Where is the Love?

I was going to write about the Jesus Culture concert. But that's going to have to wait. I just had to write about this. And I'd just want to preface this by saying I hope this blog post doesn't offend anyone somehow.

I respect all other people for their religions and beliefs and wish that we'd all be unified and at peace instead of hating each other. I'm also going to write about my beliefs about God, so please don't be offended about that as well.

So as you UCLA students all know, there have been people holding signs at BruinWalk in the past couple of days. But these signs are filled with just insane things...

Hateful things

Hateful things that are condemning other people for who they are and what they advocate. Some examples have been condemning homosexuality or other religions. I'm pretty sure there are a lot more people like this across America. And because of these signs, they've been attracting huge crowds of people. But not only the signs but the people holding them that have been just spewing nonsense. For example, some woman was saying something like people would die/go to hell if they'd watch pornography (I guess that means nearly everyone is going to hell then).

Yesterday, there was a huge crowd on BruinWalk. And yes indeed, it was another sign holder. But this time it accused Muslims, particularly the prophet Muhammad, calling him things that I feel I shouldn't even write here. And the guy holding it was getting into some heated arguments with students. He was condemning Muslims and saying they'd all go to hell. Cops were standing by. It was just crazy. 

The thing that makes my blood just boil is that people like this guy are misrepresenting who God really is. The man was wearing a shirt that had Jesus Christ's name on it, yet he is making that name seem like a name filled with hate when it isn't. People will have negative views towards not only that sign holder but Christianity as a whole. Some will go on to assume that Christians are like those sign holders.

And I'm here to say we're not. Not even close.

So I was pretty pissed and felt I had to talk to this guy. I knew I wasn't going to get any message across, and I was right. It was like talking to a brick wall. A titanium wall.

From the beginning he proclaimed he was a saint and was made perfect because he believes and follows God. So...by that logic, all Christians are perfect and saints which is not true. Nobody's perfect except God. Romans 3:10 says: There is no one righteous, not even one. and verse 23 says: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So he just lost all credibility right from the start.

I told him what he thought about the need for us to love others as Jesus told us to.
He said, "This is showing God's love by rebuking others".
I replied, "How is this loving others? This isn't showing that God loves everyone OR 'loving your neighbor as yourself'"
He argued, "Show me a passage where Jesus/God said 'I love people.'"

I said, "Uh, John 3:16???...for God so loved the world???"
He fired back, "Jesus said that to Nicodemus, show me a passage where Jesus said He loves people in public." Wait...what difference does that make whether he said it in public or not?!

At the time, I had no scripture ammo to fire back. I could have mentioned John 13:34: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." But I know he'd have argued back "Jesus said that to his disciples, not in public."

So I then say, "Well, show me a scripture that God hates people." He gives me a Bible and says, "Look up Psalms 5:5." He gives me a KJV bible, which writes: "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity." I read it, and he goes, "See?! See?! thou HATEST all workers of iniquity! God hates all workers of iniquity! In the NIV, that translates to: "You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies." I mentioned while this may be right, what about all the verses that say about love? Then he goes back to the: "Show me a passage where..." You get the idea. The argument was repeating itself. (Then again, that scripture he quoted was written as David's prayer to God so...whatever, he wasn't gonna listen anyway). 

Then other students chimed in. And they were rightfully pissed. To the non-Christians, he said pretty much "You're going to hell!" I told him I disagreed with him saying that. Then he told me to tell a Muslim standing next to me he is going to hell to his face. I obviously couldn't. He then calls me a "spineless little twerp with no backbone." Woah. Ok buddy. His face just looked so punch-able at that moment (sorry but it's true). He said we were all living in a fantasy...But pretty much everyone was disagreeing with him, even Christians. I guess the one that's living in a fantasy is him.

So yeah, these are just examples of this almost-pointless argument I had with this ignorant, pig-headed, immature man that wasn't even willing to listen to people. It was like Skip Bayless times a thousand. I'm pretty sure the man has said a lot of more dumb things if you asked other people.

I heard a student yell, "We don't want to be Christians!" Others were making fun of Christianity. I bet some were thinking "After seeing this, I don't even want to entertain the idea of being a Christian." There was even a guy dressed up as Jesus and smoking pot nearby. And to all this, I just shake my head.

What just makes me so angry, that makes me just clench my fists in anger, is that there is nothing we can do to change the opinions of people like him. And because of free speech, there's nothing we can do to stop them. I mean, they are right in some ways, but they're also very wrong too. Especially in the way they are taking something that's supposed to be good and spinning it in such a negative way.

 To me, the God I know is loving. Yes...I believe that if you don't believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and that he died on the cross, you won't go to heaven. BUT, even though you may not believe now, you always have the chance to go to heaven if you believe. This is different from saying to someone: "You're going to hell for not believing (or what you believe in)" which gives the impression that they can't be saved and that there is no option besides hell. The statement is also filled with just anger, condemnation, and vitriol. No one is going to take that well.

Also, I know this might be wrong to say, but do we really know as humans whether or not people go to hell? Only God knows that and has judgment over that. We don't.

When the guy said to the girl "You're going to hell!" He did nothing more. I thought we were supposed to "Make disciples of all nations" but after condemning them, he just let them go in a state of frustration and anger. How is this an effective way of spreading the gospel in any way??? He said, "I'm doing the job you Christians aren't doing." Well, you're making our "job" as Christians in making God's name known a lot harder. Because of people like you, some people are now completely turned off by Christianity. It makes me wonder how many people have been saved through their methods of rebuking and hate. 

I firmly believe in Numbers 14:18, which says: "The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion..." Sure, there may be scriptures about God's hate of certain individuals, but I think God is being more just than hating on people. I think God hates the sin vastly more than the individual. When God punishes people for their sins, it's not only because of his justice, but I think he punishes to correct people out of his ultimate love for them. 

Overall, I believe God's love is unconditional... no matter what you do, whether it's have sex constantly, do drugs, are homosexual, or murder people...no matter what you believe whether it's Buddhism, Islam, Atheism, WHATEVER IT IS....God loves you. We all make mistakes and aren't perfect. Even Christians have a checkered past. I've known pastors who've made mistakes in their life, but what their stories have revealed about God, again, I repeat...

God loves you no matter who you are or what you do

If God created and intended us humans to condemn and hate others for their actions...the world would be a scary place. And I don't think God wants that at all.

To my brothers and sisters out there, rather than talking to the people with the signs (seriously it's a waste of your time and will only give you stress), talk to the people watching. They are willing to talk. Who knows, there might be people who are taking their claims seriously or others who generalize and say the sign holders are speaking for Christians (which I really hope there aren't). 

So rather than hating on people and focusing on condemning others, those ignorant individuals should be showing more of what God's really all about which is his love. And NOT spewing out nonsense and bitterness which clouds people's perspectives on Christianity. To me, the whole thing is just sad. But I think God's using this tragedy as motivation for us to take a stand somehow. This certainly got me all riled up to write this post. But it's because of things like this there's hate and violence between people. I mean, the potential for that was why cops were there. Not to be cliche, but can't we all just get along?

Sorry for this post being very long, but I thank you for taking the time to read this. I know what I wrote was on such a controversial topic, but I hope I didn't write anything wrong or something that offended anyone. Also, my knowledge about God isn't a lot; I'm still learning. So feel free to chime in about anything I have said. And if you can, I hope you can teach me and others what to say to these sign holders and to the bystanders affected by these people. Hope this message gets across to people. God bless you all.

And to discriminate only generates hate 
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love y'all

~Black Eyed Peas - "Where is the Love?"