The full title should probably be “My Thoughts for the last week or so…,” as writing all my thoughts would probably fill up this server. Anyway It all started a few days before Halloween in the morning. It was before class, and we were being given a devotion by our teacher. This happens everyday and is usually pretty boring. As a result most of the kids are bored and don’t pay attention. I am different, I find it hard to not pay attention when someone is talking. That particular day My bible teacher was speaking and he talked about how he went trick-or-treating as a child.
He had excellent memories of Halloween as a child, but now he was supposed to believe that Halloween was evil and bad. He told us that he struggled with that idea every year. “There are two sides to it” he said, There are people who give and people who receive. After expounding on this point he challenged us to give and be generous this Halloween. I got this odd image in my head of me running down the road with a massive trash bag of candy, and then I dumped all 30+ lbs. on some little kid.
Anyway I came to the sudden realization that Halloween probably wasn’t evil anymore. It may have been founded in satanism but its nothing more than a commercialized occasion anymore. Much Like Christmas used to be centered around Christ, but now is centered around a fat man* who give material possessions to bratty children**. Yeah, so the point is that Halloween is definitely not what it used to be, and even if it was there is no reason not to be generous just because it is October 31st. More on that in a minute.
The next day I was breaking my self-pact and watching random videos on YouTube, that when I happened upon a video of a gay man who was letting out his emotions after a rough day which apparently was a few days after his partner died. I felt sorrow for him, but my ‘Christian’ side was telling me that I shouldn’t feel any sympathy for that man. If you agreed with that you might want to leave before you hear my ‘truth.’ Just because that man is gay doesn’t mean he is any less of a human, he doesn’t need Christ any less than an ‘average’ atheist. Christians tend to hate the people behind the sin more than the sin itself, and I think thats really wrong. Just because someone has broken the law doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be associated with them. Just because someone is gay doesn’t mean they are a scourge to society that is meant to be hated. As Christians we need to leave all of our prejudices behind and become followers of Christ, doing whatever we can, whenever we can for the positive of the perception of him that others have. It is not a light burden, It is definitely not easy, but it is necessary***.
*He is most likely fat because of his extreme intake of junk food, of course.
**Its usually something thats really expensive and rare that is worthless 20 days later.
***this is where whalen asked me to do something so I couldn’t finish my post :( later, Ill finish it later.
Wow, that was heavy.
I agree- as Christians, God calls us to hate the sin, love the sinner. Therefore, we should make sure to love even those whom we think we shouldn’t (i don’t mean /love/, but care for) - but we should be zealous about getting their problems straightened out (no pun intended).
Halloween was a devilish holiday, but that meaning has been long lost- now is is just as Christmas is (and shouldn’t be)- caring only about the gift- not the reason for it.