Stepping Into Christianity: How The Media Portrays Us

Good afternoon, this is my first article of a new series that I will be writing. In a lot of my past articles I've mainly focused on politics, the food system, and a mixture of foreign and domestic affairs. I will still be writing those as I continue my new series - Stepping Into Christianity.

In this new series I will be discussing an assortment of different topics, but my main focus, obviously, is Christianity. Before I get started on this particular article, I'd like to tell you a little about my faith with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and a little about my upbringing as well - just to let you know where I'm coming from.  

I was saved at a young age not really knowing or understanding what I had just done. I remember sitting at my kitchen table with my mom, she was explaining to me about Jesus and how He died for me. At the time, I didn't fully understand what she was talking about - perhaps I was too young to comprehend it, but I listened intently nonetheless. But it wasn't until high school where I officially accepted Him as my Lord and Savior.

Throughout elementary, I kind of just followed the crowd, thinking I was a Christian. When I reached junior high, there were a lot more temptations that I had to deal with. During this period of my life is when I realized what Christianity truly was and I accepted Jesus as my Savior. After doing so, I felt like a great burden was lifted and I was a much happier person. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true.

High School was a difficult time in my life, I was bullied for a part of it and it was definitely a tough period of my life, but I was so thankful to have Christ watching over me all the way through it. Knowing He was there protecting me and looking out for me, made my life a lot easier. Obviously, I still had rough patches here and there like every other teenager, but I knew I'd get through it because I remembered Philippians 4:13 ~ "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

I grew up in a Christian home and attended a Non-denominational church my entire life. I also attended a Baptist school my entire life as well. It was a private school, so it was relatively smaller than most other schools. Actually, my graduating class only had eight students, so that should give you a pretty clear picture of just how small my school was.

My school was considered to be an Independent Fundamental Baptist school which like most IFB schools, it had some pretty strict rules much like the many other IFB schools and colleges. I'm not going to go much into this topic today, but I will dig deeper into it in later articles.

In this article, I'd like to focus on how the media portrays us Christians. In an earlier article that I wrote, I mentioned a little bit about this subject. If you'd like to read that article, it is titled: America IS A Christian Nation.

Have you ever noticed on a TV show or a movie that the religious characters are ALWAYS portrayed as the crazy, hypocrite ones? I can honestly think of almost every single show that I have ever watched and recall an episode describing this exactly. Let me give you a few examples.

The Glades: In an episode of this show, the main character, Jim, inspects the death of a man in a church. The body is found in the pulpit - which happens to be a glass chest full of venomous snakes. The pastor of the church  believes that if you are bitten by the snakes and you live - you are protected by the Holy Spirit. If you are bitten and you die, well then I guess you weren't. The catch here, however, is that all the snakes have had the venom extracted from them - making their bite harmless. And making the pastor a complete scam.

Now obviously that plot is ridiculous. And practically every Christian knows that theory is ludicrous. Although I'm sure there is someone out there who probably believes in that sort of thing... clearly that person is lost. But things like the plot of this episode make non-believers believe that Christians are crazy like this and obviously we are not.

Another example, Supernatural: There's an episode where Sam and Dean attend a church service in order for Dean to get healed by a "miracle pastor". After the pastor heals Dean, they discover that in order for them to heal, a reaper must take the life of another person. This other person the reaper kills is someone who has committed a great sin, according to the pastor's wife. She chooses the person for the reaper to target and when the reaper takes the life of that person, the pastor is able to heal the sick person with the life they had just taken. The pastor believes he has the power to heal and doesn't know the truth. The pastor's wife, however, believes she is doing God's will by punishing or in this case killing the wicked in order to heal the good. They list the reasons for the deaths of the chosen victims - one was a homosexual, one person was a drug user, and the list goes on.

So in this episode along with dozens of other shows, news channels, and movies tells non-believers that Christians hate homosexuals and think they should be killed. Except this is not how we feel at all. God specifically tells us to love your neighbor as yourself. We may not support or condone homosexuality, but we would never wish death on them or anyone who commits any sin.

