Fish are Friends, Not Food

I recently watched the movie The Fisher King. The movie is about a radio talk show host named Jack, played by Jeff Bridges. Jack is a jerk, as he makes fun of people that call in to his show and looks down on people with less money than him. After a series of unfortunate events, Jack finds himself living with his girlfriend, helping her run her dinky movie store and off the radio. Jack eventually ends up meeting a homeless man named Perry (Robin Williams), and finds that he is part of the reason that Perry is homeless.

At first, Jack helps Perry in order to help his guilty feelings. After a few half-hearted attempts, Jack winds up helping Perry for real. He doesn't help Perry to make himself feel better; he helps Perry because he truly cares about Perry. This is precisely how Christians are supposed to help people- because we care about the person we are helping.

Yet, we often come across differently. In the past week or two, I have had two completely unrelated people have messaged me simply with the phrase "fish are friends, not food." This quote from Finding Nemo has been told to me randomly and in jest, yet I cannot help but compare it to reading I have been doing lately.

My latest book is unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. It is, unlike some other books that I have read recently, more a research project's results than an in-depth analysis of one topic (such as love in Francis Chan's Crazy Love). Yet, this book has held some amazing insight into the minds of people my age, particularly those outside of the church. The book's focus is on young adults (ages 18-35) feel about Christianity, and what some common, negative, viewpoints are. Trust me: the kids do not feel good about Christianity.

You see, we are seen as the sharks to their fish. We hunt around for non-Christians, helping them only to trap them and lead them into our religion. We have little concern for their problems or viewpoints or political stance; ours is the only one that matters. Instead of being helpful because we care, we are helpful to help ourselves. We forget that sharks are fish, too.

I will be looking into each of the top six negative views of Christianity that a non-Christian feels toward the religion, and discussing how we can help turn this around. I will share my shortcomings, and any stories that I may have to add to the topic. Here's the schedule of when each post will be released by (some my arrive sooner, but never later):

March 04: Hypocritical
March 11: Conversion-Obsessed
March 15: Antihomosexual
March 18: Sheltered
March 25: Too Political
April 01: Judgmental

My hope for covering these topics in-depth, diving into what both the world and the Bible says about Christianity, will open eyes. I hope Christians will read these six posts and think about whether they are being perceived as one of these things, and if there is something in their life that needs to change. I hope someone who isn't connected to the Christian faith reads these posts and finds out that the negative thoughts in their head do not necessarily reflect the truth of God's good news. All in all, I just hope these posts get people thinking and talking about a real Christian faith, not a fake, unChristian one.

Feel free to tell everyone about these, and if you have any comments about the series or anything else you want to discuss with me, my contact info is on the sidebar. :)