The Obedience of a Christian Man

This's the title of one of the books I had to cover for the Reformation. It was written by William Tyndale, and passed to King Henry VIII to read. Eventually it influenced his decision to split from the Catholics and led to the English Reformation.

I was inspired by a poster I saw yesterday at Dallas Fortworth Airport. It read: Dallas Fortworth Supports Our Troops... Till Every One Of Them Is Home. My immediate reaction was: who asked you to send them there in the first place?

I eventually decided that it must be extremely hard to be a Christian and a Politician, indeed. Politicians are involved with popularity, with worldly affairs: everything Christ tells us not to be. George W Bush may not have felt that he needed to invade Afghanistan and Iraq (although, given his intelligence, he may have really felt that "God was telling him to invade Iraq"), but he had to do it as a show of force to his country and to the world. Maybe the circumstances then forced him to do the most un-Christian thing in the world. Anyway I hope that he stops this "God told me to invade Iraq"bullshit cos that's the most ridiculous thing in the world. If he opened his Bible he'd have realised that God told him to turn the other cheek and to forgive his enemies. Christ, upon being betrayed, forebode Peter's use of arms, reprimanded him, and healed the centurion's ear.

Of course, nobody can reach Christ's standard of morality, but let's admit that we cannot do it, rather than justify our worldliness and human desires by claiming "Christ told me to attack this country". Fight a war? Fine. Don't do it in the name of Christ and destroy His name further.

I believe that a true Christian is called to love God above everything, to love his neighbour as himself, to love his enemies, to turn the other cheek, to give up everything for God. It is not about saying the right things or, dare i say it, even believing the right things. Of course, Christ's divinity should not be denied, but some other things that Christian funddies focus on are just stupid. A person can truly believe that God created via Evolution and still be saved. Even our great friend C.S. Lewis believed in Evolution. Is a person damned just because he reads the Bible differently from you? Are the Catholics damned just because they believe in salvation by faith and works (which, may I remind you, is supported by much of Scripture) ? Don't be stupid.

The Obedience of a Christian Man is to live life in a loving, sacrificial, non-violent way, loving God and giving glory to God. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Theresa are good examples. Even Gandhi, though he was not Christian, embodied much of Christ's values. George W Bush has a long way to go. Ending a senseless war does so much more for Christ than the "teaching of Intelligent Design in schools".