99% of christians Are Hypocrites

jesus endorses usI think if you're a christian, the most important parts of the bible would be Jesus' teachings. So why are there churches? Why do christians demand that there is prayer in school and insist on praying openly? Why are there TV evangelists openly crying out, "In Jesus' name" every other slimy sentence? Because they are all Blasphemers and Hypocrites.

Matthew 6:1-7. Read it, christians. Take it to heart, or do you have more hypocritical lies to twist the words of your own savior so that you can do what you like?
Matthew 6
6:1  Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
6:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

So Jesus is saying to keep your religion to yourself. Don't pray in public, don't be showy and brag about the good things you do. Do it in secret. Keep it to yourself.

Back to Matthew, Jesus goes on:
6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Jesus talks about wealth. If you're a good christian you should be rather poor. Why do churches build such opulent buildings? Why do those heinous TV evangelists beg for money, and why do poor christians send it to them? If you're a good christian, you have no need of treasures. Remember that when you open your presents on christmas morning. That's the epitome of hypocrisy, isn't it?

Read all of Matthew 6, good christians. Then I expect to see you eschew fine clothes for sackcloth, trade your SUV in for an older car with no bells and whistles, give your possessions to the poor in secret, never go to church again as that is hypocrisy, and pray in a closet in private.

Therefore, keep your religion out of government and politics. You have no need of such things as prayer in school. You should have no problem keeping your faith to yourself, which means you would be quite happy to keep the First Amendment which gives everyone the right to practice their religion and keep it separate from the government.

Ok! That was easy. Now we can all live in peace together. If you're a good christian, you don't need to proselytize, you will teach by example. Live a good life, be a good person. Pray in private. Help the less fortunate. .

So why do so few christians take Jesus' words to heart and practice these principles? Jesus said it himself- you're hypocrites. Plain and simple. And you wonder why atheists have so little respect for what you blather on about?

24 comments:

  1. Great post, as usual!

    The thing is, for every example you find that makes a claim like that, there's another one that contradicts it. That's part of the absurdity with the faith/acts argument. I mean, which path do you follow to get into heaven? One guy says faith is all you need, another guy says it's what you do.

    Another part of the problem, I think, is that most people who claim Christianity have never read the bible. A perfect example was when I went to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City a few years ago. We went to Temple Square, and were amazed. They had brought in Mormon ambassadors from all over the world. Most of the ones at the tabernacle were women, and they were ALL good looking. One of them(from Italy) approached me, and we started talking and after some small talk, she asked the question. You know the one I mean. I said I didn't have a relationship with Christ. She asked me why. I began with the contradictions in the gospels. She wasn't aware of them. She tried talking about the ten commandments. I asked her which set, cause there's three different ones. She said that that was well and good, but had I read the book of Mormon. I said yes, and proceeded to lay out a pretty good argument against THAT book. She got angrier and angrier, until I finally had to say that one of the things that made America so awesome was that we could all agree to disagree, and ended the conversation. It was very clear she had never read either of the books her religion was based on, and she was an ambassador for the religion.

    I tell you, it's weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Steve,
    Sigh, I know. The contradictions are so plentiful with religion, you just don't know who to follow. But people need someone to follow, they need to be led, because they certainly don't want to think for themselves. No, they've probably never really read their own scripture. That would require effort and thinking. No one wants that. They want to be spoonfed.
    That's funny about the attractive mormon ambassadors. That cracks me up. The mormons using sex to try to convert people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One of the things I wonder about is if the contradictions even matter to most Christians- I got into a pretty good debate with a co-worker and it didn't matter for him, he just fell back on his own convictions with the promise to "look into it." Trouble is, his resources were all "biblically based." *sigh*

    Over at the Friendly Atheist there was a pastor who acknowledged she cherry picked the message she wanted to take away, which of course begs the question, if you want to reject some of the bible, why not reject the whole enchilada?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Exactly! You're right on both points. christians and pastors and priests cherry pick what they want to believe based on whatever personal criteria they may have. And if you're going to do that why not just reject the whole thing? I totally agree, Steve.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I suspect most Christians are more interested in belonging to a community than they are in the logical consistency of their beliefs, so they just ignore the troubling parts and stick to what their pastor told them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Actually, I read something recently about how that is exactly the issue. I wrote about it here: http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/11/15/relationship-religion-societies-happiness/
    It's near the bottom, with links if you're interested. Basically it comes down to being part of a community. It's quite good for everyone. But I guess in being part of a community, many people give up thinking for themselves. That's the part that I'm really uncomfortable with.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Thinking for themselves" is exactly what they have given up!
    Their doctrines prohibits freethought and tells them to pray, pray, and pray.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Many of them, RRRWers in particular, are all about Leviticus and the blatherings of Paul. They would't know Jesus if he stood in front of them. They are truly modern day Pharisees.

