abuse. I understand that you teach it out of fear as you yourself experienced religious abuse. Now is the time for healing. You can stop the cycle. You know that your teaching traumatizes, is manipulative, harmful and plain wrong.
Just stop it.
– Ryan Harbidge
Used here with his kind permission
GAN TV – Grace Awakening Network
I want to let you know about a completely free online TV channel called ‘Grace Awakening Network TV’
On this channel, you get completely free content[1] consisting of videos made by people who have experienced the Grace Walk[2]. I’m not into name dropping, and I won’t do it here. However, you may have heard of some of the people on the GAN channel, and there is a list of the participants on the first page.
You can click the graphic below to get to the channel:
I’d suggest that if you are already walking in Grace, or you are looking into the idea, or even researching the concept, then you will get lots of information and encouragement from listening to the speakers on there. You will need to sign up for a username and password, but you will not need anything like payment details or anything like that. Not all the speakers will jive with you. I personally was watching it when a bloke came on who started shouting. There’s never any need for that sort of behaviour, so I skipped him and went on to another speaker. Plus there are some whose ideas you may not agree with, such is the spectrum of speakers on the channel. They are diverse enough in terms of opinion that the adage ‘it takes all sorts’ becomes very real. But what they all have in common is the idea of a Grace-based Gospel, not a Gospel of divine wrath and retribution and punishment. And they support their arguments with lots of Scripture, for those who might be worried that these people do not present a ‘Bible-based’ belief system.
Anyway, feel free to visit the site. I’m really enjoying it, myself.
Grace and Peace to you.
Footnotes
| ⇧1 | Obviously these things do cost money for someone, somewhere, so there are links on the site to let you support them financially if you wish. But the links for this are at the bottom of the pages of the site, and are not displayed ostentatiously at all. I like this. It gives the viewer the choice but only if they are looking for it, and there’s no pressure at all. Also some of the speakers have short advertisements for their books and/or courses, embedded in some of their videos. But that’s it. |
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| ⇧2 | That is, the life of people who have walked in the Grace of God rather than legalism |