The task for this final day of the Faith Series is to talk about religion in society. For this, I’m going to take the same approach I have taken in my other columns and that is keep it Christ-focused. If this comes off as preachy then I apologize — the Daily is not the place to preach, but what I am going to do is share truth with you. 

What needs to be discussed about Christ in society is the way he is perceived by people who are not Christians.

From talking with non-Christians for a while about Christ, I have come to realize that he is perceived in a few different ways.

The first way Christ is often perceived is caused by the extremist sects of people who call themselves Christians.

The best example is the Westboro Baptist Church; they are infamous for protesting the funerals of soldiers and claiming that God is punishing the United States for being friendly to gays by killing soldiers in Iraq.

These guys perpetuate the idea that Christ actually hates people who are homosexuals, or basically hates sinners.

This is not the case.

God hates sin, not the sinner. God isn’t angry with you, as a person.

If God hated sinners, John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible, would be utterly untrue.

This is one of the false perceptions of God in our society — that God hates or is angry with anyone. God loves us enough to punish us for our sins, but is also just enough to take the punishment for us should we choose to follow him.

There is another false perception of Christ that is more prevalent in today’s culture, and it is equally troubling.

This is the perception of the hippie, zen Jesus.

People who take bits and pieces of Jesus’ teachings and, rather than the son of God, paint him as just some hippie who walked around dropping little cute quotes about love and making everyone feel like rainbows and puppy dogs.

There are two problems with people taking only bits and pieces of what Christ said and applying it to life.

The first problem is stated best by C.S. Lewis, who said that Jesus is either Lord, liar or lunatic.

The stuff that Jesus said, if it is true, means that he is God — and if it is false, means, don’t listen to him.

If he is not Lord, then Jesus was just some guy who was absolutely crazy, and why would you listen to someone who was crazy?

The last way people paint a wrong picture of Christ is portraying him as a nice guy.

This may catch a few of you guys off guard, but when I say nice guy, I mean a guy who won’t want to offend you or tell you harsh things about your life.

In fact, Christ was as bold as they come, and because he spoke truth it offended people to the point of murdering him for speaking it.

Christ’s main aim here on earth was not to be a nice guy.

He was good, pure and loving, but those are all very different from nice.

There are a lot of false images of Christ out there in our culture, and the best way to find out about Christ truly is to read the Bible.

That is the way God reveals himself to us here on Earth.

If you’re someone who takes just part of Jesus’ teachings, I encourage you to remember that Christ is Lord of all or nothing.

God doesn’t want you to live a life that puts him in a box, where you pick and choose how you want to follow him.

God wants you to live a life for him, where he is, as Psalm 73 says, the “strength in your heart and your portion forever.”

If you think that Jesus is some ‘nice’ hippie guy, I encourage you to remember the way C.S. Lewis paints him in the Chronicles of Narnia:

“But is he safe? No, He is not safe, but He is good.”

That is what matters. Christ is not just some guy, He is our King.

 — Justan Spaid is a sophomore in history from McCallsburg.