Besides the very notion that anyone can just declare their acceptance of Christ as their personal savior as their ticket to heaven, the other important misconception of born-again Christianity is that works are not paramount to this acceptance.  In other words, for many just simply saying that Christ is the way opens the doors to heaven while their works on Earth mean absolutley nothing.  What this does is divest these Chrisitans from any responsibility toward their fellow man and the Earth.  A few days ago, on The O’Reilly Factor, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the authors of the Left Behind series of books, proclaimed that there are very nice and kind people that will remain after the rapture because they haven’t accepted Christ as their savior.  They also proclaimed that of those that are raptured, many may even be less kind than those who remain to be sucked into hell.  This boggles the mind.  What this does for these Christians is allow them to do whatever they like to their fellow man.  This allows them to defile the Earth on which we live because there will be no punishment for their actions as long as they are saved.  To me, being a Christian means living now.  It means working for peace, justice, and love while we all live on this Earth, not biding our time until the “end” comes.

This disregard for the present is why the following article makes sense.  Because some Christians claim to be saved, it does not necessarily mean that they act Christ like.  Actually, it is quite to the contrary.  Not being a fan of Evangelical Christianity, this article surprised me with its very open and analytical view of the single most destructive form of Christianity we will experience in our life time.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

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