|
PaleHawkWoman -> RE: Edgy comic George Carlin dies in L.A., aged 71 (6/23/2008 1:30:38 PM)
|
If George Carlin did not believe in God, why not? Was there anyone who showed Him Christ in their relationship to him? Was there anyone whose life exemplified Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed? More than likely there were plenty around him who called themselves christian but whose walk was way off their talk. If anyone dies unsaved, we as believers are shamed for it because we failed to reach that person or show the truth of salvation in our lives and conduct. We failed to shine before the world and be the city on the hill. True,there are those who will not believe no matter what, but we are still obligated to be Christ for them in the hope that they will someday see.
Whether or not he believed in God, he was still a human being and had
some very valid observations over the years. My favorite was a more recent one, where he bemoaned how we have all the material wealth under the sun but are spiritually and emotionally the poorer for it.
Satire and parody make fun of things which quite often deserve to be made fun of, and that includes religion. Pure faith is a very rare and beautiful thing, but religion tends to be not very pure at all and has at times been used by demogogues and opportunists to ensnare, enslave, cripple, abuse, and kill people. Religion has been and is still being used as "justification" for oppression, murder, and genocide. Christianity does not have clean hands in this regard, and at times in the past has rolled whole-heartedly in the muck of human suffering caused by church doctrines(those fomented by the avarice and prejudices of man in defiance of the Word of God).
We all know someone who is christian or claims to be, who uses "christian concern" as an excuse to gossip about others and commit character assassination. We know of church members who cheat on their income taxes, or who separate their business practices from their spiritual life. There are those alive today who remember that many of the churches of Europe stood by as Jews and Gypsies were rounded up and slaughtered by the Nazis, Facists, and Communists in the 1930's and 1940's, and the churches in America voiced little if any protest. Christians in this country allowed our government to turn away a boat of Jewish refugees who then had to return to Europe and were summarily sent to the death camps; had the church as a whole raised cain, those refugees would have been accepted.
There were whites kicked out of their own churches for supporting the Civil Rights movement or for being conscientious objectors to institutionalized oppression, violence and wars. In the 1820's and '30's, 17 pastors were imprisoned by the State of Georgia for objecting to the Indian Exclusion Acts stripping Indians of any rights of due process or self defense, and for objecting to the Removal Act. Several of these pastors were defrocked by their denominations and 3 pastors were lynched by mobs which included members of their own congregations. Pastors and other christians who spoke out against governmental abuses of civilians in the first 2/3 of the 20th century(and even to this day) or who supported the Labor Movements and Child Labor laws were labeled enemies of America by the the government and subjected to blackballing and other forms of harassment and coersion. On many occasions, more so in the first half of the 20th century than recently, the church stood back and invoked neutrality and thus did nothing to support their fellow christians.
We need to listen carefully to others when they speak, even if we find it distasteful, see what truth there be in it, and try to reach them even if that truth be one tiny kernel. We also need to examine those kernels to see where we need to stand up and speak out, or at least examine our own selves to better serve the Lord by serving our fellow man. We are His Body, are we not? His Hands to reach out, His Arms to embrace and uphold, His Mouth to speak words of truth and love and comfort to those in need and to confront wrongdoing, His Shoulders to bear the burdens of our fellow human beings, His back to receive the lashes for the oppressed, His legs to stand firm, His Eyes to see and Ears to hear so that we see and hear others and know what is going on, His Face so that the world might see Him.
|
|
|
|