How to Avoid Being Used
in the Name of Christianity A bove all, you must never give in to the temptation to believe that you are not in control of your own thinking. Some will come to you with a "plan for your life," but you should always do these first: - N ever allow yourself to succumb to the argument that you must believe in something, without reasoning it out. That is what the Church asks you to do when it says to believe through faith. Y ou are the master of your own fate. Don't give your life over to another person to direct and control in the name of Jesus, or God! This is unreasonable. It is our natural instinct to validate ideas, and it goes counter to our nature to believe blindly. We open ourselves up to serious abuse if we let others direct us in these very personal matters.
- R ead the Bible, cover to cover. Then, learn the history behind it. Don't let yourself be conned into lectures or conversations about this book until you have read it in its entirety. It is long, and its prose is often difficult or tedious. It talks about events in a distant past, and was written by many authors. It was not always one book, but was once many books, that were later collected together. Some books were not included, some were edited by later councils and church officials. Its development was very turbulent, and political.
- Context: T he Church has woven a complex message for its converts by picking and choosing passages from diverse, often unrelated parts of the Bible to promote its teachings. Understand both the literary and historical contexts of the passages quoted to make a point. The Church has an agenda, it's agenda, not yours.
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