Christian or WAFR?

  Christian or WAFR?

In the book of Proverbs we read,

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 

bind them around your neck, 

write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man." 

                                                                                                          Proverbs 3:3,4.

Do you Love God? Are you faithful to Him? Does you love extend to those around you, family friend and foe alike?

Sadly when I speak to people of other faiths and lifestyles here in North America they see many of those in the evangelical community as unloving.

They see evangelicals as wanting to take their rights away. Rights given to them by a lawfully elected secular, government.

From my point of view I firmly believe they are not seeing true Christians. They are seeing what someone has called “White American Folk Religion (WAFR)”.

John Walton in a paper entitled, “A Practical View of White American Folk Religion Contrasted with Real Christianity” (October 31, 2020) wrote,

 “WAFR is a race, class, gender-based hierarchy that hijacks the Christian label to sanction abuse, greed, and violence, and then absolve leaders who live lives contrary to the teachings of Jesus and wield power in opposition to God's plan for the world.” John Walton

The attributes of a true Christian are given by the apostle Paul who said,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22,23.

The apostle Paul also defined what Christian love is when he wrote,

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.

So who are you? 

Do you follow the teachings of Jesus? 

Are you showing the fruit of the Spirit and attributes of Love as the apostle Paul laid out?

        Or; 

Are you a WAFR?

Please think about it.

A Bible and a Whisky Bottle

A Bible and a Whisky Bottle

Harper Lee in her book To Kill a Mockingbird said,
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)...”Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird.
A man with a whisky bottle in his hand, may be drunk, he may get into a bar brawl he may even cause bodily injury or death. As tragic as they are they in themselves have no eternal consequences.
On the other hand a man with a Bible in his hand who is incorrectly quoting scriptures can lead people away from God and the Salvation Christ Jesus brings. He can cause people to give up on God period. Things that have eternal consequences.
The apostle Paul warns,
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2Timothy 4:3,4.
As Christians we need to be careful how we use the scriptures. We need to make sure we are using scripture in context. Not cherry picking verses to make them say what we feel they should say.
St. Augustine said,
“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” St Augustine.
As believers in Christ Jesus people will see God through the lense of our life, of our words and deeds. As Francis of Assisi said,

“The deeds you do

 may be the only sermon some persons will hear today” 

                                                                   Francis of Assisi.

A grave responsibility sits on the shoulders of those who claim to be followers of Christ Jesus. Our words and deeds have eternal consequences.
People will make up their minds as to what they believe about Christ from what we say and do.”
Are you correctly handling the scriptures?
Are you correctly presenting the Love of Christ in word and in deed?
Please think about it.