One of the absolute best things you can do for another person is to tell them what's wrong with them. People positively love it when they're told---especially by someone they hardly know---what, who, and how they should be. And the greater the scope of things you criticize in another, the deeper that person will thrill to your input and criticism.
If you want to make someone really happy, for instance, find profound fault with their relationship to God! That's a surefire friend-winner, every time. Because if a person is wrong about God, what's left for them to be right about? Nothing! Why waste your time trying to win someone's affection by criticizing things like their clothes or diet, when you can go for the gold? Criticize their understanding of God! That's how you'll make a ready friend for life.
As fantastic as it is, the reason people so enjoy being informed that their relationship with God (and so just everything else!) is all wrong isn't just because it gives them a chance to correctly reject everything about themselves. It goes even deeper than that. It shows them how much you care about them. The strongest message of love you can send another, after all, is that they're doomed to spend eternity having the living flesh seared off their bones if they don't become just like you. That's why no one has more friends than the person who won't rest until as many possible non-Christians---or wrong sort of Christians---have heard from them personally about what deluded, pitiful, morally bereft sinners they are.
When you take the time to let someone know how absurdly mistaken they are about everything from the nature of morality, to the purpose of man, to what happens after we die, what you're certain to discover right away is how readily they grasp that you do, in fact, understand such things in a much deeper way than they. That's why they're sure to respond so positively to your critique of their character, belief system, and concept of God. When you show other people how positive you are that you're right, they just can't wait to start thinking like you. That's the wonder of passion. It's downright contagious!
There are those who believe that God is working in the life of every person, cultivating, in his own way and time, a relationship with them that he knows is perfect for them and him. Don't you believe it! God is too busy worrying about things like weather and keeping the planets aligned to tend to the soul of every living human. He's God, not ... super God. He depends upon those who are closest to him to do those things that he just doesn't have the time or energy to do himself. And one of those things is teaching others how wrong they are about him. And people---no matter how dense they might be about everything else in life---understand that. When you tell someone what they should believe about God, and why they're wrong for believing whatever immature inanity about God they do, they understand that you're not just speaking about God, but for God. And that's why they're guaranteed to love your message! Sure, everyone yearns to hear directly from God. But few are awarded that privilege! The rest are willing and ready to hear directly from the very next best thing to God: you.
From God; to you; to the confused, deluded, and sin-filled; back up to God again.
That's the glorious circle of life!
Break it at your peril.
****
If you like/hate this post, you might also like/hate my "The Song of the True Believer."
****
John also blogs at JohnShore.com.
Come hang out with John on his Facebook fan page.
Follow John Shore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnshore
But let's assume you're right, that you can't or shouldn't tell someone they're wrong. How would you deal with these situations without confrontation?
You're a Christian sitting in a hotel room in Thailand and a pimp with the police in his pocket and a provocatively dressed 9 year old girl knocks on your door.
You're in north Africa and you discover your non-Christian neighbor is going to circumcise his daughter against her will.
What if you're in north Chicago and the local gang, three of which go to your church out of family obligation, just raped the third teenage girl in a month.
It's too easy to sink back in our recliners and 'leave it to God,' meaning to plug our ears to the world and neglect your responsibility to be Christ in it. God is not limited to people, but woe to the Christian who chooses an easy life over being Christ in the world and confronting it, as Christ did until they killed him for it.
But I also think you and I would agree that just because someone doesn't like being confronted doesn't mean they shouldn't be.
I think you and I would also agree that there is a difference between confronting someone because belittling them swells your ego and because you desperately want the best for them.
We may disagree on whether or not spiritual matters are worth confronting someone over, but that aside, I think these few clarifications will make it clear I wasn't saying unbelievers are completely incapable of cultural critique.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55359455@N00/4835348419/
Priceless.
I don't.
Are you just here to "poke at all the stupids" and pat yourself on the back for being such a wonderful Superior Person?
On the thread about the billboard that said "Don't believe in God?" you said, "I'm fine with the billboard and don't feel "poked in the eye." I think the pastor is being a baby".
You also said, "I'm a loose Christian who's in support of the billboard. I think "my people" need to stop whining and that it's good for people to know they aren't alone."
So, why are you bothered when JFC responds to ... "Don't you believe it!"... by saying "I don't"?
Does, "it's good for people to know they aren't alone" only apply to people reading billboards?
In fact, I didn't say anything about how much.
"Are you just here to "poke at all the stupids" and pat yourself on the back for being such a wonderful Superior Person?"
As far as superiority goes, I get told all the time about how I'm inferior by xians of all stripes. In fact, here's what it says on the United Methodist Church's website - one of the so-called Mainline non-fundy churches: "We believe that all humans need to be in relationship with God in order to be fully human".
He is torn between the requests of the Mormon Brethren to build them larger thrones in the afterlife, versus the request to send the meddlers who put over Prop 8 to eternal hell.
God needs a vacation from the people who want to use him as an excuse to be right or be in charge.
http://wsimpson.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/musings-of-god/
God is a exhibitionist?
The fundamentalists didn't just pull hell out of their collective butt one day up just to tick people off. The writer of the article may not accept that and he may not want to acknowledge that but it is the truth. Christianity is inherently offensive and many people just can't handle that and will reject it solely based on that fact.
"Christianity is inherently offensive and many people just can't handle that and will reject it solely based on that fact."
Actually, we reject it because it's idi0tic. The offensiveness just makes it easier for people to realize how absurd it is in the first place.
Oh what did you say? It's the other way around? I don't believe you!
Homer Simpson
condemning. Thank God that America has the United States Constitution.
By the way, which did you pick: Islam or the sword? I'm leaning towards the sword. But I'm not quite sure what to do with it.
But I know this: I'm not afraid of it. God's got this, doesn't He?
Every blade is good for something. What's gonna be, will become what it would. There's a higher law than the U.S. Constitution.