Room 101
The concept — an easy one: what about Christianity would you want ridden from your life, or even the universe? Christis asked some people to gripe…
Room 101, George Orwell’s sinister creation, is where you find, quite simply, the worst thing in the world. This “varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive,… or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.” It contains the one thing which is guaranteed to reduce the victim to betraying even their most loved, for the sake of reprieve. We live in a wonderful world, created by God. But Room 101 still creeps in, even into Christ’s body, the Church. We still find things which make us livid, which bring us down from dizzying highs of God’s glory to utter despair. We try to ignore them, for the sake of Christian unity, neighbourly love, and to put on a smiling face for outsiders, who we try to draw in to join our happy, smiling flock of Christians, where God’s love is all around. But after 101 issues of Christis, we’re tired of pretending. For once, we asked some of our contributors to tell us what they wish they’d only ever find in their own, personal Room 101. Just remember, don’t put us in yours. The catalogues of bitterness compiled here are solely those of the authors, and most definitely not those of Christis.
Heaven
‘We’ll go to heaven after we die’; what the hell is it all about anyway? Mincing about in the clouds? People sitting around all day playing harps? Doesn’t sound that great, does it? In fact it sounds rather dull. Well, thankfully (as I’ve never really liked harps that much anyway) the good news is that no-one will be going to heaven after they die. The good news is that we will all be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15) in a new creation (Romans 8, Revelation 21 & 22, Isaiah 55) when God finally rids the world forever of sin, corruption and decay. Imagine that; all the good bits of God’s world that we can experience now without all the crap. It’s some image — creation is going to be freed from its slavery to sin and decay (Romans 8:21) and we’re going to be here on earth, freed from our own sin and decay through resurrection, to enjoy it when it happens! This means that, as Belinda Carlisle sung, heaven (as most people would understand it; a future world where we are with God) is actually a place on earth. And from my point of view, this future on earth is looking so much brighter without all those ghastly harps.
Andrew Leo
People who don’t Think
There are a surprising number of these people about, people who may be very intelligent and have any number of degrees, but simply cannot apply this kind of thinking to the rest of their lives. If they can critically analyse an abstract theory why can’t they critically analyse their supermarket shopping or the way they see others? I’m not attacking the moral judgements some people make, but the fact that people do things because that’s what they’ve always done, or because that’s what their church says, because churches are of course infallible… As Sophie Cartwright pointed out in an article in a previous issue, sources of spiritual authority are not perfect. It may surprise you to find out find out that, though I’m sure they’re very wise, your minister is a human being, so they’re probably biased or mistaken in some areas. Try making your own mind up for once. If you distrust what your minister or a book you’re reading or a TV expert says, you probably have a good reason to.
Lizzie Freear
The Doctrinal Basis
If you don’t know, the “DB” is the statement of faith promoted by UCCF, the national driving force behind the Christian Union at York and (most) other universities. Of its eleven points, only four match the Nicene Creed; the basis of faith that has served Christianity for over sixteen hundred years. If you read the DB without reading the Gospels, you’d think Jesus was born of a virgin, enjoyed a kingly existence and shortly afterwards was murdered, thus fulfilling God’s wrath. If this is the creed of “gospel-based” Christianity, where is Christ’s teaching? We are of course subjected to plenty of Paul’s (overly legalistic) teaching. ‘What of Paul? … Do we not follow Christ?’ (1 Corinthians 1:12–13) And the treatment of the Bible? Point C states that the Bible is infallible. Unfortunately, it assumes that UCCF’s understanding of the Bible is infallible. One of my worst experiences as a Christian involved being “taken for coffee” by a UCCF worker who used point C to rubbish half my faith as heresy. It is my prayer that one day, those who hold the DB dearly will be released into a fuller understanding of Christ and of God’s word to us. In the meantime, putting it in Room 101 will do!
Graham Martin
Stupid Atheists
Those atheists who assume that all Christians hold the same beliefs on every issue and are as such never allowed to disagree with each other should be sent to Room 101. I’m talking about atheists who think that all Christians are or should be direct copies of each other, clones that look the same, act the same and think the same. Are Christians not allowed to be individual people too? God made us all unique; we should be able to celebrate that, safe in the knowledge that we can disagree on some things but that our basic principles are the same and they will hold us together as Christians. Atheists should be able to accept this and not blame all Christians every time one Christian says or does something unacceptable under the guise of being a Christian. The chances are that not all Christians think the same and disagreements shouldn’t be used as an excuse to dis- miss all Christians or their faith. As if all atheists always agree on everything, or as if all Christians would want to associate themselves with G
eorge Bush! Not me!
Emma Novak
I Know I’m Right, So Ha!
One of the things I hate most is people who are unable (or don’t bother to try) to see the other person’s point of view, people who are convinced that only their beliefs are right and refuse to consider that anyone with a different view may have valid points to make. That’s not to say I think everyone’s point of view is equally valid; I don’t. But people have reasons for what they believe, and unless we listen to those, we can never understand why they believe things that we think are wrong. Listening to other ideas sometimes actually makes us recognise where our own beliefs are flawed! Even if this isn’t the case, and we still disagree with someone, surely it’s better to know why we disagree, than to go around slating their beliefs when we don’t understand why they think they are true. If we’re willing to listen to people with different beliefs, we may find that they’re not as prejudiced or heretical as we’ve been led to believe, and we may find ourselves able to work with them in a more productive way, onc
e we have a better understanding of where they’re coming from.
Lois Cross
Creationists
We know approximately what the world’s been doing since God made it, right? That’s why science departments exist. However, for reasons unknown to sanity, some people decide to use the Bible as a science textbook. Why? Perhaps I’m strange: it never occurred to me to use it for my first year Quantum exam. Armed with their new source of wisdom, and disregarding physicists, biologists, geologists and even archaeologists, they then tell us that the earth is roughly six thousand years old (So where did twenty or so remains, looking increasingly less like apes and more like men, come from? And… and… most of the bits of science we have.) Quite apart from creationists’ apparent claims that the whole scientific establishment’s out to ‘get’ Jesus, what they’re basically doing is calling God a liar, for making the world look blatantly older than it is. I’m quite frankly sick and tired of having Christianity seen as a religion of numbskulls who have to leave their brains at the door before believing. I’d never be a C
hristian if it involved that, and I’ve met far too many non-Christians who are like me. Creationists harm evangelism as well as being thick: into Room 101 with them!
Greg Melia