Caring Too Much

 

What Do You Do When You Care Too Much?

What do you do when enough is enough?

The time has come to choose the good, the human, the humane.

I can no longer identify with perversion, corruption, deception.

The Christians I knew when I was young,

the leaders, the role models,

used to care about all people

without a derogatory word to say.

It was called unconditional love, the mark of a Christian.

Has Christianity changed? Or just the powers of persuasion and politics? 

So what do I do when I care too much about people to fit in anymore?

What do I do since I care too much

as I become more and more

of an outcast and misfit???

I care too much about people to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the poor to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the disabled to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the “least of these” to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the alien to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the stranger to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about all people to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about inclusion to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about acceptance to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about decency to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about dignity to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about respect to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about honor to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about integrity to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about truth to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about facts to be a believer anymore.

I cannot in good conscience and decency identify myself with the hypocrisy of such fake and empty systems of belief that focus more on exclusion than inclusion, more on being right that being righteous, more on judging others than on being kind.

No more Hypocrisy.

No more Meanness.

No more Cruelty.

No more Hate

No more Lies

No more Fear

No more Name-calling 

No more Labeling

No more Judging

No more Stereotyping 

No more Bullying

No more Violence

From what I see, Christians can’t bring themselves to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation

Beauty in nature

Beauty in people, all people

Beauty in diversity 

Beauty in difference

Beauty of all races (color of skin), all ethnicities, all immigrants,, all classes (rich and poor), ages (young and old), 

Beauty of all political beliefs, religious beliefs, lack of belief, lifestyle diversity.

I can no longer tolerate the toxic atmosphere that modern American Christianity constantly produces; spewing stereotypes and deception, diminishing and degrading fellow human beings.

Leaving me feeling like ... "I CAN'T BREATHE!"

I can no longer tolerate the mean, meaningless, thoughtless labeling and name-calling.

I’m not a liberal. What does that even mean?

I’m not a leftist. What does that even mean?

I’m not a left extremist. What does that even mean?

I am no one’s label, except for my own.

I’m a human being that cares about all people.

This is what I know for sure.

I am never the labels and stereotypes you decide that I am.

I am only the names and labels that I say that I am.

Just ask. You do not have the right to define me.

I understand the compulsion to be better than others, 

to put others down in order to build oneself up.

I understand the constant striving to be right.

But with those overbearing drives come

The compulsion to make others wrong

And the constant striving to be right.

All the time!

I know what this is like.

This was me for 50 years. 

Those chains have been broken.

I am free to be me and to treat others the way 

they want to be treated.

Instead of the way 

I decide by judging and labeling them.

What happened to love?

Love no matter what

Love no matter who

Love no matter if they are the enemy

Love no matter if they are different.

Honor and respect each and every person.

All life is precious!

I do not use the descriptions of “fake” and “hypocrisy” lightly. 

I know it is me that has lost my empty religion.

But it is the Christians I see that have lost their faith and love:

Without faith and love, religion is empty.

James 2:15-17 Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food and one of you tells them, “Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.” If you do not provide for their bodily needs, what good does it do? In the same way, faith by itself, if it does not prove itself with actions, is dead.

James 2:26  A body that doesn’t breathe is dead. In the same way faith that does nothing is dead.

1 John 3:17-18 Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.

Matthew 25

41 ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The Greatest Commandment to all Christians is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus was asked, who is my neighbor? His response was the parable of the good Samaritan concluding that our neighbor is anyone anywhere that has a need, again, unconditional.