seems to me you should be worried about yourself....
James 2:18
But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
talk about hell all you want but show me how you are set apart from everyone else to impress me. (i don't mean you but you in a general sense).
thus far from what i can tell some if not most people who happen to be christian try to control others by imposing their religious beliefs on those that do not adhere to the same religious belief...
so i don't see any difference between an insecure believer and an insecure person...so much for the peace of the lord...if people put their money where their mouths was, i wouldn't have any thing to complain about.
Listen, I agree with you 100% about what I underlined and James is my favorite book of the Bible because it is so in your face and honest.
I sympathize with that, seriously. The reason I walked away from my faith for almost 5 years was for multiple reasons, but what you described was a BIG part of that pie.
Unfortunately the whole thing isn't about how you and 6 billion other people act and God, it's about you and God. I understand that 'Christians' doing terrible things and abusing their beliefs and whatnot is off-putting, it burns my cookies a lot too. But my belief isn't based upon what Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachman do or say - it's about what God said through the Bible and did in the person of Christ.
You can't let good or bad people influence your opinion of a belief system or whatever else. If the people at McDonalds were mean but you LOVED Big Macs, would you never eat a Big Mac again because they were mean? I don't know. Maybe that's a bad example.
You have to base your decision upon what the Bible says and what the evidence is - what if those people you talk about call themselves Christians but don't follow what the Bible says? Are they a good example to look at? No. Am I a good example to look at, as a Christian? I will be the first to say no. The ONLY Christian we should look to for comparison/example is Christ. The rest of us are imperfect dolts that screw up a lot. That's why we are called to be rooted in Christ and to be like Christ.
Think of it this way - if you want an example of a well made classic film, do you watch Citizen Kane or do you watch Garfield the movie? (please say Citizen Kane...) In other words, if you want to REALLY know what something is like, you look to the best example of it. Christ is the best example and the only one you should look at.
I hope that you've read James and didn't just google search that verse. Like I said, it's my favorite and we could talk A LOT about it if you want.
Just please don't base your opinion of Christianity off us Christians that screw up and sin - we are human - we will let you down. Look to Christ because he won't let you down.
**EDIT** let me throw this in there - according to that verse, if a man claims to be a Christian and he hordes all his money, never donates $$ or time or attention to anyone in need (the poor, the hungry, widows, etc), doesn't love the people around him, is always grumpy, hates gays and muslims and constantly judges those outside the church and looks down on them - well, is he REALLY a Christian?
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, smells like a duck and acts like a duck, can it REALLY be a zebra?
No person can answer that for that individual - only the Bible can. Only God can judge them (as well as a fellow believer, because they submit to the same authority, but that's a different topic - 1 Corinthians 4 I think). If he's doing what a Christ follower is commanded to do - you know love God and others, donate, give, reach out, listen, share, be kind and stuff - he's probably a Christian. If he's doing all the wrong things and does nothing Christ commanded him to do - is he REALLY a Christ follower, or is he just someone that attached a label to himself? Matthew 7:21-23 is a sober reminder and echoes what James says.
