I can only handle so much of this... (September '06)

I got one of THOSE bulletins today from one of my Christian MySpace friends. This person is an awesome person in real life, very genuine and strong in who he is and what he believes. I respect the heck out of this person, but I do not have near as much respect for the person who wrote the bulletin he re-posted.

Rather than wax prolific about the topic, I'm going to post the bulletin here in it's entirety (bold italics,) and then post my response (bold blue.)

Thanks y'all, and here goes...


Why do we sleep in church but...when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up? Why is it so hard to talk about God but so easy to talk about sex? Why are we so bored when we look at a Christian magazine....but find it easy to read Playboy?.... Why is it so easy to ignore a Godly myspace message...yet we repost the nasty ones? Why are churches getting smaller...but bars and clubs are growing??.... Think about it...are you going to repost this or ignore it because you think you'll get laughed at? Just remember God is always watching you.

Repost this "don't read if you're under 13. this may make you sick"

80 % of u wont repost this.

The Lord said, "Deny me before man and I shall deny you before my Father''

And my response:

Why do we claim our beliefs are valid, but...we use fear and guilt to propagate them? Why is it so hard to answer questions about pain, suffering and hardship, but so easy to talk about blessing? Why are we copying the world with derivative, inferior "Christian" culture duplicates when we claim to abhor the things of this world? Why is it so weasy to make an arrogant proclamation about God's will, but so difficult to talk to someone in the midst of their pain in a way that really addresses their hurts? Why do Christians avoid the places where non-Christians gather, and then get together with a bunch of other Christians every week to talk about reaching the lost? Why do Christians avoid deep relationships with unbelievers and then expect those same unbelievers to accept the Gospel as presented by those who won't even live according to that Gospel? Why did Christ fellowship with extortionists, prostitutes, freaks, handicapped people, theives, pimps, hustlers, and the like--when his people wouldn't dare hang out with those same people unless it was to drag them along to a contrived, disingenuous service on "Outreach Sunday?" Why are people leaving churches to spend time with people that will actually listen to them and love them as they are? Think about it...are you going to repost this or ignore it because Christians aren't supposed to ask the hard questions of each other? Just remember, God dosen't need emotional manipulation or intellectual dishonesty to spread His Word.

99% of U.S. Christians would be scared to death of these questions.

Jesus said "Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no."

I tried to keep the format similar for a more obvious parallel.

Thoughts?