Where is Christ?

I am really getting tired of hearing "Christians" preach that they follow Jesus and use Him as an example for the way they live their lives. REALLY???

Jesus didn't just talk about helping the poor and hurting. He went to them to do what He could to help them. In fact, He said that we will be judged by whether we do this or not.

Jesus didn't sit back and condemn the woman caught in adultery. He knew that she had sinned, just like those who stood accusing her had, and didn't allow them to sit on their high horses and heap condemnation on this woman.

Jesus didn't go to Zacheus's house to preach what a bad man he was. Just like He didn't go into Matthew's house and start preaching to all those sinners about how bad they were.

NO!!!!
Jesus loved these people. He separated their actions from their person. He loved the person, so much so that it brought about a change in their actions for the better.

This is why I get so upset when I hear the holier-than-thou types condemning people (always in Jesus' name of course) for what they do, or sometime just because of who they are. I watched the PBS Frontline special on AIDS the last two evenings and some of the things that I heard really upset me. I see these conservatives speaking as if they are the protectors of Christian morality, but instead of acting like Jesus did, they are acting a lot like the Pharisees and Sadducees acted. You know, the ones Jesus did call on the carpet several times.

Several parts of the Frontline special dealt with the U.S.'s aid to people who had AIDS and couldn't afford their medicine. It was like watching Constantine rise again from his grave and pick up where he left off seventeen-hundred years ago. They basically said that unless these people came around to believing as "we" do, then they won't get the aid. In Constantine's time, he would tell people to convert to Christianity or they would be killed. Today, people like President Bush, Sen. Santorum, and other evangelical leaders say start acting the way we want you to or we will let you die. This includes prohibiting any talk of condom usage to prostitutes to stop the spread of AIDS, not allowing clean needles to be given to drug addicts to stop the spread of AIDS, and not mentioning sex when addressing homosexuals about stopping the spread of AIDS. This accomplishes two things. It lets the "Christians" in the west feel morally superior and allows them to dictate to others how to live. (who says colonialism is dead) And it helps to get rid of the "undesirables" in the world. You know, the prostitutes, the homosexuals, the druggies, and the poor that we don't want to acknowledge exist on our own back door will kind of get swept away with the rest of this "garbage".

In a totally unrelated but coincidental event, Rush Limbaugh today was ranting about all the warnings of the past that have not come true. One of these that he mentioned was that AIDS would move out of the gay community and into the heterosexual community. This never happened he said. Then he clarified his statement by saying that, "yes, it has happened in Africa, but that is totally different." So, only gays have AIDS in countries outside of Africa, and African heterosexuals are somehow different than people in the rest of the world.

Silly me, I thought we were all human beings, created by a loving creator, all equal in His eyes, endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that Jesus loved us all so much that he died for each and every one of us. I guess I am reading different Bible than Limbaugh, Bush, Dobson, Robertson, etc. read.

One shining example of Christ, among many, that I saw in this program was when Bono confronted Jesse Helms with the Scriptures that they both hold so dear, and showed Sen. Helms the error of his ways in opposing so many programs that could help AIDS victim. All the yelling and protesting and name calling and condemning couldn't sway him. One man using God's Word, not to condemn but to enlighten in love, moved this mountain. This should be an example to all on both sides of this issue.

God help me to control me anger. Help me to continue to do what I can to help those who need help (in Your name) who have been condemned for and to their condition (in Your name). Let me love them, and their oppressors, just as you love me, wholly and without reserve, holding nothing back, and not thinking twice about laying down my life for them by living for them or dying for them if need be.