Christian or WAFR?

  Christian or WAFR?

In the book of Proverbs we read,

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 

bind them around your neck, 

write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man." 

                                                                                                          Proverbs 3:3,4.

Do you Love God? Are you faithful to Him? Does you love extend to those around you, family friend and foe alike?

Sadly when I speak to people of other faiths and lifestyles here in North America they see many of those in the evangelical community as unloving.

They see evangelicals as wanting to take their rights away. Rights given to them by a lawfully elected secular, government.

From my point of view I firmly believe they are not seeing true Christians. They are seeing what someone has called “White American Folk Religion (WAFR)”.

John Walton in a paper entitled, “A Practical View of White American Folk Religion Contrasted with Real Christianity” (October 31, 2020) wrote,

 “WAFR is a race, class, gender-based hierarchy that hijacks the Christian label to sanction abuse, greed, and violence, and then absolve leaders who live lives contrary to the teachings of Jesus and wield power in opposition to God's plan for the world.” John Walton

The attributes of a true Christian are given by the apostle Paul who said,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22,23.

The apostle Paul also defined what Christian love is when he wrote,

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.

So who are you? 

Do you follow the teachings of Jesus? 

Are you showing the fruit of the Spirit and attributes of Love as the apostle Paul laid out?

        Or; 

Are you a WAFR?

Please think about it.