The last TV example I'd like to share is from The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon's mother is a Southern Baptist - very strong in her faith. I respected the show because they made her a strong Christian mother. Her husband died a long time ago, but she remained strong in her faith. I was very pleased with how they displayed her character until in a later season when Sheldon witnesses his mother fornicating with a strange man. When Sheldon approaches her and calls her a hypocrite, I can't help but to agree with him... but why did they have to do this to her character? They made her into a hypocrite. Again causing all non-believers into believing that all Christians are just hypocrites.

I know that no one is perfect and that we all make mistakes. And everyone - even Christians fall to temptation, but why was it necessary to make the one and only Christian character on the show be the one to fall into temptation and give yet another reason for non-believers to not want to become a Christian.

I can give tons of more examples where Christians are mistreated in television, but I think you understand my point.

Another way the media mocks Christians, besides through TV shows and movies, is through Westboro Baptist Church. Westboro practically feeds the media lies about Christianity. What they do and say does NOT describe how Christians act and live nor do we believe in what they believe.

Westboro is the radical end of the Christianity spectrum. I honestly cannot even place them on the spectrum, their actions and methods are completely insane. They are not so much a church, but a radical protest group. Because of their actions, everyone including the media doesn't hesitate to mock and bash them and all Christians for that matter. Which in turn everyone sees this on the news and just figures if Westboro is like this then all Christians must be the same then.

A few examples of how Westboro has portrayed Christianity on the world: Protesting at military funerals - where the fallen soldier was a homosexual. And to make things even worse, the people of the church hold up signs that read: "God Hates Gays".

Okay, first off, causing a disruption at any funeral is very disrespectful - especially at a military one. Yeah, maybe we don't condone homosexuality, but that doesn't give anyone the right to protest at a military funeral where the person fought and died for this country. If you're in the military, no matter who you are, you've earned my respect. And if you die while fighting for this country, you deserve a so much more.

Second, God does NOT hate gays. He doesn't hate anyone. Homosexuality is a sin and He hates the sin, but He doesn't hate the sinner.

Westboro also protests at different concerts. They protested at a Lorde concert and at a Panic At The Disco one most recently. Both bands mocked them because of their protests, but Panic At The Disco really hit them hard. The band said that for every member of Westboro Baptist Church that shows up, we will donate $20 to the Human Right's Campaign. Although only 11 protesters showed up, the band still donated over $1000 anyway.

If you don't like someone's music, that's fine. Everyone has their own tastes. And yes, perhaps some music is vulgar. Obviously, I don't like music that is, but you can't protest at a concert and think that people will listen to you. It doesn't work that way. And with what Panic At The Disco did, they completely mocked them by donating money to a charity that Westboro probably hates... so what good did the protest do? None.

Westboro is making a mockery of Christianity and because of their stupidity, the media has taken advantage of the opportunity that so easily given to them and has used it to bash Christians all over the world.

If Westboro's mission is to witness to the world, they are going about it in the wrong way and that is an understatement. Not only are they going about it the wrong way, but they are making things a lot more difficult for the rest of the Christians in the world.

Unfortunately, there is not an easy way to stop the media from bashing us. Since that is what they do, that is what they have always done, and will continue to do. But we as Christians have to do our part in telling the world the truth about Christ and not the lies that the media conjurers up.

Thank you for reading my article! Please share, like, and comment below!  

What Is Actually The Best Energy Source?

Good afternoon, in this article I wish to discuss all the different energy sources involving vehicles.

I'm going to start off by saying, I do not believe that gas powered cars are ruining the ozone layer - in fact, nothing can ruin the ozone layers. It's been proven my scientists time and again. Also I do not believe in global warming nor do I believe in any other scam that Al Gore has created - Al Gore which by the way is being sued for his claims of global warming existing. Since they've proved that global warming doesn't exist at all.

