My family is very religious. We attend Mass every week and every Holy Day of Obligation. We learned new things about the faith through school and my father's vastly expanse knowledge on Catholicism and religion as a whole. However, the one thing that my dad taught me and something I still abide by to this day is that the best way to show your faith and honor God is through actions and acting like a good person.
Yes, that is extremely hard, but it is something that I try to abide by as much as I can. HOWEVER, ever since I moved from Chicago to Kentucky, the amount of what I like to call "poster Christians" is far too high and need to stop. What is a "poster Christian?" I will tell you my interpretation of this phrase that I decided to coin to label these people. A "poster Christian" is the Christian that will shove God and religion down your throat, either verbally or through their RIDICULOUS amount of social media posts, about how God is the only way to be happy. However, these same people that throw this at you constantly will then do the exact opposite of what they're preaching about and be a straight hypocrite.
Ever since I moved into the Bible Belt (although I do not consider Kentucky to be the Bible Belt), these types of people are EVERYWHERE. Yes, I do not personally attend Mass every week because of my own reasons. However, when I get asked, "What religion are you?" and I say that I find myself to be a more spiritual person, these same people come at me and throw their Protestant faith down my throat and say that I'm not a good person, because I don't go to Mass every week. Also, why do you need to know how I identify religiously? That's already an odd question to ask when you initially meet someone.
Excuse me, I did not ask to get a Bible lesson from you, sir or ma'am. Also, doesn't God teach in your oh so revered book that you must treat everyone with kindness and forgiveness? So, by you criticizing my difference in religion and for not being a part of the cookie cutter religions, you, therefore, are doing the opposite of what you are taught in your church or faith.
That's only one example. Then there are the people who find a way to take a damn ThoughtCatalog listicle or an Odyssey article and spin it around to say that only God is the way you'll find a husband. WHAT? Are you kidding me? It's a ThoughtCatalog article people, not a religious article off a spiritual website. Calm down. You are the people that irritate me the most.
If I wanted to get a Bible lecture every day, I can call my father, a priest, a deacon, a monk or a nun and ask them questions. I did not log on to Facebook to see your manipulative changing of words so you can shove God down my throat about how the only way I will find a husband is through God. Pretty sure God wasn't at a bar, a concert, a frat party, etc. when two people met and fell in love.
It's you, these "poster Christians," that are creating more division and creating more hypocrisy than ever. Your social media posts may say that you're devout, kind, caring and accepting of all people, but your day-to-day action show the complete opposite. Pretty positive that God isn't going to check how many Bible quotes you've tweeted or posted as Facebook statuses to see whether or not you'll cross the Holy Gates.
If you identify as a Christian, then the purpose of being Christian is to love, be kind and accept all people from all backgrounds. You must treat all people the way you would want to be treated. So, if you wanted to be treated like a hypocrite, then keep doing what you're doing. However, if you want to be treated the way that your social media posts proclaim, then stop posting about it online and just pass along love and positivity to one another. Stop being a poster child and feel the need to try and convert people through manipulative re-wording of an article written by a college student as a venting mechanism.
No comments:
Post a Comment