First, is what I submit is the widespread misuse of the word "love". Jesus said that all of the Faith hangs on love of God and neighbor and He described ones 'neighbor' with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Unfortunately that illustration is commonly perverted and made into something He did not intend, which is all too frequently a lot of mushy affectatious sentiment. It is not uncommon, for example, in a church service for some cleric to ask people to hug their neighbor at some point in the service. I do not. I will shake hands but hugging strangers spreads germs and anyway, it's just not my cup of tea. It can go even farther than that. On one occassion a substitute preacher asked us all to kiss our neighbor. I did not (until I noticed that the person right in front of me was a very pretty girl. Then I changed my mind and decided that the request had more merit than I had credited it with).
What is going on here? The cleric is sincerely trying to inculcate the tenets of the Faith in his congregation, and in and of itself the hugging advice is probably harmless. The reason I don't like it is that twenty-first Century American society is tending to be too feminine as it is. Femininity is great in pretty girls, not in men, young or old, and not when it's affectatious in any case. Jesus accepted some of that sort of thing as customary for the time and place, when and where circumstances were radically different from what they are in contemporary America. Then there is the 'good fellowship' smile. I knew a chap who walked around a church Fellowship Hall with his 'good fellowship' smile tatooed on his face and his 'right hand of fellowship' always at the ready for shaking hands. The problem was that everyone knew, or should have known, that the smile was never intended for the recipient of all this wonderful good fellowship because the guy was in fact a sourpuss. It was just part of the act as it is with the inevitable nice old lady who keeps saying 'Amen' after every sentence from the pulpit, or thinks that in her screeching out of key she is actually singing one of the many bad hymns which are offered --- bad music, bad lyrics. There are some wonderful hymns, not many but some, but screeching out of key will still be avoided by those of a charitable disposition. (I have never changed my opinion that the fellow with the tatooed smile was hyperactive in the church because he had a beautiful wife and he didn't want other men trying to mess around with her because he himself had a face which was remarkably easy to ignore if you couldn't avoid it altogether. If he could get her to take up religion along with him she would be more likely to rebuff advances).
What Jesus meant by the Good Samaritan example, illustrating love of neighbor, was perfectly obvious unless you believe that He did not know how to express Himself, a hugely improbable suggestion to say the least. Remember what happened. The Good Samaritan was walking along the road minding his own business, the first admirable trait to be exhibited by him. He came across some guy who had been mugged and beaten up and went to some trouble and expense to help him --- taking him to a nearby inn and paying the innkeeper to take it from there. The victim had a different religion, and that was the point. "Love your neighbor" means to behave decently, honorably, sympathetically, and charitably toward those whose path you cross in life. That's what the Good Samaritan did and that's why Jesus made an example of him; he didn't sing some third rate hymn off key or hug the victim or put on some phony baloney 'good-fellowship' insincere smile for the innkeeper. If anything like that had been the point of the story Jesus would have said so. (First Century Christians went through all that good-fellowship stuff because they lived far apart, travel was slow, and they were genuinely glad to see each other).
Second is a strangely common habit of believing that one is appointed to decide who is a Christian and who is not. This pops up in politics. When John F. Kennedy ran for president a lot of pompous, self-important, "religious" stuffed shirts debated weather a Catholic is really a Christian or at least Christian enough. Now we are getting the same thing about Mormons even though they say they are Christian and have their famous choir singing Christian hymns. The practice here should be simple. If someone says he is a Christian, believe him. It's an easy one to follow. If you insist on taking issue with him argue with what you consider to be his erroneous ideas such as getting your very own planet in the after-life, or something like that. This does not mean that one should have a weak, wishy washy faith. You stand firmly for what you believe while trying not to be obnoxious about it. It just means that you and I were not appointed to decide who is a Christian, or Christian enough. If someone says he is a Christian but goes about torching churches that is a different matter. There is such a thing as straining credibility too far. And it certainly does not mean saying that someone is a Christian simply because he does nice things or is 'sincere' or any of that. Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, even atheists can be nice people but they are not Christians, as even they will tell you. A Christian believes that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the only Saviour there is, and that to follow Him is life itself.
In the law there is a presumption of innocence. Among those who claim Christ as Saviour there should be a presumption of Christianity --- maybe faulty Christianity, but Christianity nonetheless. A man at the base of the Mount of Transfiguration asked Jesus to heal his epilectic son. Jesus asked the man if he 'believed' and the man replied "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief". He was saying 'I'm trying. I'm not quite there yet. I need help'. And Jesus accepted that. God is kind. He is accepting. He is not the stern, unpleasant old gentleman often depicted, never happy, never satisfied with anything or anyone. David was hardly a model of a good citizen but God used Him to His own purposes.
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