Okay, let's move on to electric cars and such. Okay, electric cars are not a bad idea. Although, if you expect me to drive around in a SMART car, you obviously don't know me too well. Besides the fact that these cars have a problem with catching on fire easily and you know the obvious of being blown down by a blink of an eye... They look stupid. I'm sorry, there I said it. They look stupid. And you forget about me driving around in a Toyota Prius as well. Everyone thinks that the Toyota Prius is the answer to the environmental problems, saying it will help with the pollution of basically "going green." Although the Toyota Prius may have a an outlet for the electric power to run the car, it also has a gas tank. Yes, this car gets about 40 miles to the gallon which is pretty good considering, but if this car is supposed to the "car of the future" with "going green", why does it have to rely on a gas tank? Isn't the whole environmentalist theory supposed to be going ALL electric? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Now, if someone were to make an electric car that actually looked cool and actually had speed quicker than 0-60 eventually, I'd take it. Actually there is a car EXACTLY like that and if the prices of it would come down a bit, I may take one.

It's called the Fisker Karma. It's sleek design and sporty look makes it look not only like an awesome sports car and it has the horsepower that I'm looking for. With 200 hp and a top speed of 125 mph, and with 0-60 times at 6.3 seconds which is the same as a Dodge Avenger R/T. Which honestly isn't that great, but I'd still take it over any of the other options. But even as cool as this car is, I don't think I'm going to be cashing out $100,000 any time soon...

Although like every other electric car, it had problems with the engine catching on fire. And all were recalled, so even if I was very wealthy, I couldn't be able to purchase one anyway.

So with electric cars catching on fire and apparently gas cars are "ruining" the environment. What source of energy do we look toward? An excellent question. A question I'm not sure how to answer. The easiest solution I can think of is perhaps solar power?

Solar power is one of those things we can always count on. The sun will never die out or at least we hope it won't... but anyway, solar energy is a good solution, but I don't know about you. But I really don't want to drive around in a car with solar panels on the roof...so scratch that idea...

Then there's wind power.... I have NEVER been a fan of those atrocious wind farms going on for miles and miles ruining the landscape. Yes, they definitely ruin the landscape. Have you not seen them? Who wants to look out there window and see the beautiful Smoky Mountains, except you can't because a giant wind farm is blocking your view?

Another thing bad about these wind farms - which for some reason environmentalists don't see as an issue, those giant wind turbines kill bald eagles and bats as well. It's true, Google it. So the environmentalists wouldn't allow the construction of a highway because an endangered moth was in the middle of it, but they'll build these wind turbines and kill off our already endangered national bird?? Tell me how that makes sense. So wind power isn't the solution either, unless you're talking about hover cars, but even then I don't think a wind turbine would be the solution to that either.

So what is the solution? You tell me, please leave your comments below and thanks for reading my article!  

The Rising Threat In America

Good afternoon, when I first thought of this topic I wanted to write about ISIS, but this article isn't about that. I will write an article on the threat of ISIS soon though.

This article is about Ebola. I'm sure most of you have heard of this quickly spreading disease and how dangerous it has become if you are infected with it.

From what the doctors and scientists are saying, Ebola originated somewhere in Africa. A man flew from Africa to the United States and suddenly people began to become affected with the virus.

There is a very simple way to prevent this from spreading anymore than it already has, but apparently our government doesn't care because this solution is so simple that an elementary student could figure it out.

When anyone flies from another country into our own they need to be tested for Ebola right there in the airport before they leave and go out into the world. This would solve pretty much the entire problem altogether. Kind of like how they do the drug/weapon random screenings when you board the planes.

Another thing we can do is to help prevent this is to quarantine the affected patients who do have it to keep it from spreading like is already has been. I know in order to quarantine something like this would be really difficult for the families of the affected patients, but in order to stop it from spreading action must be taken to prevent it from infecting the rest of the country.

Symptoms of Ebola start within 2 days to 3 weeks from getting in contact with someone who has it. It starts out with symptoms like headaches, fever, muscle pain, and sore throat making it difficult to tell between Ebola and and the flu. But then vomiting, diarrhea, and a rash follows along with a decreased function of the livers and kidneys. Soon after people began to bleed internally as well as externally.

