Check your brains

It seems to be the common practice these days for conservative Christians to not think for themselves. While I know of some people who actually do think, it appears to be a widespread disease of non-thinking among the average evangelical church-goer in America.

Case in point. E-mail. While e-mail is a wonderful thing, it has been such a terrible thing as well. Back when I first was an internet user, I would forward e-mails that came my way. I would pass on funny stories, e-mails urging action, tear jerking stories, etc. Chain letters use to be a small part of regular mail, but it dominated(s) the e-mail world. And I joined in at first. I didn't believe that rabid goats would come down out of the mountains and kill my family if i didn't pass it on, but... I passed stuff on anyway.

I don't anymore- and haven't for YEARS! i don't pass on ANYTHING anymore, because seldom do i see anything new. And I urge my friends and family not to perpetuate the cycle. But I still get e-mails talking about Madeline Murray O'Hare and how she's going to get religious broadcasts cancelled form airwaves. Or the one I got recently about how Oliver North warned us about Osama Bin Laden back in 1987 and said we should assasinate him, and how Al Gore questioned him about it and was indiferent.

I'm not going to fully dispell these, but a little research will find them both not true. Simply not true. First, if Madeline Murray O'Hare were actually alive (minor research tells us that she's dead), and trying to get this stuff shut down, it would be in the news. Censorship, or religious rights, or anything like that is BIG news! BIG! National news. But even if she tried, she cannot get television or radio to ban religious programming, unless she gets them to modify the constitution. Which would be FREAKING HUGE news, so we'd know. And Ollie North warned the US about a terrorist- but it was Abu Nidal. And it was because he had threatened and sent men after Ollie and his family. Osama Bin Laden was only known to some in the US as a freedom fighter in Afghanistan fighting the soviets. They had our support then, because the enemy of our enemy was our friend. And Al Gore was not only not on the comittee that was interviewing North, but the questioning wasn't even by senators.

Long story short on this, visit snopes.com to find out the truth about most of this stuff. It's quick, it's easy. type in whatever you've been hearing as a search and they'll bring up their articles... it's good.

I have digressed, however. The e-mail is what made me want to write this. While I have this inherent desire in myself that wants to believe people and trust that they're honest, you could say i've been a little jaded. I don't believe people the way i want to. Because as much as I want to believe they're honest, if I don't know them, I've got to check it out. Or if the track record is bad, gotta check. That's NOT a bad thing. Just because someone says something, doesn't mean it's true.

George Bush used to call himself Texas' environmental governor. Texas is the WORST state in the union in environmental practices. So what's that saying? Don't get me wrong- i'm not trying to bash Bush. But just because he says he's a Christian, that doesn't mean i automatically believe him! There are televangelists who will claim Christianity, but after seeing and hearing them, I can see that their fruit does not line up.

I know people want to avoid appearing cynical. I do. But at the same time, we are in a world that takes advantage of those who are the opposite. Those who do not question become gullible. People who believe in a ministry and give money, but don't know what that money goes to. I mean, honestly, who would/should support Benny Hinn if they knew he lived in a 10 million dollar home, and makes beteween half a million and a full, cool million each year? I don't care if his ministry can't find the money to do their stuff, they're allocation of money into his salary is ridiculous! If they can't find enough to put on an event or something, maybe they should decide that any Christian who can't survive on less than a million per year needs to re-evaluate his faith!

Is it better to be gullible or cynical? Neither of them is good- but as a responsible person, I would rather be a cynic. 1 Thes. 5:21 "Examine everything carefully- hold fast to that which is good" (NASB) this chapter is a set of short teaching instructions from Paul to close the letter, and the verse is pretty clear- test everything the NIV says. Put it to the test- hold to that which is good (and the opposite of that is to let go of the bad). I think that applies here as we should be aware of the truth of matters, not just believe it because.

Not only do we not ask questions, but some actually encourage others not to ask questions. It's almost as if wondering about the integrity of some televangelist (many of whom have proven themselves swindlers or worse) weakens our own faith! OR something- i'm not sure! But in reality, it perpetuates the status quo, which isn't all that great... My wife worked for a parachurch organization that does not disclose their finances and therefore is not responsible to anyone for that. However, they actually chastise people involved with the organization who DO ask about financial things. This organization "tithes" to their leaders who own a FREAKIN' huge ranch. Not only is that wrong, but tithing to people isn't tithing! On top of that, some of their facilities are falling apart, and yet for the higher ups in the organization, there always seems to be money to renovate their offices. People donate money for renovation then never see it. A friend of my wife actually saw his dad dismissed for asking where the money for that came from, and criticizing that they have an "unkown" bank account that holds money for that...

Anyway- the moral of the story is- asking questions should be a good thing! Testing is good. Faith is not blind, and God gave us a brain with critical thinking skills for a reason- we should use it! any other instances you'd care to share that you know of blind "faith" somewhere? or thoughts?