Sin
i have been talking to a lot of people about sin lately, then i get a hit on my page, so i check that and end up searching through the members posts and pages. i end up running into this young sister at southern who was catching a lot of slack for being a lesbian and a christian. it was funny to me because a few people, i saw, were telling her that she could not be both. it brought me back to the conversations i had been having with people lately.
personally, i do not believe in sin. and this is a complex concept for people to hear coming from me, because i was raised as a muslim. most muslims, especially muslim women, are very cautious of sin. we live our lives to a very strict law that prohibits almost everything. however, my father also taught me to question things.
in my mind, i look at the power that we say god has. we say that he has control over everything in the world and beyond. he even has power over the devil because he created the devil. now, if this is true, then how powerful do we think we are to believe that we can do something that is not his will?
i was always cautioned against believing in superstitions. many people warned me to be very careful when i was living in new orleans because there are people down there who believe in voodoo and that was not supposed to be right with god because "those people" believe that they can do things that give them power over others. (how many men will admit to being warned not to eat a woman's spaghetti?)
well, for me, believing in sin is superstitious. we are saying that god has so little power over us that we can do something that he does not want us to do (we call it free will), then we will turn around and say that god knows and sees all. well, if he knew what i was giong to do before i did it and still allowed me to do it, didn't he want me to do it? wasn't it his will if he did not intervene? if he wanted me to stop, couldn't he make me if he wanted to?
well, i am a pretty logical person, so i try to look at things from many perspectives. so i think well, god may want us to have certain experiences so that we can learn from them. god allows us to sin because he wants us to choose his way. okay, but i have children. if my son is throwing rocks outside and breaks a window, he was wrong for throwing rocks and i was wrong for not watching him and stopping him. so how can i really be fair in punishing him for doing something i allowed him to do? does that make sense?
my main point is i don't think that i have the power to defy god. i've heard it said that god has a plan for me. that he knew who i was and who i was going to be before i was conceived. that he has absolute power and is the head of all things. well, i would be pretty stupid to think that lil ole me has the strength to do anything that god did not sanction and commission me to do.
we do not know why god allows "bad" things to happen. when someone close to me was murdered, i was told that god decided that it was my friends time to go. that made me wonder if god had orchestrated this whole argument so that he could have a way to bring my friend's soul back to him. if that is true, then god made that young man murder my friend. he knew that it was going to happen before either of us were born and it was his will, so it was done.
in the same respect, this young woman was being attacked from all sides, even from her pastor himself, for being a lesbian. who said that was wrong? god didn't, not even jesus, paul did. many years after jesus was crucified, and most scholars say that paul never even knew jesus he became an apostle through a man named sosthenes. I Cor 13 even asks "was paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of paul?" so was god now manifesting himself through paul since jesus was gone...? i don't know, i'll have to leave that one up to the christians.
personally, i do not believe in sin. and this is a complex concept for people to hear coming from me, because i was raised as a muslim. most muslims, especially muslim women, are very cautious of sin. we live our lives to a very strict law that prohibits almost everything. however, my father also taught me to question things.
in my mind, i look at the power that we say god has. we say that he has control over everything in the world and beyond. he even has power over the devil because he created the devil. now, if this is true, then how powerful do we think we are to believe that we can do something that is not his will?
i was always cautioned against believing in superstitions. many people warned me to be very careful when i was living in new orleans because there are people down there who believe in voodoo and that was not supposed to be right with god because "those people" believe that they can do things that give them power over others. (how many men will admit to being warned not to eat a woman's spaghetti?)
well, for me, believing in sin is superstitious. we are saying that god has so little power over us that we can do something that he does not want us to do (we call it free will), then we will turn around and say that god knows and sees all. well, if he knew what i was giong to do before i did it and still allowed me to do it, didn't he want me to do it? wasn't it his will if he did not intervene? if he wanted me to stop, couldn't he make me if he wanted to?
well, i am a pretty logical person, so i try to look at things from many perspectives. so i think well, god may want us to have certain experiences so that we can learn from them. god allows us to sin because he wants us to choose his way. okay, but i have children. if my son is throwing rocks outside and breaks a window, he was wrong for throwing rocks and i was wrong for not watching him and stopping him. so how can i really be fair in punishing him for doing something i allowed him to do? does that make sense?
my main point is i don't think that i have the power to defy god. i've heard it said that god has a plan for me. that he knew who i was and who i was going to be before i was conceived. that he has absolute power and is the head of all things. well, i would be pretty stupid to think that lil ole me has the strength to do anything that god did not sanction and commission me to do.
we do not know why god allows "bad" things to happen. when someone close to me was murdered, i was told that god decided that it was my friends time to go. that made me wonder if god had orchestrated this whole argument so that he could have a way to bring my friend's soul back to him. if that is true, then god made that young man murder my friend. he knew that it was going to happen before either of us were born and it was his will, so it was done.
in the same respect, this young woman was being attacked from all sides, even from her pastor himself, for being a lesbian. who said that was wrong? god didn't, not even jesus, paul did. many years after jesus was crucified, and most scholars say that paul never even knew jesus he became an apostle through a man named sosthenes. I Cor 13 even asks "was paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of paul?" so was god now manifesting himself through paul since jesus was gone...? i don't know, i'll have to leave that one up to the christians.
When God created man he gave us free will to make choices which are good or bad. God is a jealous God; he wants us to believe in him and do right by him even through temptations. For example, I see a watch in a store, but I can't afford it... should I steal it or walk away if I can't afford it. God knows what we going to do he just want to see if the watch is more important than following his will.