I needed gas in my car because it is getting cold out.  If you don’t keep your car filled with enough gas in the tank in these parts, ice particle can form in the tank and wreak all sorts of havoc on the fuel line and engine thus making it impossible to go anywhere.  I’m not much of a car person but I know that if I keep the tank full it will run and start easily on those mornings when it dips below 0. 

Anyway, as I was brushing snow from the grill of my Blazer and off the windshield, I got to thinking about a Revelife article I read while I listened to my engine warm up so I could go get gas.  Yeah, that’s another thing, you have to warm your car up before you go out driving otherwise you run the risk of snapping belts.  I started thinking of the article that appeared that was about how a Christian found Jack Black’s role in the Prop 8! The Musical web video so offensive that the author was going to throw away all the Jack Black movies that he or she owned.  I really hate this type of Christian.

I know what the Bible says.  I have been in schools where the main textbook was the Bible from Pre-school through all my college.  That’s ten years of grade school, four years of high school, and five years of college.  19 years of schooling.  I would venture a guess that I know what the Bible says.  I am trying to figure out where it says, “Throw out DVDs of all actors who do a poor Jesus portrayal.”  I didn’t like Jim Cavieziel’s role as Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ” so should I throw out his movies based on that fact?  Well, if I had any of his movies on DVD maybe then I would throw them out.  How about Mel Gibson for making an abomination?  Yes, I consider it nothing more than bondage porn.  The movie focused solely on the suffering of Christ and didn’t really say why he went through all the pain. 

Then it hit me, Christ said, “Be in the world but not of the world.”  I wonder if people truly know what that means.  It made me think of that Prop 8 video.  Both sides were accusing each other of picking and choosing certain Bible passages.  People focus on the who, what, where, and whens but never the WHYS.  To me this is one of the reasons why Christians get the bad reputation. 

So I sat in my Blazer and thought about a mother who once told me that she doesn’t approve of her daughter having any contact with atheists or anything an atheist produces.  I listened to my engine purr and thought more about that person writing on Revelife. 

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  If you are sick and the doctor prescribed penicillin, you wouldn’t be able to take it because the person who discovered it to be beneficial for medicine was an atheist.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Have you come down with some strange illness and the doctor wants to check you DNA to help find a cure?  Too bad you can’t because the discoverer of DNA, James Watson was an atheist.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Have a favorite United States president?  Well it better not be Abraham Lincoln, James Monroe, William Howard Taft, or James Madison.  They were all atheists and yes I am going to take heat on the Lincoln one but listen to this Lincoln quote: "The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."  I didn’t include Thomas Jefferson because he was a deist.  He believed that a god existed and that is about it.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Do you like Disney movies?  Well you better throw those away because Walt Disney was an atheist.  Oh and if you throw away DVDs do you realize how long it takes them to biodegrade?  I don’t think they can so by tossing them in a garbage dump you aren’t being a good Christian steward of this earth that God has given to us.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Speaking of movies you better not enjoy the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando, Jodie Foster, Janeane Garafalo, Mira Sorvino, Ian McKellan, Adam Corolla, Jack Nicholson, Roman Pulanski, Burt Lancaster, Katherine Hepburn, Howard Hughes, Penn and Teller, Christopher Reeve, Asia Carerra(if you watch her movies you have other issues), or Stanley Kubrick…yes you’ve guessed they’re atheists.  Oh and if you like Star Trek and are a Christian better quit liking that show because the creator, Gene Rodenberry, was an atheist as well as star of the series William Shatner. 

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Do you like light bulbs?  Too bad you can’t use them because Thomas Edison is an atheist and forget using electricity because Benjamin Franklin was an atheist.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Do you like music?  Well you better get rid of all your Dave Matthews, Billy Joel, Frank Zappa, Beatles, John Lennon, Marilyn Manson, Crowded House, Brian Eno w/all his collaborations, Filter, William Shatner, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, Eddie Vedder(Pearl Jam), and Michael Stipe(REM) albums.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  I suppose you read but you better not read anything by Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Critchon, Spalding Gray, Gore Vidal, Salman Rushdie, Arthur Miller, Arthur Clarke, Larry Flynt(ok, if you’re a Christian and you read his offerings then there are other issues you need to work out), and Benjamin Spock(the child expert) because they are all atheists.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  Oh, Christian, who wants to get rid of everything that is from atheist or someone who mocks God because the Bible does state that all non-believers are mockers of God, you better not be reading this on a computer because Bill Gates is an atheist.

“Be in the world but not of the world.”  I live in the Dairy State so this is sad for me.  If you enjoy drinking milk, you better quit unless you get it straight from the cow.  Louis Pasteur who gave us pasteurization was an atheist

So why did I think of all this when I was warming up my car?  Well the inventor of the gasoline powered automobile engine was an atheist so you better get rid of your cars.

I probably sound like a dick but you have to logically think things through when you make bold statements like throwing everything away because someone is an atheist or goes against your biblical upbringing. 

I am a Christian and I was a minister in a Christian church.  How about that?  You thought I was an atheist.  It has been hard for me to call myself a Christian because of how I see other Christians act.  “Be in the world but not of the world.”  If Christ was like the people I have mentioned, there would have been no way he could have traveled in that world.  The roads were built by the Romans.  They weren’t believers and they mocked God.  I think Mark Twain put it best: "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."

I don't know what to expect with this post.  I am feeling I am going to get commenters who will force their beliefs on me much like they did to my ancestors in the late 1800s.  Beating a human being is never a good way to convert them.