Dear Evangelicals--Re: The Jesus I want to know

Dear Evangelicals,
Let me start with admitting that I was listening to country music. I know, it's not by a Christian so it's not necessarily approved. But here are some lyrics I came across.
"Even though I hate to admit it

Sometimes I smoke cigarettes
Christian folks say I should quit it
I just smile and say, "God bless"

'Cause I heard Jesus, He drank wine
I bet we'd get along just fine
He could calm a storm and heal the blind

And I bet He'd understand a heart like mine"

As Christians, we are all too quick to judge, to condemn. This applies to Uganda as well as the US. I hope you will take time to consider what Jesus really calls us to. Let me give you some background.

I grew up in Uganda under the influence of the evangelical church spurred on by the East African revival. I can still recite the list of "don'ts".

Don't dance.

Don't smoke.

Don't have sex.

Don't drink.

Don't wear jeans.

Don't show skin.

Don't listen to music that is not praise music.

Don't date unless you want to marry the man.

I remember that the thing that I struggled with the most in Uganda was the hypocrisy that accompanied the list of "don'ts". Don't drink wine--but getting drunk on fermented millet at a wedding party was fine. Don't have sex--but if you have a cultural wedding you don't need a church wedding to live together.

I feel like Jesus had one very big don't. "Don't be a hypocrite". Whatever happened to "He who is without sin cast the first stone?" Did you notice how none of the Pharisees cast a stone. 

I feel like, the list of don'ts is a big turn off from Christianity, even in the US. I don't want to know the Jesus who sits on his butt and condemns you for having a glass of wine. I don't want to know the Jesus who stands there and strikes you with a lightning bolt for adultery.

Am I concerning you, Evangelicals? I hope so, because I want you to know about the Jesus that I want to know.

This Jesus cried a tear for every lost soul. 

This Jesus allowed a prostitute to anoint him with expensive oil.

This Jesus changed water into wine.

This Jesus was radical.

This Jesus loved.

This Jesus died for our broken world--never expecting perfection from us. What's the line in the Bible again? Oh yeah, a doctor comes not for the well but for the sick. 

That's the Jesus that I want to know.

So, there's my position. 

In Christ's love,

Alyssa

P.S.--this is not meant to condemn. That would just make me a hypocrite. This is meant to provoke thought on who we are really following. We follow the God of love, not the God of condemnation. I hope that this will only offend in the sense that it causes you to want to radically follow a radical Jesus.