This was from a post written March 3, 2015

I got this note from my sister, adjusting to moving into a very liberal college town community recently:

“Hello again,   I hope your day has gone well.   My laundry is done now, I cooked dinner and cleaned my little apartment and now I get to pay bills.  How exciting.    I was thinking about something that you wrote in response to my note to you — that feeling of loneliness, still trying to find where I fit in.   You stated that you hadn’t been back to the writer’s group and part of it was their liberalistic view of things.   I have noticed that here.   A lot!  I hear people making snide remarks about “Christians” and “Republicans” and blah, blah, blah.    Before I could shrug it off, no big deal, people have different views, etc.   Now it grates on me.
 
I have been praying about this and wondering how do I accept people as they are (as Jesus would) but yet not compromise?   We are human and imperfect so because of that we can easily take a judgmental stance against anyone (on any issue) who doesn’t believe as we do.   I remember before I went back to church I was ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE who believed Christians were full of themselves and that the more enlightened view that all religions have merit was the better road to take….I could go on.   
 
God brought Eunice into my life:  a homosexual woman who was struggling with her own internal war and yet she served as a guide for me.   I was in the midst of my new age “spiritual” journey and she just kept turning my attention to God and the Bible.    It literally was seven years after I met Eunice that I began attending church and studying the bible.   I had visited different churches now and then, but I finally made a commitment in 2003.  
 
So, how do I handle people like me?    You probably have heard this saying before, “you might be the only Jesus people see.”  

Just thinking.
 
Loveyou”

After reading this, it made me realize that Christians have a harder row to hoe than non Christians. They are in a constant battle to live an exemplary life without  judgement or compromise yet because of their humanity they may stumble and fall because they are more subject to temptation than someone without faith. Stop and think about that.

You might ask, how is that true?  Well, if you are a Christian, you believe there is a tempter (the devil and his entourage) who focuses on Christians. Non believers are exempt from his attention because they are already faithless.

So when a Christian falls and/or falls short of “perfection” then it gives ammunition to the faithless to point a finger and ridicule.  It can also cause the Christian to wonder “what’s the point”, “why am I struggling” and perhaps lose faith.

This sanctimony is a useless effort to protect themselves from their own human frailty.  The Christians I know do a damn good job of setting the example my sister is striving to do.  But…they still stumble and they occasionally fall.

Yet conversely let’s look at the flip side of that. Non Christians, in their own form of sanctimony, frequently sit in judgement of those who work very hard at being Christian and will look for them to fail.

How many times have you heard someone say, “And they call themselves Christian?” Yikes!!!

BTW – (We are aware that there are Democrats who are Christian) It’s interesting that you never hear anyone link that combination derisively though. Why is that, I wonder?

Sadly, it’s a two way street and as I’ve mentioned before there can be unleashed fervor from both sides that is neither healthy nor beneficial. That is why I stopped going to the writer’s group.  I liked most everyone in my group but when people started bashing the other party, I walked. Regardless of what party I may or may not belong to, I’m out numbered but more importantly that’s not why I attend. What is it they say about religion and politics?

You know, perhaps I needed to say that? – No debate.

Maybe, I too can be judgmental – Ya’ think? I just bet they would have been fine with that.