I stumble upon an article in the Los Angeles Times, I”m usually not surprised by things anymore but this is beyond words. This article is titled “Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced as witches.”
Here’s a disgusting example what happens when people take certain isolated verses “literally.” Some the images with the article are disturbing. This completely flies into the face of the Christian witness and worldview. Again, as I said on Facebook- this is unacceptable.
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Not sure what to say about that.
This type of story makes one want to denounce “Christianity” and the church in general. But that’s probably not the answer either. Any time a leader of a group has power, he can abuse that power. Using the name and supposed favor of god, people can be influenced to do atrocious things. I believe, if the god exists that you say exists, he would rather abolish churches and Christianity than to witness these types of horrific acts in his name.
I feel sorry for these kids.
I’m with ya man. And you’re right about that “not being the answer either.” Yeah, this is a rough situation like countless others all over the world, in our cities and nations. When it comes to addressing social concerns like this, this is when the church in general, the global Christian community in all sorts of ways, needs to speak up and take action (Back to the point on prayer again), hopefully, through prayer in the NT sense, people (Christians) become a tangible force- bringing about action and justice in the world by becoming the means by which those prayers are addressed and possibly answered.
Unfortunately, it seems prayer and reading the Bible are what got them into this situation. And on the other end of things, people seem to do an awful lot of praying and asking god to fix this problem. I’ve come to realize that while people are praying for an answer, I’m sometimes out fixing the problem. They probably think I’m the answer to their prayer. And then they go thank god.
Sadly, in some sense you’re correct. But it’s ignorance among other things. People seem to think just because they sincerely believe something it’s okay… it’s not, they’re sincerely wrong. As far as you seemingly, being perceived to be the answer to someone’s prayer, well… it’s easy to go overboard with that approach, but then again, people are saying that you’re an answer to their prayers because the thoughtline says “God can use anyone without them knowing.” Strange things happen… people do good all the time, so I guess that’s tons of answered prayers, this is nuts man. Hahaha, if folks wanna look at it that way, fine.
I agree with what Tom Wright says about prayer- a mystery… difficult to understand what it does or can do? The reality is, oddly enough people find themselves encouraged or energized . What’s interesting, is the Lord’s Prayer. In this prayer, Jesus doesn’t pretend that pain and hunger aren’t real, but some religions do; This prayer doesn’t pump God’s greatness or majesty to belittle the human plight but some religions do that, Jesus didn’t.