Having Faith

I used to believe in the holy words of St Paul, "Once one is in Christ, he is a new creation, and that everything passes away, behold everything is new." In my childhood, I used to hold that devout Christians have a moral high ground, and the more devout, the holier these folks are. In others' words, I used to believe that Christians have this 'moral superiority.'

I no longer believe that. Christians are just as guilty, commit just as much in crimes and evil, sometimes more evil than the non-Christians. Having faith in Christ does not make one a better person. Matter of fact, Jesus cannot save a person and then change him. There is little to show forth before and after the personal salvation event. Faith gives one a feeling that he is better, and that is all a feeling. I do however, after giving up this notion of 'new creation' and 'sainthood' of believers, can now live at peace with myself. I was just given a notion of believing in a Christ that has little or no power to change a person. What changes our behaviour, is the sheer will of human spirit. When one is finally realize the depth of despair, or the wrongs one has done to others, or to the environment, perhaps there is a human will to change. That is called human courage. When a rapist turns himself in, when the thief returns the stolen goods, at that moment, one experiences the power of divine human spirit.

I no longer look to faith or to a Jesus that is unable and powerless to help us. I look to human beings who play the courage of God, who in fact are divine when they act in justice or goodness, who are compassionate. Those values are god- attributes, and for me, they are God. But a Jesus that died in Palestine many years ago, of their followers trying to claim that his teachings are more special than others, or that they are the now saints, I don't think so. They are just as acrimonious, and sometimes more rapists that others. I will stay away from such, or the schools that claim such holiness, in their midst, filled with dead, rotting flesh. I will look to the world for faith, love and justice. After all, this world is greater than I, and this human community is more just than a self-deceiving group of Evangelicals whose god died many years ago, rotted in the grave, and did not physically rise nor is it able to help those in need. As one theologian taught, "If I were ever to lose my ways, I would turn to the world. After all, the world is greater than I. I would put my faith in the world, foe me, that is the ultimate."