Tuesday, January 26, 2010

THE DEFINITION OF CHRISTIAN APATHY



APATHY: Lack of interest or desire for activity, indifference, lack of feeling. See indifference, ( lack of importance).




Now add Christian to the front of apathy and you just described the typical Christian today. It is really surprising that there are over 50 million so called card carrying Christians in America and numerous different denominations on top of that. You would think that would be a powerful group with plenty of political clout, power, and organization dedicated to preserving the Christians rights in America. You would think should a small group dedicated to taking away certain rights of Christians by judicial means, the Christian movement would be organizing and launching a counter attack against those that want to strip us of our rights. It never seems to have happened.




I was a student in high school in 1961when prayers in the schools were banned thanks to government legislation and one person ( O'Hara) and her organization forcing our government to pass legislation banning prayers in schools. I did not hear a whimper out of the organized Christian denominations trying to fight this issue. It was said to be offensive to some. What ever happened to the separation of Church and State law that our forefathers included when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the bill of rights? As so many of the secular Humanist and liberals like to quote wrongly, separation of state and the church meant that the state or government cannot dictate what religion you must practice.It gave you the freedom to choose your faith with out persecution. Funny how those groups love to abuse that phrase and make it mean something else.




Over the years we lost more rights to practice our faith because it was offensive to some. Colleges refuse to allow prayer groups or gatherings on campus for religious ( Christians in particular) activity or teaching divine creation, but it has no barriers for preaching humanist views or theology. Many professors have the right to spew their venom freely although the humanist movement is considered a secular religion tax wise. You know what? Not a whimper from Christian organizations got together to battle what a few considered was offensive.




Now comes the Ten Commandments banned in public places and courts. A few felt felt it was offensive. I always though it was a good moral rule to follow whether you were a Christian or not. What do I know? Considering our out of control crime rate America is suffering, it should have stayed in place. Not a whimper was heard from the Christian organizations trying to fight this legislative law.




In 2009 in a small town in Pace Florida, the ACLU sued Pace High School athletic coach for leading prayer at a banquet off school grounds. One person thought it was offensive and complained. At the tax payers expense, the ACLU freely went to court to sue the school administrators and the coach. As an act of defiance the entire graduating class of 2009 during their graduation ceremony stood up and said the Lords prayer to show their support against the suit which was later dropped by the ACLU. One question I have to ask is why one person has so much clout over the majority?




As far as offensive I don't understand why Porn sites have freedom to peddle their smut freely to adults and children as part of the freedom of speech and business. Isn't that offensive too? My bad. The ACLU freely uses our taxpayers money to insure they can stay in business and that is OK?.




Still I do not see any activity by a Christian movement to control these offensive activities out side of religion. I asked why is that? It is my view that you can't get two denominations or congregations to unite and form a coalition to battle what is offensive to Christians. As a matter of fact, they can't even agree on the doctrine of the bible or how we should worship. No wonder non believers look on Christians as being disorganized and a joke. Then you have Christians that take the attitude "it is not up to me". Well if you are in the Body of Christ, you better wake up before you are worshiping hidden from view and persecution. It is coming if we don't take a stand and say enough is enough. We want God back in America and the right to pray in public and our schools.




That can only happen if all Christians stand together and organized with out any denomination boundaries and theologies. We also need to be heavily involved in the politics of today so that we make the right decisions in electing candidates that share our beliefs and not have it taken away from us. It is good we send water wells to third world countries and cater to the housing project persons who only have federal assistance to survive here but we need to reach out of our comfort zones and take a hard look at our selves to see if we are the apathetic Christians we should not be.




I firmly believe God wants us to do battle for Him and insure that He is not banned from our lives. Granted we all believe He will take us up into heaven at the end times but I would think He would want us to fight to keep Him in our lives and the world while we are still on earth and not be apathetic about what is happening around us here now. In other words we should not be standing around and waiting for the rapture to happen thinking we have first class tickets to heaven. Surprisingly many of us will not get the opportunity if we don't change our thought process and remain apathetic. I believe many of you are better versed in the bible than I so you will understand my implications as it relates to the bible.




If you have followed my other articles about fellowship and caring for others, you will understand my displeasure as to what happens with in the church with fellow Christians or others seeking God's grace. Also David Johndrow at Fire and Grace puts a hefty spin on this issue too. God so dearly loves us but I think we as a whole really disappoint Him in some ways.




What are you? An apathetic Christian or a passionate Christian and willing to do battle against the forces intent on taking God out of our lives.

14 comments:

RCUBEs said...

It is sad. Many are passive. Many will say we have God on our side...but the question must be: "Are we on God's side?" Great post. God bless.

David said...

Ummm I doubt Hell's demons are worried about a lot of American Christians. That may be why they have so much time to pester me.

Good job, Larry.

photogr said...

RCUBEs:

That is exactly right. How many of us are on Gods side when we are passive and display apathy? God wants us to diaplay our wanting Him in our lives by standing up and saying no to those that legislate Him out of America.

