Pat Robertson Would Be Gone Tomorrow If Christians Would Just...

[Wella]

72. We are all sinners, my dear, but if you are truly living by Christian precepts,

you couldn't also be a deceptive money-grubbing TV preacher. You cannot serve both God and Mammon. However, there are a great many people who think they're Christian (because they were raised that way) or pretend to be Christian. But Jesus himself said, "by their fruits you shall know them", which basically means, look what these people produce and you'll know whether or not they're living in accordance with Christian principles.

Now, you and your friend on this thread may think this is a logical fallacy. It's not: the problem is in definition of terms. If you define Christian as someone who identifies culturally with Christianity but who doesn't live according to its precepts, then, yes, you can safely identify Pat Robertson, George Bush, and Bill Clinton as Christians. However, if you define Christian as those who are truly following the path and its principles, even if they stumble at times, then you have a much smaller group.

Christianity also has many different sects. Some of us do not recognize alleged "leaders" like Pat Robertson. Some do. Many Protestants have no interest in recognizing the Pope. Many Catholics think that they can safely ignore the Archbishop of Canterbury. Think of it like this: many African American Democrats do not accept conservatives like Ben Johnson or Herman Cain as representative of African Americans, even though these men clearly are African American by birth. However, they are of a different sect and system of thought.

This may be why you feel Christians worm their way out of blame by claiming that this bad person or that bad person is not a Christian. I cannot speak for all those other people. I can only speak for me. I accept the faith of very few public figures as genuine. I watch what they do and see what they produce. I judge based on that alone.