"I'm running away from Billboard Christianity that plasters slogans and quotes on t-shirts and newsfeeds ..." Isn't that the only kind of xtianity there is?

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COMMENTS: 
*  Gosh. I have a ton more reasons why it should suck to be a Christian. He never even scratched the surface.
*  Just remember...you can be a decent human being without deference to supernaturalism and superstition. Swallowing b.s and worshipping a monster will not let you live forever no matter how much you convince yourself.
*  I'm an American and not Christian.  If you need that sentence explained to you, you're part of the problem.
*  Keep your gospels to yourself and those who believe as you do. You will be a lot better off in the long run. If you disagree, please give me your address and I will come knock on your door at dinner time and offer to tell you about the great and mighty flying spaghetti monster in the sky. He asked that I spread his word about angel hair pasta to the world. Deny him and you will go to a place where sauce will never stick to your pasta and have to eat that way for eternity. Bow to him for he is the one true pastafarian. Ramen.
*  I too used to believe the Christian faerie tale until the behaviour of the Church towards gay people made it impossible to keep up the pretense. I decided that if I needed an imaginary friend perhaps a gay god like Apollo might be more suitable, but I decided to embrace the truth of atheism instead. Wise choice, I'd say.
*  You know you've created God in your own image and likeness, when God hates all the same people that YOU hate.
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It Really Sucks to Be a Christian Right Now
By Steve Austin, March 1, 2016

I don't like being a Christian today. Actually, I should say, I don't like most Christians today. Wait. What I really mean is, I don't want to fight with Christians anymore.

I was once a youth pastor, a speaker, a worship leader, an avid blogger, and a radio host. Everything that entered my brain was spit out in 140-characters. I remember the days of running to church, running to leadership positions in the youth group, running to conferences and conventions and choirs. I remember running to tell others of my faith. I remember running to Bible studies and opportunities to spur others on and sharpen one another.

These days I run away.                                                                                                                                                                                

I cringe when I think of sitting and discussing anything more than the extremely superficial with those who aren't my most-trusted confidants. I'm content to show up five minutes after Sunday service starts, sit on the third row from the back with my wife and children, and sneak out during the benediction. For the first time in ten years, I have no leadership role or even anything that would resemble involvement in my local church. I go a few times a month, and that's it.

Why am I ok living this way? Because I've stepped out of the conflict among Christians. When I am anonymous, I have no chance to offend someone with a Facebook post, to feel like I have to choose sides in a cultural debate in order to honor God, or to be ostracized for seeing the world differently.

I'm too liberal for the Republicans and too conservative for the Democrats. I'm a 30-something Southerner, born and raised in the buckle of the Bible Belt. I was dunked by the Baptists, spoke in tongues in the Assemblies of God, went to a Church of God college, returned to my Baptist roots as a youth pastor, became a Methodist, and now I'm back in the with the AG's, but agrees with about 80 percent of the Catholic Church's teachings. I attended George W. Bush's first inauguration as a senior in high school but have voted Democrat in at least one general election. I study the King James Bible with a concordance but I read The Message on my iPhone for enjoyment, while having a glass of wine and smoking a cigar.

I'm a walking contradiction.

Maybe there was once room for people like me. Maybe everyone is like me, if we're all honest with each other. But our culture no longer allows contradictions. I run from discussions with other Christians because it almost always ends poorly. A loss of friendship, a loss of faith, a loss of fervor. I'm tired of being burned.

But maybe disengaging from any political or cultural stance is actually making me a more faithful follower of Christ.

I'm running away from Billboard Christianity that plasters slogans and quotes on t-shirts and newsfeeds, but I'm running toward the Jesus of the Gospels, who takes me just as I am, despite my contradictions. I don't know if the rapture will actually happen and I don't know the solution to the refugee problem. I don't know if Donald Trump is a Christian any more than I know how I feel about Hillary Clinton's private email server. I don't know if the King James Bible is the only legitimate version or if The Shack is actually heresy.

But God never asked me to know any of this.

I don't have all the answers, but I do know Jesus. So maybe my political views don't matter anyway. What I know for sure is God loves me, and wants me to love my neighbor. I am doing my very best, as a very broken human being, to live these two realities out in the best way I know how. Otherwise, I'm keeping my mouth shut.

I used to live my life publicly, but I no longer have the energy to fight with other Christians. Maybe running away from the fight is the best way for me to run towards Christ.
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