Jlknapp505's Blog

Christianity is more than simply declaring “I am a Christian.” The religion is based on source documents, most of which are readily available for everyone to read.
Any argument there?
Those source documents prescribe a system of behavior and a code of morals. Those things are not ‘optional’. You really can’t cherry-pick among them. You can’t stand up and declare that someone is a traitor and he should be killed (that has happened several times, sometimes by preachers, yesterday by someone who claimed John McCain was a traitor and should be killed.
If you can’t accept “Thou shall not kill”, you’re neither Christian nor Jew (Jews rely on the Torah, which includes Exodus, one of two places the Ten Commandments are found).
But Christianity is based largely on the New Testament. “Turn the other cheek”; ever heard that one? If your idea of Christianity involves carrying a pistol, you’re a disciple of the NRA, not of Christ. Guns enable people to kill with the squeeze of a trigger, which is incompatible with that first Commandment.
There are other parts of the code that pinch, too. Accumulation of personal wealth, for example. Feeding the hungry; you no longer need rely on loaves and fishes, grocery stores and restaurants work pretty well. As do contributing to charities, food banks, and soup kitchens for the homeless.
If you can look at a homeless man and not love your brother as yourself, you’re not a Christian.
Get the idea?
I’ve never met a real Christian. Mother Teresa came pretty close. But she’s gone now. We may never see her like again.
Public claims and posting articles such as the one in the beginning only underscore the reality: if you speak but don’t act, you’re living a lie.
I don’t depend on exhortations from preachers in expensive suits who drive expensive cars to tell me how to act. Whether atheist or religious, that ‘golden rule’ is still a pretty good guide to behavior. I suspect that I, an atheist, come closer to living that rule than most of the self-identified ‘Christians’.