The one about Christ

When I was a christian, the ultimate guiding principle of my life was the life of Christ as revealed in the New Testament.  I was one of those guys who always had a pocket New Testament, not for show, but because I really believed in it.  I always read it when circumstances gave me spare time.  I was ridiculed by some in school because of my habit of pulling out my New Testament as soon as my ass hit a chair.  At one point in my life, I would have taken a bet that I could have quoted in order most of the New Testament.  In my mind, the New Testament was explicitly how God wanted his disciples to live.  The New Testament was expressly the word of God, and Jesus was the very presence of God in the flesh, and that made Christ the only model of life for believers.  Everything Christ taught both explicitly and implicitly became the only goal of my life.  It was the only possible way to live.  As far as I was concerned, God did not sanction any other way of looking at things.  The way of Christ was the only way God approved of.  I couldn't understand anyone who thought otherwise.  The whole world around me was seen through the eyes of Christ.  It was, therefore, impossible for me to ignore the poor, to disregard the helpless, to stand off from the needy.

When I realized, eventually, that right-wing partisans also claimed Christ, I was flabbergasted.  To me, it was impossible to be a follower of Christ and not believe in workers' rights, care for the poor and needy, equality of the races, respect for women, and social reform for the good of the community.  To realize that some whom I called brethren in the faith were working hard against the Christ of the New Testament purely to satisfy their own political or socio-economic agenda was disheartening to say the least.  However, it helped the light to dawn on me that very few people who claimed Christ actually revered and followed his path.  Even though time and experience taught me that religion is nonsense and christianism is a lie, that earlier devotion to the life of Christ somehow lingered within me.  I no longer believe Jesus was anything more than a carefully constructed myth, but what the myth stood for in real, personal terms has stuck with me.  I can talk about Christ and look up to him as though he had been real and continue to model my life on his example by not shunning the downtrodden, not turning my back on the needy, not refusing to help the poor, and not giving in to the liars who claim Christ yet do everything in their power to emasculate what he stands for.  Why?  It doesn't matter whether a real god-man savior existed or not.  What matters is we exist now and can save the world if we choose to.  It doesn't matter if there is a heaven or not; what matters is doing the right thing now.  If you claim Christ, and you reject what he stands for, how do you explain yourself?  How do you get off exalting your culture, your business, your banks above your Christ?  You probably believe he existed and believe that he will be your judge at the end of time.  You, then, of all people should be wary of acting against him.  I wonder at your kind.