To all my fellow Christians, there is something I wish you would stop doing. Please stop being "preachy" to sad people. I heard a story today that BROKE my heart. I don't want to get into the specifics but there was this woman who was going through some intensely bad times and she said something to someone about deserving a break to which they responded by saying she wouldn't want to get what she deserves because that is Hell and the whole point of Christianity is getting what you don't deserve. TECHNICALLY if you are a Christian then I guess you believe that is true, but there is NO WAY that it is an appropriate response.
What makes me extremely angry about Christianity is that so often Christians try to tie everything up way too neatly. If university taught me anything, it taught me that the world is complicated. Things are not simple and complicated questions need complicated answers. Some aspects of Christianity make some aspects of reality way too simple. In a way, it is what I like about it. I like that it provides some meaning and logic to the way things are. There is something comforting about being able to say that things suck because evil exists, but that good is stronger and will one day win out over bad.
What makes me mad is when people refuse to acknowledge the messed up in between time. IF we say, for arguments sake, that Christianity is true, THEN Christians are ok in an eternal sort of way, but they are not necessarily ok for NOW because for now we are all stuck on a messed up earth full of messed up people and natural disasters where we ourselves are still not perfect. Life sucks. You don't need to tell me that. I have friends who are straight up orphans, who battle addictions of all sorts, who live with anxiety, depression, mental illness, anorexia, or cancer. I know that life is not always wonderful. I also believe that there is big picture hope, but - though my big picture hope gives me strength to persevere THROUGH shitty reality - this hope does not make me happy.
I cannot STAND people who do not acknowledge the shitty reality. I have either experienced or heard of way too many instances of Christians saying things like "this is what we deserve" or "it could be worse" or "everything happens for a reason" or "don't be self centered, other people have it worse" of "count your blessings" of "you don't have a real reason to be sad" or "God works in mysterious ways"
You have no idea how badly I want to scream "FUCK OFF" I restrain myself because soooo often these people mean well. They cling to a belief system to make sense of a messed up universe. I do that too, but I acknowledge that my belief system can only explain so much, and that just because something makes sense does not mean it is beautiful. There is evil. You can explain it by saying we brought it upon ourselves and deserve more evil and do not deserve the beautiful ending we could get where evil is vanquished and good reigns, but even all this does not make the evil that is here and now go away.
Another thing I hate is when people say "You're not God and you can't or don't deserve to understand all he does." That may be true but I don't know anyone who has been through real shit who is just going to sit back and not be sad or mad when bad crap happens. Did you know that the bible also says that you should mourn with those who mourn? So the next time you try to cheer someone up by saying something that basically amounts to "you should shut up because you don't have a right to be sad" remember that no matter how much you can explain the way things are all your theoretical ideas do not take away the reality of their pain. Pain does not need reason. Pain needs kindness.
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