Yeah what I meant was there is a closed-mindedness that I notice almost every time I deal with religious people, Christians especially. During college, when I started talking to people of different religious backgrounds or people who didn’t put much emphasis on religion at all, I grew to respect and appreciate their perspectives on life. I admired their understanding of the world and how it functions because it was so different from the background I came from. In learning about other people’s beliefs, I grew in the development of my own beliefs. Iron sharpening iron and I appreciated being a witness to their lives and listening to their minds because of how they helped strengthen my views. But I feel like often times, Christians have the mindset that if someone disagrees with them, it’s because that person is probably condemned to hell anyways. It’s like they believe it’s their duty to go and convert the entire world through shoving the bible in everyone’s face, and not actually listening to people of different faiths in a respectful manner, holding a genuine conversation and speaking of the interest that drew them to Christianity and the passion that keeps them there. And there’s an underlying belief that whoever doesn’t want to hear the Christian message is just a “lost soul” in denial of accepting their savior. The whole mentality just comes off as arrogant. Instead of the people who claim to be Christians acting in a Christ-like manner, they behave more like the pharisees and high priests that Jesus spoke about when he criticized them for their haughtiness and pretension. It’s extrmely ironic.

There’s so much that bothers me. I could go on for hours. The main thing that bothers me is as Christians, we’re called to be servants. We’re called to serve God and serve others essentially. But so many Christians, or at least the ones I often associate with, have it in their mind that they are placed on some kind of moral pedestal because of their claimed relationship with God and their obedience with the bible. Because they don’t smoke, drink, have sex, or curse, some of these people genuinely believe that they are a “better person” than the man or woman standing next to them. And no, these people would never straight out come and tell you they think they’re better. But you can see it in their smug actions. You can sense it in their condescending behavior. The same actions and behavior that is supposed to be a reflection of God. They’re presenting an inaccurate portrayal while claiming to represent Christ. That’s a problem. I don’t have specific dogmatic practices at the moment, but you get the gist of what I’m getting at.