Thread by @sueannshiah

Sometimes I hear Christians speak about asian counties with this condescension masked as sadness, “God help these people in a country full of idols see that you are the true God” and it makes me want to throw up inside

Cause it assumes that countries in the West arent also full of idols? When I go to japan, taiwan, Myanmar, etc and see lots of Buddhas or other temples my heart doesn’t break specially for them and feel like wow these people are SO DECEIVED look at all this as evidence !

Because when I walk around Europe and America I constantly feel like I’m staring at idols that are worse because they take the Lords name in vain.

Other non- western countries are not “more broken” than you bevause you come from a “Christian” country.

We are not more sinful or more depraved or less deceived. imagine giving that same sermon/missions fundraising speech to support someone like me, currently studying in Taiwan so that I can better go back to America to be a missionary to those Godless depraved idolatrous Americans

But like go to almost any seminary in America and you’ll find someone from a non white country talking about how they’re there to learn so they can take the truth and gospel back to their home country (that’s full of idolatry)

or some White person w a heart for “insert non western/white country” who plans on going to that poor depraved place to be a missionary

Had an interesting convo at bible study tonight- we were talking about what it meant to be a church that could “be like water” and travel in the wilderness the way the tabernacle did in exodus (scripture for the evening)

What does it mean to be there for the people, how must our implements be made smaller and more mobile (the arc of the covenant had rings and polls because it had to be moved regularly and couldn’t be too big)

We talked about what it really meant to preach the gospel— sharing God’s love. And how our faith isn’t visible to others as what we do in the church walls but outside of it- so let them know Gods love.

I shared that I have found a lot of “sharing the gospel” and “accepting Jesus into your heart” to be very transactional. We treat it like we’re signing a contract and then with the deal comes these clauses that we now bind ourselves to instead of a relationship with God, w Jesus

A relationship that grows, that ebbs and flows, like water, not a contractual obligation that we can hold one another to.

My old music business professor used to say that what matters more than a good contract is how trustworthy the people who are signing it

Because at the end of the day holding someone to the contents of the contract is more about their character than the quality of the contract. And that was really good advice. And it probably explains why so many of our “saved” “fall away”

It also explains why evangelical churches are trying to push you to pray a prayer and ask questions later like they an internet service presenting you w the terms & conditions they never expect you to read

None of it is about trust, faith, or relationship between you and God or your family of God. It’s about extracting as much from you as possible and tossing you aside because they were able to “trap” you through a contractual obligation to the terms and conditions.

That ain’t faith. And thats why so many people “lost their faith” because it wasn’t ever supposed to be faith to begin with but a colonial capitalist model of exploitation.