You Can Taste The Bright Lights

But you won’t get them for free…

Let me just start this off by saying that I don’t really have any answers, only questions.

So, yesterday I was talking to Alex about the great game Guitar Hero and how we were both trying to beat those darned galloping triplets in Knights of Cydonia! Later on she mentioned playing the game with one of her other friends, who said that her fiancé’s dad would never approve of this game because of the rock music. He’s a fundamentalist Christian and I’ve forgotten what denomination he’s of, but I suppose that’s rather inconsequential because I think this can apply to all of us.

I’m familiar with that bible verse, “Let him turn away from evil, and do good; Let him seek peace, and pursue it.” In other words, don’t be dabbling in things that can corrupt you. Yet, I really wonder if there comes a point if fleeing from all evil can put an insurmountable rift between a “saint” and everyone else.

I feel like a lot of non-religious people have this notion that Christianity and other religions are little more than a rigid set of prohibitive rules, denying us of what they consider to be some of life’s few joys. When you get these extremely devout Christians who do indeed flee from every conceivable evil, I can’t help but feel like it creates something of a barrier. We have hope that our unsaved friends will one day find God, but I fear that when Christians send the message, “I disapprove of virtually everything you enjoy doing”, it makes people think that even though they might like to become a Christian, they could never do it because it would require too many sacrificial lifestyle changes. This is completely backwards! Jesus came to save the lost. It’s so wrong to think that there should be pre-requisites, so to speak, to being saved. I mean, there is, in a sense, in that you must surrender your life to God. But it’s not as though there is a checklist like, “before I become a Christian, I must: Stop binge drinking. Stop swearing. Burn my rock music. Then, I will be fit to be a Christian.” It’s just not like that. Those are outward changes and simply forsaking those will not inherit salvation. It’s the inward transformation that’s key, it’s the inward transformation that will make the outward changes not only possible but desirable.

In grade seven I had a friend who once told me that if she ever stepped into a church that she thought she’d spontaneously combust because she considered herself the opposite of any religious person. And that just made me sad, because I doubt she’s the only one with that sentiment.

In the case of the intensely righteous, I can’t help but think of examples in my own family. A few years back, one of my second-cousins got pregnant out of wedlock. When her grandfather (my grandpa’s brother) found out, he (for the lack of a better term) flipped out hardcore. Not only did he disinherit their whole family but has refused to have any contact with them since. After all, Christians aren’t supposed to get pregnant out of wedlock. Does he think that he’s fleeing from evil for shunning her completely, I wonder? In my opinion, he’s not gaining divine favour, only cheating himself out of a relationship with his beautiful great-granddaughter and her family.

And then, we have the opposite: fathers like my own dad and my uncle Derek. Men who uphold Christian morals in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you have to be “good enough” for God, but makes you want to be good enough for God. And that’s what it’s all about, I think. Acceptance. It’s so rare in this world. It’s so rare that I wish we could change our behavior to show the world that acceptance is the core and ideal face of Christianity.