Hopefully our government will come to its senses and began to screen people flying into America from other countries and continue to quarantine them if they do have the virus as the scientists are hard at work trying to discover a cure for this awful disease.

Thanks for reading my article, I hope it has made you become more aware of this quickly spreading disease and please help raise awareness for the dangers of it as well. The American people need to know what's going on in our own country!

How I've Achieved A Healthier Diet

Good afternoon, this article is going to be a little bit different than all my previous ones. In this article, I will be sharing my experiences with eating healthier. I do want to add that I am not 100% eating healthy, but I am working towards it!

Like most of you probably reading this, I started out not really understanding the differences between eating healthy and actually eating healthy. Now that statement might not make any sense at first and it didn't make any sense to me either until only recently.

If you asked me a year ago, are you eating healthy? I would just say yes, because I thought I was eating healthy. I had sweets from time to time and I ate nice meals with my family and I wasn't one of those people who sits on the couch eating chips all day watching TV. I was thin and tall, so I appeared healthy as well.

My diet last year was the typical American diet. You know what I mean. I ate like everyone else did. Nothing over the top and from time to time I would enjoy the leafy foods as well. Just "normal" American foods.

This year I am very proud to say that my diet has improved. I'm not exactly where I want to be yet, but I'm taking a step by step route to reach my goal.

A few things I have improved on:

I have stopped drinking dairy milk all together and have been going strong for almost 4 months now. If you've read my previous articles on dairy milk and why it is unhealthy for you, you will understand this. I now drink soy milk and almond milk. Both very delicious. I was a little hesitant at first, but after trying both I was very pleased with them. The brand I buy is Silk because they are a non-GMO product.

I have cut back on pop or soda for all you west coast people. I used to be one of those people who drink like two cans a day - one for lunch and one for dinner. Pop has a lot of added sugars and other ingredients. I have only just begun this new step, but I am happy to say that I've gone a week so far with out any pop. Instead I drink water with all my meals, except breakfast then I drink either soy or almond milk. Now, like you, I asked the same questions myself before trying this. My question was, how can I drink water with foods like pizza or pasta? A lot of Italian foods for some reason really needed pop to wash them down with, but I never understood why. Water does the job wonderfully. Just think about water for a minute. Water is the only liquid that doesn't contain any added ingredients. It's just water - plain and simple.

The feeling you get when you feel the urge to drink pop with certain meals is because your body is used to having that extra shot of sweetness. Almost like a routine for your brain, but you don't actually need to drink pop with foods, but I'm not saying you shouldn't either. This is only my opinion of how I can stay healthy. But like I was saying, it's only because your body is used to it, but it doesn't mean that it's good for your body.

The third thing I've been improving on is I've been trying to eat healthier foods. I'm consuming much more fruits and vegetables, but not the kind with the added sugars and other artificial ingredients. A lot products will say natural fruits like for juices and such, but don't be deceived. Check the labels and the fine print. I'm trying my best not to anymore, but I used to buy a lot of Naked Juice, Minute Maid, Ocean Spray, and other products until I realized that many of them add a lot of different ingredients to them. So now I just stick with water. But getting back to my original point, I've been eating a lot more salads, vegetables, and fruits recently.

The thing I still want to accomplish is my hardest goal, cutting back on meats. Now I don't want to become a vegan, more just like a vegetarian who still eats meats, but just not all the time. I know this will be my hardest step, because I absolutely love meat and can't imagine myself not eating it, but I think I can start with lowering my intake of it. Perhaps by starting out as a every other day thing and then push it for once every few days and so on.

It was honestly pretty simple for me to give up dairy milk and it's been so far so good giving up pop as well. So I know I can accomplish my goals. I also want to add that I don't think there is anything wrong with eating meats, I just don't agree with how they go about to get them with the factory farms and such. If you're interested in learning more about the factory farms I just mentioned, check out my earlier article called Farms Don't Look Like They Used To.

Thanks for reading my article, I hope you enjoyed it. These are just some of the ways I have improved my diet and I hope it will give you some suggestions on eating healthier as well.

Please leave any comments below in the comment section!