Why Most #Christians Are 'an Offense to #Christ & #Christianity': #Lazy #Weak Humanity - @BartEhrman @CARMorg #Antichrists #Christs #ChristChild #Christed #Christkind

I have long claimed to be Christian. I think I'll continue to claim to be Christian; but I am troubled by 'the perceptions that seem to accompany that claim'—'people' (aggressive atheists, mostly) seem to think that 'being a Christian' means one "actually thinks their Rich Daddy sends them Magic Gifts from his Many-Mansion castle in the Sky."

But ... no. I know I can't 'speak for all Christians' here, so know that these are "little more than guesses (at what we're actually thinking)—we all know that these are "just stories," but we also know that we don't learn the stories 'to find out what actually happened'; we learn them in order to "settle things" in our mind.

To briefly state the One Thing you have to 'settle' (decide it's The Truth, set it in stone, and don't even question it again) first ... it's something like "I am a son or daughter of Love Itself ... Love Itself is What I Am!" Learning the story of how Love Itself created the world, witnessed our older siblings' rebellion against Love Itself, and forgives them with the grace that conquers death; that only teaches us 'We are sons & daughters of Love Itself ... Love Itself is What We Are!'

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The word "Christ" is built on words that mean "to Rub, Anoint" (Messiah; Jesus (Yeshua bin Yosef) being considered 'The Anointed One,' "Christian" is taken-to-mean 'of-The Anointed One & -His Anointing).

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But I get offended when I see Christians claiming that God messes with our little problems today—like when people get sick and ask their friends to 'pray to God' for healing-etc. ... essentially 'throwing the precious gift he gave us (these miraculous bodies with their magnificently complicated immune systems) back in his face!'

Atheists see "Christians" do this so-frequently, they believe all Christians are just 'wishing on a star' do-nothings letting our "Sky-Daddy" take care of every little thing.

(We know that's not how it is—we know that 'prayer' is only needed when we're not sure if our plans are "in the will of God" (i.e. we can obviously tell if our plans are going to hurt more people than they help, but not always 'whether they're the right thing to do' ... reminds me of the moral dilemma where you can save the lives of either 'four strangers' or 'one close friend/relative').)

This laziness is promulgated by the popular meme, "Be still and know that I am God"—a meme that implies that 'all that Christians need to do is stay out of the way while Sky-Daddy takes care of everything.' 

But that's Christians repeatedly taking the text out of context! I think it was originally the thinking of King David; and he wasn't thinking that he should 'delay all his international dealings to give God a minute to take care of all the leaders' negotiations instead of them'; I think the idea was 'Be still, remember that God (Elohim) is God, and then do what Elohim's will commands!

But Christians somehow leave out the "and then ..." and they imply that–'knowing that He is God'–they can just go back to 'doing whatever' (I was gonna say "their lives of sin") and totally ignore whatever 'conclusions their minds reach' (a.k.a. 'God's responses to their prayers').

I guess the idea is that–if we don't believe in Our Magic Sky-Daddy (a belief that atheists 'know' to be impossible to hold in a logically-thinking brain)–we are powerless, useless, lazy weaklings.

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The word "Lazy" is built on words that mean "Averse to Labor or Action or Effort"—structured like "|Lay" the same way "|Tipsy" is built on "Tip."

The word "Weak" is built on words that mean "to |Bend, to |Wind" (Lacking Authority or Moral Strength).

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I believe Elohim gave us authority, and–just like Jesus taught His Gospel by telling 'parables' (fictional stories that teach deep wisdom)–we tell His story with the authority of Kinship!

... but let's see what Scholarliness tells us 'Christianity is':