We Are Borg (oops! I meant CHRISTIAN).. You will be Assimilated.

On Star Trek- TNG there is an alien race known as "The Borg." This race is made of of beings that were once human, but thanks to many very carefully placed computerized/robotic/ cybernectic parts, they are now cyborgs or more correctly "Borg." As if this wasn't bad enough, they travel the universe making every other race of people they meet part of the Borg race. And if someone does not want to be half robot and controlled by a central processing unit, who cares?? Their motto is "resistance is futile." After all, the borg consider themselves to be superior to every other lifeform and consider it their duty to assimilate everyone them meet into the borg collective. They will not allow anything to deter them from that mission.

Has Christianity turned into a real life version of this futuristic alien race? Lets look at it. I was taught that as a Christian we are not of this world. (that would make us an alien race) Christianity, in general, teaches that Christians should believe the same things and do the same things. (a collective)Otherwise you are a heretic heathen like me. Christians feel it is there obligation to go into the world trying to bring more people into their world and way of believing (assimilation?) They consider themselves to be "God's chosen" as if God wants no-one but them. We believe that "every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord (which means resistance is futile).

As I read about the life and teachings of Jesus, I often wonder if he called us to be robots. I hope not. I believe that He came to give us abundant life and that we as his followers should be as unique and dynamic as He was. Not just in our jobs or our natural life but also in our spiritual life and our relationship with God. Your life is not my life. Your abilities, Your hopes, Your dreams, Your struggles are different from mine so your walk with God will be different than mine. Your personal relationship with God should not be a carbon copy of anyone elses. It should be as unique and original as you yourself are.

Have you ever just asked yourself who you really are in this walk of faith? What does your PERSONAL Relationship with God look like? Are you a Carbon Copy of everyone else or does your walk with God have its own unique flavor? Are you part of the collective or are you the original, one of a kind person God has called you to be?

Confessions of a Heretic

Okay I'm here to make a confession. I am not just a Jesusist, I am also a heretic. I am a confessed believer who maintains veiws and beliefs that are contrary to the traditional teachings of the church. That would make me a BIG TIME heretic. I mean if I were to start listing all of the opposing views I have to the church that could take up.....well, at least a VERY long blog post. To be honest I am unsure of MOST of the churches teachings. I don't know if homosexuals are going to heaven. Not sure if heterosexuals are either. I don't know if we should be baptized in the name of the Trinity or in the name of Jesus. (Just to be on the safe side I should probably "double dunk" like Robert Duvall in "The Apostle"). I don't know if the pro-choicers or the pro-lifers are right. (But to be honest, at times they BOTH kinda creep me out.) I don't know if God is a democrat or a republican. Understandable since I kinda straddle the political fence myself. I don't know if the Bible should be taken as the literal word of God or the inspired word of God. At this point, I'm not even sure that there is a hell. Although from where I'm standing there had better be a heaven.

The only things I am sure of are God, Jesus, Love, the Holy spirit, the brotherhood of mankind and that the way we treat each other on this planet is the most important thing in life. I guess that makes me kind of a complex Christian, but a very simplified Jesusist. I mean, is all that other garbage really important? I could spend my time worried about whether or not I beleive another person or group is doing what's right, or I could love that person or group regardless of my personal hangups. Maybe, just maybe all the redtape and additives and preservatives that are taught along with Jesus only serve to pollute the simplistic life our relationship with God is supposed to be. Someone in the Bible was quoted as saying (and affirmed by Jesus as being correct) that eternal life is gained by "loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and love thy neighbor as thyself."

That is so simplistic its deep and scary and almost unbelievable. What if that's IT. What if that is all there is to it. We love God and treat each other with love and bang - mission accomplished. What if love is the answer to everything? That we have to love each other no matter what? That the same way God loves us we have to pass it along to everyone else, even (no- especially) those we consider most unlovable? Its terrifying in a way because deep in my spirit I can feel that this is the truth. This is what Jesus was trying to teach and what God has been trying to get across to us since the beginning of time. Its the most simple but also the most complex thing in the universe.

Okay, I'm going way deeper than I intended to go with this. So I'm going to reel this end and post a disclaimer. "Listen to me at your own risk. After all, I am a CONFESSED heretic." I could get you excommunicated from the church.