Bad Day Yesterday

October 25, 2024

“Since all Christians are human, you will sometimes have even “good” Christians stumbling or tripping up or having bad days.” — Brian Tubbs,How Can You Separate the ‘Bad’ Christians From the ‘Good’ Ones

Some of the Christian writers I follow on Medium have told of bad experiences, getting pummeled by irate respondents to their essays. Some people have written negatively about my essays in an intellectual form, a difference of opinions. Some actually turned into discussions — you may remember what those were like — an interchange of ideas, clarifications of what both were meaning to say, and thinking.

Today they are becoming few and far between. What has been becoming much less few and far between are the antagonistic, hate filled rants — people who don’t give other points of view a fair hearing.

Yesterday, I finally got one.

I responded to a fellow’s essay on people celebrating pagan rites- for instance Halloween.

My take on their religious foundations was that in America they aren’t practiced in any religious ways, generally speaking.

The epithets, spiteful insults, false accusations in his rant filled response were so offensive to me (a reason, not an excuse) I turned to a similar childish rant of my own simply using the age old childrens; tactic: “whatever you throw at me bounces off me and sticks to you!”

His bio says he’s 40 while mine says I am 74, but both of our exchanges showed little to no maturity, intellect, rationality, adult conversation or any positive results. (Agreeing to disagree could have been a positive result in my way of thinking.)

We continued this childish back and forth, in similar fashion, several times, until I realized how ignorant and immature I was being.

My decision on how to resolve the whole situation was probably not really the best or what I really wanted.

Nevertheless, I simply “blocked” him from my Medium account.

Still and all, Halloween, for example, might have had origins as a dark, pagan religious practice, but today, in the Western world, it has become a family fun time.

Another holiday, Christmas, may have lost its origins about the meanings of Jesus’ birth (which I have extensively complained about in essay form about its conversion into abject materialism), but again generally speaking, it is a family celebration with special food and fun and exchange of presents as tokens of love.

I may hate the loss of its original metaphysical and transcendent meaning, but as it is, people aren’t aware of the conflict of interest and don’t approach it that way.

Oh, there are plenty of other holidays that could be discussed whose dark and pagan origins have come and gone, and which, unfortunately, like Easter, neglect the consequences surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus — but now they are only all about family get-togethers, Easter egg hunts, special treats and so on…

There’s also a purely physical fitness routine which is quite popular today and which most people are not practicing some dark pagan religion. People utilize yoga for physical self improvement and mental acuity and are not representing some dark pagan ritual.

All of the efforts to accuse and condemn people for participating in these kinds of things — innocently by the way — is only people’s judgment of other people. God’s judging is different, This is what the Bible says:

“…Whoever believes in {Jesus} is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” — John 3:18, Berean STandard Bible.

Simple enough.

If people were actually practicing these things as religion or religious rites, instead of opportunities for family times together, then the ensuing verse would surely apply (3:19):
“And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.”

I believe it is quite a stretch to condemn family fun times as “evil.”