So I go to this Monday night church thing for young adults, and it's alright most the time.
But I'm noticing a trend. All of these people have grown up in the church so thus they think nonbelievers are like foreigners. As if people who didn't grow up in church are nothing but sin. I don't know. I feel like they really need to be humbled. One time they didn't know how people made morally okay decisions if they weren't a follower of Christ. Of course, I am sitting there thinking, "what in the heck," because most my life has been that way. People don't need a god to make good decisions or to be moral. There's a thing called philosophy and while theology and philosophy can overlap, some people do philosophy alone. There is nothing wrong with that. But they honestly were ignorant that people, such as myself, could turn out okay and make good decisions without smashing religion into my skull. I was even more dumbfounded this past Monday when the question was if non-Christians could love if they didn't know God. People were A) saying no and B) were confused at how monks from other religions could be so loving. While I am normally silent during these meeting things, this had crossed the line. Of course people can know love without knowing their Christian god. Geez. Children die every single day in other countries never getting the chance to learn of any worldly philosophies, but I can tell you they probably loved others. I had to bring up the obvious point that if we were supposedly made in God's image, then of course humans know how to love. Like I'm sorry, but I have been doing this for like not even a year, and I can answer that ridiculous question with their own theology. I just...how so very ignorant. It's like they aren't arrogant, but yet they think they're better somehow. They don't, but they do. And it's sort of driving me crazy. They're all white home grown Christians. Perhaps I shouldn't be baffled by the ignorance of their privilege. I won't be staying at this church my whole life, but I do know that if I ever go somewhere else, I will be searching for a diverse group of people of different ethnicity, genders (outside the binary), sexuality, and class. Crap I'd be okay if there were people of different beliefs there! Being with different people makes you less ignorant. It gives new perspectives. They don't understand. I'm afraid to tell anyone there I'm not a girl or a boy in my head because I'll be different and or weird which if it's not in the Bible, then it must be some doing of Satan. I truly think that growing up without questioning and without bending boundaries here and there to see if they're of use, is actually harmful. It's harmful because it's ignorant. You learn things when you make mistakes. I was forced to mature in some harmful ways, but I'm smarter and more understanding because of it. Curiosity is beautiful. It raises questions and doubts. Some people don't like that. Normally that's because they don't know the answers themselves. Because of my non Christian life, I am more empathetic. I get people by knowing I don't know them at all. Knowing you don't know is the most powerful tool. You get to do what you want with it.

Being a Christian and doing good things don't mean a thing if you're just doing them because you think "someone said it's right" or "God wants it" or whatever other crap.
The point is that you are already saved. There's nothing left for you to do. You don't have to do anything to impress anyone or get God to like you or love you or whatever. It doesn't make you more of a Christian. It doesn't one bit.
The point of you being saved is to show you that you're loved. Once you learn what love truly is, it's supposed to open up your heart. When you see suffering around you and you feel their pain with them because you love other people, that's when something kicks in. That's when you want to help people. The point is that YOU want it. YOU want to love others because you just do. You know what love is and you know how people should be treated. You don't have to want it for a god or for praise. You just have to want to love others in order for any of those good deeds to mean a thing. But no matter how much you want it and how much you do it, you still don't get brownie points. You still aren't above anyone. Because when you love other people, you realize you are at the same level as everyone. The same level as murders even.
The point of the Bible isn't to follow a set of insane rules or to be afraid or to do things because "you're supposed to." The point of the Bible is loving and forgiving other people and realizing you are all the same underneath all of your beautiful differences. It's being part of humanity without being better or best and wanting to care for others around you because it's humane.
I do not know everything, but I cannot deal with people who stand on their Bibles to feel as if they are slightly taller than someone else.