The Uncommon Christian

Can Christians own and use guns for self defense? “There’s nothing wrong with owning a gun for self-defense.” “You can kill in self-defense.” I have heard both of these statements from a very young age. In my experience priests, pastors, and preachers have all said the same thing. They were and are teaching people that Christ believed use of a weapon against others was okay. Many of us want to believe that, so we don’t question it. We go about our lives thinking that retaliation in the form of self defense has God’s stamp of approval. All it seems to take is one line about Christ telling us to sell our possessions and buy a sword. Luke 22:36 “But now,” he said, if you have a wallet or a pack, take it; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your robe to buy one.” That one verse seems to be more than enough to convince many Christians that owning a gun and using it for self-defense is acceptable. It wasn’t until I began reading the Bible on my own that I noticed how out of contex

Tax time. Everyone’s favorite time of the year, right? I’m sure those of you that will get a substantial, two thousand+ dollar return actually enjoy filing taxes. But for those of us that lost a huge chunk of our paycheck throughout the year and still have to pay, this time of year stinks. Atheist, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim…whatever your faith/religion might be, taxes hit us all the same. We’re all subject to the same tax code. So why do I keep hearing Christians claim that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes? I’ve even heard some Christians talk about lying on tax forms to get out of paying. “Taxes aren’t biblical.” I’ve heard this a time or two. It’s easy to say things aren’t biblical as a personal defense, but how often do people actually check to see if something is biblical? Whether they checked or not, this one should be blatantly obvious. One of the most commonly sited verses from the Bible is “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” That’s not exactly word for word wha

While driving to work I decided to listen to the radio. It’s something I do almost every morning and normally it’s just music or the hosts making random comments about what’s trending/popular today or what they’ve seen on the news. Occasionally you get a personal update on their family life or a little story. Even Christian based radio stations follow the same style. This was a little different, though. Maybe it’s something they do every day and I just didn’t notice because my mind is on family, work, kids, or one of a million different things…but this; it hit me like a brick. The radio station had a recorded segment where a random preacher came on to talk about the Bible and Christianity. He started his segment by talking about how people go through hardships. We all suffer. We all struggle in some way. I don’t remember word-for-word what the guy said but his final comments were what stood out to me, “We need to make a change. Things won’t start changing until we start praying.”

“Once saved, always saved.” How many times have we all heard that line? I know that we all want to believe that salvation is permanent and easy to achieve, but why do we think that? Look through the Bible. Everything that mentions being part of the body of Christ says that it’s difficult. In other words, IT’S NOT EASY!!! You have to reject the world. You have to avoid stumbling blocks. You have to not become a stumbling block for other Christians. What part of that sounds easy to anyone? We have an immense amount of responsibility as Christians. I think that, at least for most of us, rejecting the world is the hardest part. What the world thinks of us seems to be extremely important, but it shouldn’t be. The car you drive, the house you own, the amount of money you bring in each month…none of these things are important to God and they shouldn’t be important to us. If we truly are saved, then shouldn’t our priorities align with God’s in the same way Jesus’ did? Most of us turn