Hypocrites Remind Me of Why I Do What I Do

 

"Protestantism has the method of Jesus with His secret too much left out of mind: Catholicism has His secret with His method too much left out of mind; neither has His unerring balance, His intuition, His sweet reasonableness. But both have hold of a great truth, and get from it a great power.

-- Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), poet, educator, cultural critic

I originally wrote this post in late August of 2016.  I have used the quote from Matthew Arnold many times since.  It has great meaning for me and my personal sense of spirituality.  I come back to this post, occasionally, to remind myself of why I am.  We tend to forget why we are as we go through the motions of day-to-day life.  I use this post as my reminder.  I haven't updated it in a while, so I will see what needs to be corrected or updated here, and make changes as appropriate.

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I get reminders from God, more often than I used to, of why I sought ordination as an interfaith minister, why I founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance, and why I started "The Path," a blog discussing the personal spiritual path each of us is on.  

A little more than a week ago I published a post, Faces in My Darkness because a dear friend was in anguish over her so-called "minister" talking about her behind her back and spreading untrue rumors.  A couple of days ago I posted a story about the "miracle" of how another minister, Lucy the Clown, seemed to draw the first "I love you" from a mother's autistic child.  God reminds me why I'm here, through the numerous emails and comments I have received, thanking me for honest, plain language posts and stories that have touched another's life in some small way, and comments from those folks encouraging me to keep writing.

As many of you have read, I began this journey after yet another, of many, self-righteous Christians damned me to hell for my personal spiritual beliefs, thrusting their Bible at me like a weapon or a shield.  Their hypocrisy was another one of hundreds I've endured and broke the camel's back.  I felt their faith in God was minimized by having to hide behind scripture or wield it like a weapon and evidenced, to me, a lack of their personal faith; personal faith which loves and praises God and Jesus Christ without the crutch of  "Holy Scripture" which is required by many to offset crippling misinterpretations of God's "Word"  with further misinterpretations of their own.  How do you misinterpret the only "Word of God" written in stone?  They are Ten Commandments written in the simplest language one could hope for until made confusing by man's scripture.

These hypocrites are people so wrapped up in their own heretical agenda they have forgotten it is not their place to judge the servant of another Master simply because they forget what they read in their own Bible, like Matthew 6:5-6, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen." And they forget also, Matthew 6:9-13, "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name..."  Yet they continue to spend money building churches for worshipping together as they recite countless other prayers instead of focusing their money and energy doing for the poor and hungry - the least of us.  These are the Christians who say they have read the Bible, but they seem to have understood very little of it.  They put their nose in the air, these "well-meaning" hypocrites, constantly offended by me and always up in my grill ready to impose judgment.

One of these self-appointed "soldiers of Christ" was my latest reminder, from Himself, just the other morning.  In my role as chaplain, I occasionally stop in to visit patients twice a week.  I also do a Sunday meeting for some patients each week, the PTSD group, where we discuss various topics.  This particular morning one gentleman in the group waved for my attention.  It took one sentence, and his obvious body language, for me to realize I was up against an old nemesis - the Christian self-righteous judge; a member of one of the 33,000 distinct Christian denominations in 238 countries, all believing their interpretation of scripture is the only correct interpretation, he would have us all condemned to hell because his belief is the right belief and everyone else is wrong.  I politely listened to him try to bait me into a "discussion," for several minutes.  He was unsuccessful.  However, as I turned to leave, he did manage to have the last word by condemning me to hell for all eternity.  I dismissed the opportunity to tell him that hell would give us more opportunity to talk.  I exercised restraint and tolerance, two of the three things in my life I lack much of.  The third is patience, which is why I left before I stopped exercising it.

I am anything but perfect, none of us are, but at least some of us are trying to make the world a better place in our own inimitable way, instead of spewing negativity, divisiveness, and intolerance toward others.  This man's credibility would have been beyond question, for me, if he'd simply stated, "I hope you can be a better Christian than I am."  Truth can win people's hearts.

I couldn't help but feel pity for him, though, and forgiveness for his lack of tolerance, love, and understanding, and for a misdirected faith which I felt was not directly his fault.  Here, after all, was a person at odds with their own mind, their own safety or the safety of others, and he was passing judgment on someone willing to listen, to give up some time, and to show him some tolerance and understanding which he was seemingly incapable of showing, as a "Christian," to anyone with a differing opinion or faith.  I felt his attempt to verbally attack me was an attack on his own Christian inadequacies, his lack of true faith, and his need to be in control of something, or someone if he couldn't be in control of himself.  

Most importantly, though, it seemed the reason I was there, giving of my time, totally escaped him.  I was there because his caring clergy wasn't.   I was there trying to do what I could because many clerics, who took a vow to serve God, seem too wrapped up in the business of running a church and were unable to find the time to serve the least of us.  I took the man's attack in stride.  You get used to attacks after almost 50 years.

I think Abrahamic religions have it all backward.  God made faith simple for us and we continue to complicate it.  Instead of learning to love God and Christ through scripture written by men and "inspired" by God, perhaps we should first learn to know, love, and praise Christ and God before we receive the "inspired" scripture.  Maybe a person should understand their own strength of faith before being handed a sword and shield, these words bound between two covers, which are worthless without a faith that comes from within the individual and not from between book covers.  People need to understand, it isn't the Bible, Holy Water, or any Christian symbol which holds the demons at bay; it is the strength of the personal faith in God found within the living vessel that accomplishes the feat.  When you strip a person of the accouterments of their religion, all they have left is what God gave them, to begin with - personal faith!

The problem I see with the logic of my idea concerning churches is that people will flee in droves from the control of the church, which the church would frown upon.  I have found through life when you learn something on your own before you get the instruction manual; you tend to have a more critical eye which accomplishes the task better.  It doesn't mean you can't learn something new, it simply allows you the freedom to make that choice if you see it benefits you and, in this case, God and your immortal soul.  God wants us to seek the truth because the truth will set us free; the church would rather we not, for the same reason.

This might sound, to some, like I'm also standing in judgment of people and religion as a whole... and perhaps I am.  I have, after all, held with the notion that it takes one to know one, and I have never denied my own sins, hypocrisy, and other shortcomings. No one is perfect; we can but try in this life to do what we can with that which is given us, in order to do something wonderful.

I will continue to try and scoop up those Christians who have fallen, for one reason or another, by the wayside of their faith.  Mine has been a ministry to convince folks not to give up on God and not to judge "Holy Scripture" too negatively.  I try to offer them another thought on faith so that, in their future, they might rediscover, or redefine, their personal spiritual path.  My faith lies in the belief that any personal relationship with God is better than no relationship at all.

If the Christian churches are going to drive some people away from their path to God, someone has to show them a detour so they don't get too lost.  I like to think my map is pretty good.  Want one?

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteered as a chaplain at the regional medical center.