{"id":315,"date":"2008-07-15T15:47:15","date_gmt":"2008-07-15T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/07\/why-christians.html"},"modified":"2008-07-15T15:47:15","modified_gmt":"2008-07-15T15:47:15","slug":"why-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/07\/why-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Christians Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was approached to write this article, I wasn’t sure how it would go over. So many people are provocative just to make other people angry. I didn’t want to write another over-the-top, attention-getting article. Instead, I sat down to explore what exactly Jesus would say to us today–2,000 years after he was here–about how well we’ve followed his example.<\/p>\n

I think he’d pick a choice phrase that everyone would understand. I think he’d say: You suck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we are religious for religion’s sake… we suck. If we listen to the Word but don’t do what it says… we suck. That’s where I’m coming from with today’s lead article on Beliefnet.com<\/a> titled "Why Christians Suck<\/a>," and the feature entitled "How to do What the Bible Says<\/a>."<\/p>\n

If you’re visiting my blog today for the first time, welcome. I’m Tom Davis, the CEO of Children’s HopeChest<\/a>, an international outreach to orphans around the world. In addition to reading through the posts and videos, there’s a couple things you can do here…<\/p>\n

1. The book links on the left hand page will take you to Amazon.com where you can buy a copy of Red Letters<\/a>, Fields of the Fatherless<\/a>, <\/em>or Confessions of a Good Christian Guy<\/em><\/a>.  <\/em>If you’d like a review copy for your blog or Web site, send me a request at redletters@hopechest.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Check out Saint’s Coffee<\/a>. This is organic, fair trade coffee that supports orphan ministry at Children’s HopeChest. It was featured in the article as one of ten ways to "not suck."<\/a> <\/p>\n

3. Visit www.5for50.com<\/a>. This is a simple way to get involved in global poverty issues through prayer, fasting, giving, missions, and recruitment. <\/p>\n

4. Leave a comment about the article. I’d love to hear your feedback.<\/p>\n

5. Pass it on. Write a review of the article on your blog, Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking site. The more we get the message out, the sooner we can stop sucking. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}