    ReplyDelete
  9. They seem to happily give it up, too. It's so easy to just do what you're told and follow along, and parrot the talking points of others. Thinking is hard work.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Exactly, Buffy! So if they're all about Leviticus, maybe they should stop being christians and be jews instead? Oh, silly me. Jews don't really care about what other people believe. So they don't seem to meddle so much in how others live their lives. (unless you're a moronic jew like ben stein, i mean, seriously, wtf happened to him?)
    Paul, he was just a hateful delusional and most likely charismatic (the rest of this sentence has been bleeped out due to common decency. Neece will be right back after she finishes swearing profusely about the evils of paul of tarsus.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jesus is not saying at all to keep our religion to ourselves. He is saying to not to do our alms, or acts of righteousness, in a public manner to attract attention to ourselves, because Christ would want His followers to glorify Him when they preach or pray.

    ReplyDelete
  12. First, who are you to say that? Hmm? Why do you think your interpretation, which fits what you want, is so true?

    Furthermore, yes he is. I ask you what action publicly done that cannot be privately. If it can in any way be done private, then it is done publicly only to be drawn attention. Note inside church activities are a private affair. It basically amounts to keep your religion to yourself, because when you don't, most often you are doing it for attention among other less noble things...

    And third, "because Christ would want His followers to glorify Him when they preach or pray." has no correlation to "He is saying to not to do our alms, or acts of righteousness, in a public manner to attract attention to ourselves"... So yeah.

    ReplyDelete
  13. You totally didn't make any sense there, Dena. Did jesus ask for glorification? Did he ask you to go publicly about and praise his name and proselytize to innocent heathens minding their own business? I don't think so. If you feel he did, give me quotes, please.

    ReplyDelete
  14. As Chrisitans, we believe He is the Savior of the world (Romasn 3:33-24, John 3:16, Ehpesians 2:4-5, just to name a few) He wants us to tell people about Him and how He will bring us eternal life if we accept Him. THe acts of righteousness in Matthew 6 that you were talking about is focused on prayer and giving. Preaching the gospel is different.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm going to be blunt, it is obvious praying and preaching are two different things according to Jesus Christ's teachings, Neece and GMNightmare.

    Mark 16:15 is just one of many verses that Jesus tell's His followers to preach as it says to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel.

    Matthew 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible. In this chapter Jesus is telling us not to pray in public (that is our personal communication with God, if we do it in private it shows we are commited to God and shows it only for God's enjoyment) or brag about fasting, because fasting's a christian's own personal way of showing commitment to Him. Again, praying and preaching are different.

    PS, I hope this comment shows that the correlation between doing our acts of righteousness to glorify Him and to do our acts of righteousness in private is just that. When we communitcate with God or do something that benefits Him without benefiting others, it should be just for Him. Something that would benefit others because of Him would be to preach the Gospel.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm going to be blunt, it is obvious that Dena hasn't a bloody clue on what she's talking about.

    Alms are not prayers, we are not talking about your bloody prayers, as if you didn't know to do those in public. Did I say anything about prayers? No, I didn't. Alms are defined as, in your words, acts of righteousness. Quite frankly, considered in your religion, going out and preaching the gospel is an act of righteousness.

    Am I arguing you not to go all over the world and preach the gospel? No, well not in these posts. It is being argued, that you DO NOT do such, in public. In fact, any act of righteousness in public. Do it in a private setting. Door to door, is for example, a private setting--also happens to be one of your religions favorite methods.


    By the way, you didn't cover a SINGLE point of my first post. In other words, quit blabbing your mouth if you don't intend to actually cover our arguments. Answer the question, what act can you not do privately?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Actually, prayers are mentioned in Matthew 6. Scroll up some. I'm talking about both. And what on earth do you mean by "what can you not do privately?"? In Matthew 6, Jesus is talking about not doing these things to be adored by humans but for God, is says so in the first verse, therefore, He wants us to be godly for Him, not for attention by the world. That doesn't mean to hide our religion, it just means to demonstrate godliness to the world to honor Him, not so we can look holy for our own enjoyment.

