What did I do to cause damage and a negative impact on the Christian witness? How did my personal behavior inflict harm equal to or greater than the high profile news stories affecting the view of Christianity by sinners in today's society? Don't get so uptight just yet. Please realize that every Christian at some time or another has done some 'damage' to the cause of Christianity whether it was a public display, an action at work, road rage, or whatever the action was. I have seen churches use the "Bless God, we're the church and the church is poor" excuse to guilt people into cutting prices cheaper for a church in fear of losing business and being 'cursed'. I have seen people use their Christianity as an excuse to proclaim themselves as 'king's kids' and expect things for free by 'entitlement'. We need to shatter a myth prevalent in the 'us against them' mentality of Christianity where the 'us' (Christians) must always be constantly at war against 'them' (unbelievers) . We have in many cases failed to publicaly repent for the wrongs we have done, the human atrocities done, or the hurt and suffering done while 'championing God's cause'. Instead, we have acted in the form of 'damage control' by expressing sorrow but never repenting for our personal irresponsibility, moral failures, and rotten conniving deeds instead of repentance before God thinking that if we did repent, then God can no longer exist or give us the grace needed to live out our lives and that we have shut the magic trap door that God had secret access to our society through.

We fail to give sinners the credit where they deserve credit. We cry out against racism in our churches but act like a racist to sinners and claim the Bible gave us the right to when sinners do not understand our 'Christinese' language and do not like our subculture world of our own. We make sinners look dumb when they ask the question after seeing a sign on the church yard proclaiming revival with some famous pastor within our denomination of "Who's Reverend So-and-So?". What is the 'official Christian reaction'? It usually goes like this "What do you mean that you do not know who the honorable Reverend So-and-So is? Don't you know that he has saved thousands in the desert famines of Africa, came back to the states, started a church that went from 25 to 1200 in a year, authored the best selling book (on the Christian book chart) "When Fear Turns Into Faith", been a guest host on the "Bless Jesus" program on The Jesus Network (a network the sinners does not watch being repulsed by Christian TV)?" We really believe that the world should know the name of the televangelist more than a TV personality or an athlete. If I was a sinner, I would probably be repelled by that answer also and wonder if this was real Christianity, would I want it.

Below are some occurrences that happen everyday to both Christians and non-Christians, both as perpetrator and victim and more importantly, both as fellow human beings on this planet:

• A restaurant after Sunday service where groups of Christians come in after getting a Dominionist sermon of being 'King's Kids" to take authority and dominion over every thing and therefore think that by default of being a Kings Kid, have a Godly right in the name of Jesus to make a mess of the table, constantly complain of the food being too cold, too hot, not enough fries for the money they paid, being loud and boisterous, and allowing their children to run around the restaurant. When other customers complain about their rudeness and the kids running around almost causing the waitresses to drop the food going to another customer's table and the waitress and management confront the couple, then the Christians get rude and claim that if they leave the restaurant, God will close the restaurant down and force it out of business 'Thus saith the Lord'. Since they are the customer, that means they are in the right and that they are also Kings Kids makes them double right. After all of that, then the Christian group has the gall to ask the waitress if she goes to church. If the waitress says 'yes' then they ask why is she violating the Sabbath and that she needs to leave the apostate church that encourages her to violate the Sabbath and go to their church, the only real church in town. If she says 'no" they try to evangelize her and they will refuse to leave a tip calling it 'not supporting the devil's child'. When the meal is over, the furniture is in a mess, napkins are on the floor, the waitress is tired from being ran around by the Christians compulsive behavior, the Christians will not tip but instead leave a cheezy comic Chick Track with the church's name stamped on the back or worse, those fake dollar bills that are a Gospel track. Then they go to pay for the meal and when asked about the service, tell the hostess that the service was awful, and the manager fearing a loss of business give them a gift certificate. Then they get outside, praise God for their free gift certificate and 'ronda-konda-shonda-bat-so-tay-see" to the parking lot to repeat this next Sunday after Church.
• On Sunday morning drive, you will see two things. First, the 80 year old Granny with the twenty year old Dodge K-car driving 25 in a 45 MPH zone all the way to church with the 'honk if you love Jesus' bumper sticker on the back She claims to have no money to get a new car, new glasses, etc. but somehow sends the majority of her Social Security check after paying her local church tithes to Oral Roberts. Somebody honks the horn for Granny to move faster up to 45 MPH, but Granny thinks the horn honkers love Jesus, so she waves back and smiles. Second, you see the young homeschool mom in the minivan (or her feminized dad husband in the ten year old Honda Accord) with the home school bus, vote Republican, stop abortion, In case of rapture this car will be unmanned, WWJD bumper stickers on the back and the soccer ball sticker on the gas tank lid go 70 in a 45 MPH zone, merge three lanes with no turn signal, and run a couple of red lights almost causing accidents listening to praise music while the five kids are fighting in the back unbuckled from their seatbelts just to get to church on time because they overslept the alarm clock by one hour due to going to the 'renewal' service that lasted till 3 AM the night before. When slower traffic appears, it is caused by 'the great Satan blocking my blessing' when it sometimes is due to the 80 year old Granny with the twenty year old Dodge K-car that was only driven to church on Sunday driving 25 in a 45 MPH zone all the way to the same church the minivan homeschool mom attends.
• In a grocery store, the mom, feminized dad, and the six homeschooled kids get out of the minivan and they walk slowly throughout the store with their 't-shirt theology' propagated on their t-shirts. They do not walk down one side of the aisle. They take up the whole aisle, walk slow and side by side, stop at a moment's instant to look at food they complain is overpriced and never pick up, and when you politely say 'excuse me' to where you can get by them they look at you as if you have a problem with them as the mom murmurs something garbled out of her mouth, the feminized dad in his female voice says "hi, God bless you" and the kids do not move out of the way (and the parents do not instruct the kids to move out of the way either) creating a obstacle course for you to push your buggy through. They complain that they are so poor being single income, but do not buy much food but will spend hundreds of dollars on WWJD bracelets, Prayer of Jabez toenail polish, Women of Faith diaries, going to Super Preacher Conventions, etc. at the Christian bookstore while getting ripped off by the "Washed In The Blood Auto Repair Shop" with the fish on the sign who overcharged them for car repairs they did not need and sending in $100.00 to the faith preacher in hope of receiving the hundredfold blessing of $10,000 and the wealth of the wicked laid up for the just.

