Introduction
When thinking about moral and ethical values, objective and subjective claims, and the meaning, and understanding of difficult ideas, philosophers have traditionally used teaching stories. More impactful and often more challenging than non-fiction essays, these stories encourage their disciples to analyze and learn the condensed wisdom presented, to make connectioins, see relationships, trace out causes and effects, and go deeper into the implications of what is said and done. Even relatively simple tales about seemingly ordinary events can shed light on the human condition more clearly, immediately, and powerfully than a long, prose exposition.
“Hey
there, Stan. Good to see you back at church. We missed you the last two or
three Sundays. How are things going?”
“Everything’s
going great, just great. We had a little setback a few months ago, when the
feds took down our main Web site, but now we are roaring forward.”
“What
happened? Why did the feds--.”
“Oh, you know, there are
still some very uptight types working to stop people from ‘exercising their
freedoms,’ as our lawyers put it.”
“But how did that involve
your company? Don’t you run an online pet store?”
“Oh, yeah, ha ha! The problem
was that CuddleBunnies.com was mistaken for an actual pet
store. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh, did we
get mail!”
“I don’t understand.”
“So we cleared things up by renaming
it to Rent-a-TeenXXX.com and business has exponentiated. In fact, we are
talking about removing the kiddie porn pages from our servers just to open up
the bandwidth.”
“Kiddie porn? Stan, What are
you talking about? I thought you were a Christian.”
“Oh, yeah, I am. I am. Just
living my Christian freedom in Christ.”
“But God is very much opposed
to what you are doing. And besides, kiddie porn is against the law.”
“Well, I’m just living the
law of liberty. No longer a slave to sin, set free indeed. Free to follow my
own wishes. Say, do you know any Fentanyl wholesalers near here?”
“Why no, I—that—it’s--."
“Yeah, it’s such a killer
drug that I can’t keep it in stock. Hey, see if they have changed the Availability
label on Devil’s-Candy.com That’s one of my public service Web sites.
The URL is--.”
“Stan, you need to do some
real soul searching—and some Bible reading. You’re going to--.”
“Great talking to you,
brother. Maybe I’ll see you next week. Excuse me now, but do you see that girl over
there, just shaking the pastor’s hand? Maybe I can get her to put a few pictures
on Rent-a-Teen. Later, big guy.”
Questions
1. Is Stan a genuine
Christian, an imitation Christian, a self-deluded pagan, an anti-Christian, a
plain vanilla con artist, or something else?
2. If Stan dies today, will he go to heaven?
3. Once a person is saved, accepting Jesus as his savior, does it matter whether or not he owns pornographic web sites or traffics girls? Why or why not?
Reading, Discussing, and Thinking
When you read this story to some Christians, they will quickly hit you with, "The Bible says, 'Judge not, so that you will not be judged.'" Based on your understanding of the following Scriptures and their surrounding contexts, and any other relevant Scriptures and their contexts, is it right or wrong to answer the first three questions, above?
Matthew 7:1
Luke 6:37
Luke 12:57-58
Luke 18:2
John 3:17
John 7:24
Romans 14:3
Romans 14:13
1 Corinthians 6:3
James 14:11
James 5:9
John 12:48
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he is a Christian, but does nothing to show his allegiance to Jesus, by witnessing, worshipping, caring for the sick and needy, striving to improve morally, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually? --James 2:14:
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