Maybe You'd Better Recheck That Definition Of What 'Christian' Means

A furor has broken out over the current Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which differs from the federal law enacted in 1993, in that it can allow businesses to discriminate against gay people.

Conservatives say the law would prevent the government from forcing businesses to do things against their deeply held religious beliefs, such as baking a cake or providing flowers for a same-sex marriage. Opponents say the law will provide an avenue to legalize discrimination.

I'm not sure of many things, but I do know this:

If you are going to deny service to any people because of your religious convictions, you'd better close your doors right now.

Because if you don't want to interact with "sinners," you are going to be mighty lonely.

You will no longer be working with the liars, thieves and gossipers. The adulterers. The guy who's stealing office supplies. The woman who cheated on her income tax. The teen boy surfing porn. The kid who disobeyed her parents. The young couple living together. The greedy, the lazy, the cursing father, the gambling mother, the braggart, the glutton, the flirt. The gay human beings -- those modern-day lepers you don't want to touch. The whole, huge, miserable mass of humanity who sin on a daily basis -- you can't serve them any more, because you are more religious than they are, remember?

There's only ONE person you can do business with, and he's dead.

By the way, he died for all those sinners mentioned above. Oh, and for those who don't "love, as I have loved you."  Climb down off your holier-than-thou perch you've got on your soapbox for a minute and think about THAT. He became human, and lived amongst, laughed and cried with, and SERVED those very people you deem unworthy to make a flower arrangement for.

He died to bring us mercy. He died to forgive those sins. We're supposed to be like him, you know -- that's what being a "Christian" means. To embrace the entire, messy, sinful world with love and compassion. No exceptions. Ready to lay down our life for our brother, not our icing bag. To love our neighbor as ourselves, not on the condition of who it is he or she happens to love.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love."

Love. Love is greater than faith. 

That's in the Bible. Look it up.

I'm Baaaaack! I hope.

So much has gone on and life has gotten in the way of my writing. Many, many changes have taken place in the past year and a half. My elderly mother has moved in with us and now I am a full-time caregiver,  I ran my first marathon, we bought a house in the NC mountains and I have been renovating it, we lost 2 of our dogs to old age, and we got a new dog. We've also added a new member to our family, a grandson! Life has been -- well, life. Ups and downs, good things and sad...It's run the gamut and I've had a hard time documenting it.

So it's my hope that I will start anew here, and take up my journey where I left off. I am counting on you to stick with me and go along for the ride again. Will you join me? I sure hope so!