Good people gone bad

By James ~

A quick intro. My name is James. I have been married for 24 years and loving it. I have three kids. 20,13,10. My oldest is in College. We have been with the Christian Church for more than 6 years.

Image by Burns! via Flickr

I always have gone out of my way for others when they needed help. It is part of my personality. We helped out a neighbor during a hurricane in Florida and the next day the Pastor of the neighbors Church came over. He talked to us about coming to a Bible Study at his home. At first this new faith was intimate and uplifting for us as we were strapped financially, while both working full time jobs, but never getting ahead. We attended this friend's home every Tuesday and it was the highlight of my week. Soon though, our landlord sold the house we were renting and we had to move. There was no where to go.

We moved across the US to Arizona to live with my parents for a month or so. We prayed every night and my mom noticed. She became curious and she started to attend the church we were attending. I did not enjoy the Church atmosphere though. It was like being surrounded by hundreds of people we did not know. And not a lot of folks weren't open to getting to know us either, but we liked the music and kept attending. Anyway when my parents started going to church, my wife and I had an overwhelming feeling that we had accomplished what God had in mind for us. You see...My parents lost two daughters when I was a child and we as a family did not believe that God would allow something like what happened to take place. So we lost our Faith. That was 27 years ago.

Anyway, back to the present.

After bringing my parents back to Jesus we moved to Georgia to help out at a church where our pastor friend was helping out at. We attended for 4 years and at first it was great. But something was not right and we cringed at some of the things that were being said from the pulpit. The messages were getting worse every Sunday. Soon all we heard was Hate for our Government, Hate for our president, Hate for the democrats, Hate for the liberals, Hate, hate, hate. All in the name of a Loving God. I had to leave on several occasions and go out and pray for our church leaders. Every Bible study as a matter of fact. Then the Bible studies became a political rally and far right conservative views were being touted as truth. They were praising people who I have seen on TV bashing and calling names -- very bad behavior. I could have stayed home watching Fox News on TV rather than going to church. I would have gotten the same message! I told my wife that lies and slander were not what one should expect from church so we left. My Pastor tracked me down and met with me. I told him since coming to Christ I had no hate in my heart anymore. He told me that if I was not willing to go to Washington and pull Obama out of the White House and drag him to the hottest corners of Hell so the hounds of Hell could chew on his bones for eternity than I was not a Christian. I thanked him for clarifying to me the reasons why I left his church!

I know I should have told him that he was an Idiot, but I held my tongue and walked away, which I think made him even madder at me.

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