We all say we love Him and want him in our lives but are we willing to take a stand and show that desire against those that are taking Him out?

photogr said...

David:

That is because you took a stand and voiced your passion. I am sure if we all stood up in unison and fought back by speaking up, I am sure Hells demons would be plenty worried.

Did you know most of the legislation against God was enacted by a few individuals that called the Christian practices offensive. I wonder what it would be like if Christians of all denominations were to unite and do the same thing by calling their actions offensive.

We may never see that. For some reason you can't get multiple denominations to agree on any thing much less get organized. There in lies the paradox.And we wonder why people don't take us seriously.

eaglegirl said...

I don't think we can blame all the evils in our country on Christians.
And I don't think Christians have been totally silent.
There are some very active Christian groups that are supported by Christians and cause Christians to take action.
ACLJ is one, it stands for American Center for Law and Justice. They have even gone to the Supreme Court to defnd the rights of Christians. The ACLJ to me is the Christian version of the evil ACLU.
And they have done much to take a Christian stand in America. They would not exist if believers did not support them financially and take their call to arms.
Also the late Dr. James Kennedy was always fighting for our country. (He died only a few years ago)
There are other groups of Christians united in these ways.
And look what just happened in Massachusetts, surely Christians had a lot to do with that. And that election will make a huge difference,
Yes, there is Christian apathy out there,but there are also those out there doing what needs to be done.
I am sorry if I am offending anyone with my comment, it is not meant to do that, but I felt I needed to speak up.

Tracy said...

You're right, a lot of us are apathetic, so I appreciate what you're saying. Sometimes I've been apathetic and the Holy Spirit has convicted me; I've had to repent and turn my heart back toward God.

But there are what I see as awesome groups out there like the ACLJ (I see them as awesome and eaglegirl sees them as the Christian version of the ACLU - hah - that's OK eaglegirl, I'm glad to see you here giving your opinion), you can find out more about them here: http://www.aclj.org/. Focus on the family is another group that has for years supported Christian values in the way you're speaking about, and you can find out more about them here: http://www.citizenlink.org/

photogr said...

Eagle Girl:

You are right. I did Check out the links but what are we doing as a Christian. Voting at the elections is a good start. Getting involved in local grass root projects is another. Do we donate money to these groups to help them fight for the cause? It takes money to fund these projects fighting for Christian values. Does the church also donate money for the cause?

photogr said...

It is good that these organizations are out there and fighting for our cause. It takes money for them to operate and many Christians will say they are doing the fighting for us. We still need to be involved and have contact with them but are we?

All it takes is one disgruntled person to complain about finding Christian activity offensive and the ACLU with all the taxpayers money they can get takes action.

My comments were aimed at ones that take an apathetic approach towards defense of the Lord and not taking a stand but bury their heads in the sand thinking someone else will handle the job for them.

I am thinking the students at Pace High School took the protest in their own hands and defied the ACLU. My comments is aimed at that reaction type is what we need to take. They stood up for the Lord. Will we do the same if the issue came up in our case?

eaglegirl said...

It would be helpful to others to know what things you are doing in this area as an individual to make changes in our political system.
That would give people concrete and practical things to do. We are not going to change the denominational problem, but what exactly is it we as Christians can do to make a difference ?

photogr said...

Eagle girl:

Get out and vote for one thing. The other is support candidates that have Christian values. Join as a volunteer for promoting electorial candidates with those values to other Christians and non Christians.

Volunteer to take others to the polls that are shut in and have no transportation but make sure they have the same Moral values we are promoting. Certainly don't need to help secular humanist or radical left wing liberals vote. They are the reason we have the problems we have today.

AS far as Christians individually being organized, I would have to think that the church has to have some program to motivate their members to take a more active role in guarding our rights as Christians in a proactive way.

These are some of the things I have already statred to get involved in so that when the next round of elections come up I will be intrenched in the organizations.

Anonymous said...

Hey Larry, thanks for commenting on my blog. Being a part of church and loving people can be tough, can't it?

Have you ever read 'My Life Without God?' It's by William Murray, the son of Madalyne Murray O'Hair, who helped rid schools of prayer. It's an amazing old book which I've read twice. I highly recommend it to see a portrait of what kind of sad person she was.

photogr said...

Matt:

Thanks for dropping by. I know of O'Hair quite well and what kind of person she was. Pretty twisted if you think about it. Amazing the power she welded back then to have such influence.

Deborah Ann said...

God calls some to bus the people to the polls, and He also calls some to bus the people to the church. Others He calls to take in the homeless, or feed the poor. This would be a beautiful world if everyone listened and obeyed the voice of God.

photogr said...

Deborah:

Yes it would. All it takes is for one person to show charity to another. If we all stood up in unison to protest the restrictions put on God in public places, We would not see the increasing restrictions we now face.