    ReplyDelete
  18. You missing the point AGAIN. REREAD both posts. And actually think this time, AND DO NOT QUOTE THE BIBLE AGAIN. Like that helps.

    In other words, your rant about prayers HAS NO RELEVANCE TO THIS AT ALL.

    This: "Don’t pray in public" is the ONLY thing Neece has said about prayers in this discussion (which is nothing you've said against)... And I haven't mentioned it. You are making zero sense, you are NOT making a point, and your being completely erratic in your thought process.

    "what on earth do you mean by “what can you not do privately?”"
    If you could actually read, my first post tells you what I mean. In other words, any action you do publicly that can be done privately, is done only to be drawn attention and less noble things. You have yet to give an example that must be done publicly and not privately. You have yet to give reason why things must be done publicly. You have yet to give anything to the discussion but complete and utter nonsense. And you go around doing this, by quoting scriptures you do not understand, in situations where they do not fit, to say things that they do not mean. So leave out the scriptures, if you cannot defend yourself without resorting to spouting nonsense from your book, you are not actually doing a darn thing.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Okay here's your precious example of actions one could do publicly that could also be done privately: Anything. You may get in trouble for it, and you may just do it for attention, but basically anything. Does that satisfy you? Or did want me to give you a specific list from my "book" so you could further harrass me and my religion? I'm leaving this forum not because I'm tired of arguing but because I have said my thoughts on this article and thats all I wanted to do. And I have read both posts. My "interpretation" suits me just as your own suits you. You have your definition of public and private, I have my mine. We obviously have different opinions, get over it because I'm not gonna change my opinions to match yours and I wasn't expecting you to change yours to match mine. Good bye.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ...
    That made no sense at all. You may have read both posts, but you blatantly cannot comprehend them.

    First, it's what can be done publicly THAT CANNOT be done privately. This is one of the precise problems here, that you are not actually following what anybody is saying.

    Second, I'm pretty sure I said you could leave out quotes from the book for reasons already stated.

    Third, your religion cannot be harassed. You, on the other hand, may feel harassed, but I don't see how your inability to actually defend your religion or point of views counts as harassment--as you said, you can leave at any time... there is nobody forcing you to stay and endure backlash from your unfounded comments.

    In other words, you could have left after your first post after you said your thoughts and never looked back. So, indeed, you are leaving this forum because you are tired of arguing--no need to hide from the truth, no need to create a BS back story as to why your leaving. You did it to make it seem like a better person no doubt, but let me tell you something. It is more noble to simply say you're done arguing, and nobody actually thinks worse of you for it; making some BS excuse, like the one you made, does. As a little tack on, you may have "said your thoughts", but you certainly didn't convey them in any meaningful way.

    .

    Next, my interpretation doesn't suit me. If you did not notice, I'm NOT a follower. Meaning, it bloody doesn't matter to me what YOUR mystical book says. It doesn't affect me, at all. It is used as an effective argument against your own beliefs. Yes, you could say it suits me for my argument... a minuscule thing that could easily be replaced with other sources. Your beliefs, are hinged on your interpretations. In other words, your living your life based on simply interpretations of a book.

    I could comment on the rest... Such as views of public and private didn't come into play here since you never gave a view of them, or the changing your opinions wasn't the goal... But you won't be here to reply anyways, so it really just doesn't matter too much.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dena, these are 2 separate issues. What I'm talking about in this article is to keep your relationship with your god to yourself. I didn't address the later issues that Paul/Saul wanted people to do.
    Jesus didn't ask people to glorify him. Paul said you had to do that. And Paul never met Jesus. Remember that. He just made stuff up after he had that seizure on the road to Damascus.

    ReplyDelete
  22. All of your quotes are from later in the new testament, not the words of Jesus himself. They are from Paul/Saul who never met Jesus and just made stuff up.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I really don't see that it makes much sense. What is the correlation between praying, which is what this article is about, and proselytizing? What is the purpose of trying to force your beliefs onto others? I never have understood that. It seems so intolerant.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Where exactly does Jesus say to be godly? I don't think I've seen that verse.

    ReplyDelete