How do I quote this stuff? I have seen and been a victim of many of this stuff firsthand. Also, I am ashamed to admit that I did similar acts in the name of God and Christian thinking I would change the world to see my perception of Jesus instead of what the Bible really teaches. Brennan Manning explained this so well on page 136 (paperback edition) of his bestseller 'The Ragamuffin Gospel' when he stated "The way we are with each other is the truest test of our faith. How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be an better indication of my reverence for life than the anti-abortion sticker on the bumper of my car " I have striked up a conversation with non-Christians at a restaurant, a baseball game, a music concert, etc. and I listened to their stories. Many so called 'sinners' are actually raised in a Christian home where the hyprocricy of their parents Christianity resonated more than the Christianity of Jesus or ex-Christians who got burned by a church while the church who feels like they are beyond reproach telling them to 'get over it', 'you must lack faith', 'you have secret sin', or 'you did not put enough money in the plate'. They went to church, saw the pastor get rich of God's blessing while the poor starved and the homeless remained homeless. They saw the staff have their needs met via another love offering while their lights were turned off because the 'faith check' their pastor told them to write legitimately bounced. However, when they got rich through hard work, they got told that they 'sold out the Gospel" to get their money.

Many were told that the Republicans were God's party that would save America from it's sin and moral decay and when the Republicans got in, saw their salaries cut, their insurance benefits taken away, some lost jobs that they have not found new ones to replace, while the rich owners got richer via a pay raise and the church took his money and shouted 'Hallelujah' and the workers are about to lose their homes, the unemployment rate is at it's highest in nine years (and this stat does not count the people who are removed from the stat because they have exhausted all unemployment benefits) all to hear the church yell out 'touch not mine anointed' and this is for God's glory while abortion is still legal and there is no prayer in the public schools. When someone brings these facts out while seeing their Senators do nothing to stimulate the economy to create jobs while passing legislation to give vouchers to home school parents, they are censored in their churches and also in Christian forums. They got tired of being told every new movie and new modern technology was 'sin' and hearing 'Christian movie reviewers' harping on the 12.456384634895 references to profanity along with the 8.3 with a bar over the three references to violence. They saw the charismatic pep rallies that proclaimed God's power resemble a three-ring trinity circus while their car got repossessed, their neighborhoods were invaded by the crack dealers, and the pleas for more money to more mis-manage. They saw the church turn a deaf hear to the needy while taking it's money to build a bigger sanctuary, a gymnasium, etc.

Please Click here for part four of this article.