Religion: Lara Hates Christians

I can think of this one time at school, we were together with a group of friends and there was this one girl. She doesn't share the same views as me. And she tells me- I really don't like Christians. I'm not really offended by that. You know, I understand her point of view, just like me, she probably sees things that I don't agree with in the media. And she probably hates that, I get it. So I'm not really upset at her for that, but she'll ask me certain questions. Why is Christianity the only way? Don't all religions lead to God? Faith is just a personal thing. Sometimes she'll show me things on Facebook, and I can't stand Facebook either. One time she showed me a video of like, oh, a white person saying they found a group of kids that were apparently Muslim. And the guy in the video was like, yelling at them. Yeah, I don't, I don't know what it is you kids believe. But if, but if it ain't Jesus, it ain't, it ain't right! And you got to, you got to get right with Jesus! Turn that thing off, I said! (scoffs) And my friend was like- Lucia, is this what Christians are like? (sighs) (emotional music) I have a secret. All my life, I've had questions about my faith. About God. And about religion. But now, I'm going to tell you my secrets. My struggles. My doubts. I hope you can handle, the truth. And my friend was like- Lucia, is this what Christians are like? Why are they doing this? Oh, well, this is what they believe in. I didn't know what to say, 'cause it really just frustrates me as well. And I didn't have an answer for her, but also, they're, they're doing it in the name of like, God. I think that's one of the biggest moments that made me feel just, cornered. It made me feel like all Christians don't show love, or kindness and I'm not that type of Christian. So I feel like I have to defend a definition of Christianity, I don't even believe in. It's really just, confusing. An introduction to Christianity. People sometimes think of Christianity, as a white, Western religion, but it isn't. It started with a brown-skinned, middle Eastern Jew, and was multiracial, multinational, and multicultural, from the very beginning. Jesus' disciples preached to people from places, including modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt and Libya and Africa. Over 3,000 people from one crowd became followers of Jesus. So Christianity was immediately inclusive, to all kinds of people. I tried to research a couple of religions, because of a paper I had to write for my history class. And a lot of them had a lot of similarities. Some of them had moral teachers saying something like- Don't hurt other people and like, be kind to others. I often wonder, are we all worshiping the same God, because my Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish friends, they're all such great people. They're just really good people. So I often wonder how can I be so judgmental, by calling someone else's life experience wrong? What's up guys, today we're gonna be walking around, asking people what they believe about Jesus' death. And if they answer, I'll do a back flip. What do you believe about Jesus's death? He was one of many great teachers, but he's dead. Jesus didn't die. He just appeared to die. And then he was taken up to heaven like a prophet. It might sound crazy, but Christians believe that Jesus died and rose to life again. We call it the Resurrection. All right. As you can see, everyone believes different things, about what happened to Jesus. Who knew? What feels offensive today, is the idea that there's only one way to God, and one religion to show us the way. Now it might seem inclusive to say that all faith leads to God, but actually it's insulting to other religions to say that they're the same. Yeah, but do we really have to choose between religions rather than just taking the best of multiple traditions? Yes. Okay. At the center of the Christian faith is the belief that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and was physically raised from the dead as proof that he was God, right? Well, if this isn't true, then Christianity, isn't true. Without the resurrection, Christianity is useless. Think about it this way. If we were to take a video camera, and set it outside of his grave 2000 years ago, we'd either see him coming out or not. (laughs) Imagine if someone came back to life today and was like, I'm Christ. Like I'd be like, "Yeah right." But yeah, either Jesus was physically raised from the dead or he wasn't. But what we can't say is that-I think all religions are right about Jesus. Well, they all believe something different about it. So it actually does a disservice to them by saying they're all the same. He is either- Legit God, or he is not. Some people like my friend, think of Christianity as a set of rules, things we should and shouldn't do in order to please God. Do you know what makes Jesus special? It's not about what you can do, but what Jesus has done. Anyone from anywhere can be accepted, in spite of anything they might have done. Most religions say, if you work hard, you can be accepted. Culture says, if you work hard, you can be anyone. Jesus says I've done the work, you're mine. Thanks, that helps. I think, lately I've been asking myself, what makes Christianity different? Why do I identify as a Christian? I know I'll probably have more questions in the future, but I'm confident I know who God is. He knows me.