As I near my 49th birthday, I feel I'm becoming more and more myself. Whatever that means.
An example: I've been on active sharing on youtube for about two months now and let me tell you it's the most public conscientious activity I have ever done.
"Really?" you ask.
"Yes, really," I answer.
The trouble is I am what many Christians would consider a "carnal" Christian. Granted, I don't think I'm that carnal. At least I'm not carnal in the way St Paul meant it. When St Paul described carnal Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:3-4 and 2 Corinthians 10:4 and Hebrews 9:10 he was talking about the type of Christian who walks by sight, who actually believes in and fights about earthly stuff such as denominations, who actually think following external rules of eating drinking clothing etc are signs of holiness. That's not me. But most Christians will think I'm carnal because I do have that horrendous crush on Cloud from Final Fantasy and I actually listen to music and watch movies no Christian would be caught watching.
So here's the problem. When you do active sharing on youtube, ALL your youtube friends can see what it is you're actually watching. They see what you've rated, what you've favorited, what you've uploaded, etc.
So my youtube friends can see that I've favorited the (somewhat potty-mouthed) Canadian East-Indian comedian Russell Peters. And Chocolate News. And . . . well, everything I've done.
This wouldn't be so bad if I had only one kind of friends. If say, I had only secular non-believing friends, they'd see my proclivities and all the religious stuff I rate and favorite and think I'm odd but they'd probably not think I was being sinful.
But the problem is with my Christian friends. One of them is quite cool and easygoing. But the other...well, I like him but I find myself wondering. Okay, he's white Christian so he didn't vote for Obama. I see him rating and favoriting stuff against Obama, but do I care? No! I'm cool. I let things go. I don't think he's a racist. But what does this guy think when he sees the stuff I've been seeing? Lord knows. He hasn't been talking to me in a while. Hasn't returned my emails. Ahem. So. . .uhm. . .I shouldn't assume anything. He's probably just off on vacation. But my history with Christians make me worry that he saw one too many "Cloud is so sexy" video on my favorite list and dumped me.
Of course I had the choice of taking myself off active sharing. But I did not. Why? Because I am trying to be myself without fear. Yeah, stupid reason and stupid thing to do when you know how easily some Christians judge. But I put myself and my heart on my blog and I'm not going to start hiding aspects of myself. A true witness delivers souls, as the Proverbs say.
This will be a blog for Christians, for people who are part of a minority, for writers. I'm a poet, essayist, devotionalist, reviewer and writer of speculative fiction.Let God be true...and every man a liar.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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2008
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November
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- Thinking of heaven again
- Cartoon banned by the Mormon Church
- Active Sharing on Youtube
- Saying Thank You is Healthy
- Borders 2008 Original Voices Awards
- Henry Cho, Comedian
- Twisted Sister
- PNCA: The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) ...
- National Day of Listening
- Let the Word of God Dwell in You Richly
- CFRB: Leaps of Faith
- Sin is no joke
- Wondering: anti-global warming
- Wind Follower review
- Wondering: Ghosts Versus Demons
- Update
- Eye-raising moments in Bible Study: navels
- Living by Spirit
- Biblical Numbers
- Can forgiven folks still reap the fruits of sin
- Self-Preservation Can two walk together
- PEN's Day of the imprisoned author
- Dexter, Dexter, Dexter
- America's next top preacher on chocolate news
- Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense Post
- Vision
- RIP: Miriam Makeba
- Warriors
- Side-stepping the Law
- So who is it for?
- The foolishness of the worldly-wise
- evangelist, teacher, pastor, apostle
- Building your boat in a storm
- Who am I? Myself
- Magnifying God
- my times are in God's hands
- Illegitimate: How a Loving God Rescued a Son of Po...
- Revelation: what the Bible writers didn't know
- Anointed to preach to the poor
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5 comments:
Wel, consider me carnal too(as if you hadn't known that):)
I think we are bombarded by literary and media culture buzzes and its not so hard for me to separate my culture-hood from Christhood, and usually the two meet up. For instance, Twilight, based off of Stephenie Meyer's novels, is really about true sacrifice and love. The main characters practice abstinence in the books, and the guy, the vampire, is the perfect gentleman. Mothers love their daughters reading these books because now teens everywhere wants that "Edward" in their lives. He is a ficitonal character, but finally, people would like someone who respects them.
Me, being a Christian, (the author is Mormon) believe that it sends a powerful mesage to this generation- through popular literature. No sex before marriage(tough).
I saw the vid of Cloud and I just swooned. He is cute, but I don't feel guilty for it. Some religious folks would say we are Carnal and are wrong, but we follow the laws of the lands and I think one of those laws is: Thou shall have fun and view fantasy men...:)
I so wish Christianity had been allowed to develop in different countries in different ways. Then we wouldn't have this Americanized version of everything.
Ah yes, I have such a jones for Cloud it isn't funny. Macho and wounded combined. -C
Macho-Wounds- Yum!
Be yourself. Anyone not willing to accept you, for you, isn't worth having as a friend/blogger and so on.
Christian or not, we're full of problems. Those Christian who turn their noses up at some faux pas, often are quite guilty of other ones, yet they 'forget that'.
I'm white, christian AND I voted for Obama. Actually, elections past I usually voted 'against' someone, in Obama's case, I voted FOR him.
He seems like a real person - his family seems real.
I hope he does a stellar job so that racist people can't find a reason to attack him.
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