Whoa, is this thing on? It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, as y’all have seen. Serge has been going through quite a lot over the summer and more recently too, so this blog kind of fell by the wayside. As a blogger, I should not have done that… but everyone has rough periods, right? Dark Serge will try his best to not let the blog get moldy again.
Anyway, without further ado, on to the main post!
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Logic would dictate that if someone claims to be a Christian, they’d be people who follow the teachings of such Christian cornerstones as the Golden Rule, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the Great Commandment. Unfortunately, as anyone (and especially any misfit) knows, the world is anything BUT logical.
Let’s look at the case of a “fictional” character named Karl. Before I go on, the reason “fictional” is in quotes is because of the simple fact that this is going to pretty much be a retelling of a real experience I had with the name of the offender changed. All the names in this post series will be that way.
Anyway, Karl is a fellow UT Dallas student just like your old pal Dark Serge here. He is someone who claims to be a good Christian. He goes to church regularly, is in the main Christian organization on the campus (FOCUS – the Fellowship of Christian University Students), and overall has the appearance of the friendly Christian student.
Taylor is one of my fellow misfits. He is lonely and seeking some brotherhood here. Perfectly understandable, seeing as how you see many of the guys around here walking around with their little buddy-buddies acting so close you’d think they’re blood or something. Taylor wants that too, cause after all, he ain’t sub-human by any stretch of the imagination.
Taylor and Karl know each other, and are friends (or so it seems…) Taylor asks Karl for a little help, because he (Taylor that is) has tried all the conventional crap when it comes to making friends, but he’s been rejected by clubs left and right, his roommate is indifferent about him, people flat out tell him to ‘f— off’… pretty much overall, he has failed at the typical stuff. Taylor, being a major misfit, missed out on his childhood and wants to make youthful memories before his youth ends. So he ain’t exactly got time to try and go about a “natural” pace when it comes to friendship; he has to press the gas a bit for closeness because the “natural” way would cause him to run (much more) dangerously low on time for recovery.
Taylor finishes explaining to Karl, who acts understanding.
“So,” Karl asks, “what do you need me to do exactly to help you?”
“Well,” Taylor replies, “I figure you know a fair number of people here; maybe you could connect me with some people and help explain my situation, so maybe they’d want to help fill the friendship gaps I have in my life.”
“Okay,” Karl says. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
The next day, Karl approaches Taylor, who is sitting beneath a tree with his laptop.
“Taylor, I think that your problem could go away if you just showed an interest in other people. If you do that, then people will naturally gravitate toward you, and…”
Without warning, Taylor gets up and walks away. After all, if he had stayed much longer, he might have just gone ballistic on Karl.
Logic 0, Logic Bomb 1
So who was right? Here’s a hint: his name ain’t Karl.
There are myriad reasons Karl is in violation here. Can you guess which?
Let’s say you’re a doctor, and you have a patient that really needs antibiotics. As someone who is (supposed to be) professional, what are you going to do? Are you going to give the guy the aspirin, or are you going to jam a laughing gas mask on him and do open-heart surgery? The answer’s fairly obvious: you’d give him the aspirin!
So why did Karl decide that Taylor needed the typical advice mantra when Taylor already knows all that has failed and that he needs direct help? Several reasons:
1. People will be quick as lightning to jam advice into someone’s face and walk away, but very few care enough to actually get off their fat ass and help someone directly. In other words, an epidemic of laziness.
2. Culture has unfortunately developed to embrace the Ayn Rand-type “ideals” of selfishness, ‘bootstraps’, and other “you’re on your own” type of opinions. Karl knows that Taylor could use direct help, but he still did an advice dump since he’s a slave to the status quo.
3. Part of Karl’s ego depends on him always being right, so when Taylor proved otherwise, it burst his “high and mighty” balloon.
4. Karl is a hypocritical Christian.
Oh yes.
It’s really interesting and thought-provoking how so many people claim to follow a religion that teaches quite clearly that you should help those in need directly. It’s almost like they are talking the talk but failing to walk that walk. Yup, that’s it.
Everyone knows what the Golden Rule is: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. In addition, the Great Commandment reads:
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (NIV)
As for the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Serge here will put it in a nutshell for all y’all. A Jewish traveler is beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of a road. Despite seeing that injured man lying there, a Levite and a priest (!) pass right by him (hey, who knew New Yorkers existed way back then?) Finally, a Samaritan comes along. Keep in mind, Samaritans and Jews were rivals in that age. But what did that Samaritan do? He stopped and helped. Yes, I know–SO radical, right? Right?
Keep in mind, I haven’t even gotten into the slap-in-the-face insult Karl hurled at Taylor without even saying it. By going straight for the dead-horse advice card, Karl basically said that Taylor was a moron that didn’t know what was best for himself and that Karl is an “all knowing wise man” compared to Taylor, who is apparently a stupid mook. Taylor explicitly stated what he needed, but Karl opted to push HIS will on Taylor. In other words, he ignored Taylor’s need for aspirin and went straight for the gas and sawboning.
People, when you claim to be a Christian, you better be a real dang Christian and practice what you preach. If someone like Taylor needs direct help, listen to them. I know, it sounds all radical. But it’s the best thing to do, and it’s what your religion calls you to do. People just have the “Dr. Phil” ‘do this to make friends’ mantra burnt in their heads to the point where they are not willing to accept anything different, especially something that calls for them to actually lend a direct hand. That’s wrong, and that’s a fact. Sure, it can’t be proven by no scientific proofs or any crap like that, but it’s no less of a fact. It’s one of what I like to call “moral facts”–facts that just represent the right thing to do. There are people out there for which the conventional crap won’t work, yours truly included.
As for the title, popular slang term for people who act like they’re worshipping up a storm in church but don’t act like a real Christian in their daily lives is that they are “fakin’ and shakin’”. They are acting like they are Christian, but they are faker than plastic flowers.
That’s all for now, but next time, we shall take a look at the case of Taylor and his interactions with Bryan. Bryan’s in violation too, perhaps even more so than Karl… come to think of it: nah, I’d say they’re equally dickish.
The site has become too green, in my opinion.