Christians: How can you prove your religion is the RIGHT one?

As a former dogmatic Christian (I am still Christian, but in a very different way), something that intrigues me is the amount of things that do not seem to be consistent between what is supposed to be taught in the Christian church and the actual practice of what is taught. Let me begin with two situations I lived when I was a child.

When I was nearly 10 years old, I used to go to a Protestant Church in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This church was evangelical, and had a big congregation. Some of the leaders were actually nice and kind, but there were a lot of people who seemed to be bitter and unhappy. During a Biblical school session, the teacher accidentally fell tripping over my feet. For some reason she did not like me, and soon after the incident happened, I apologized because it was clearly not my intention. She told me she would tell my parents, angry. Also, almost during the same period, near the age of 11 I said hi to one of the Pastor's assistants during a service, when she told me to shut up because she was listening.

These are not the only incidents I have had with dogmatic Christians. Recently some family of mine that I had some differences with, decided to "cancel" me out of their lives, even to the point of blocking me from social networks like Facebook. Also, a very devout Christian woman I just wanted to meet got scared after I invited her to some innocent water park fun (a mutual friend let me know that she got scared after I invited her), meaning that she judged while I had very good intentions. I can spend a lot of time here setting up examples of different incidents, which together with recent observations and discoveries I have made over the years, ended any kind of link between me and organized religion.

Before going into the oxymorons and inconsistencies, let me summarize the more important things I learned during church:

1. True meaning of love

2. Value of friendship

3. Love of Jesus, his humbleness, and his example as a man who never sinned and acted perfectly before God

4. The importance of being faithful, loyal, lovely, kind, noble, considerate, respectful, ethical, honest, always striving to be best before God

5. The importance and value of prayer and reading the Bible and follow the set of rules written, like the 10 Commandments

The Christian religion has a very neat way of describing and understanding God. But of course, like I explained in other hubs before this one, to say it is the sole and right religion is not logical or fair.

Yet, despite of what the Christian religion tries to project, this is what I have found in a lot of churches and a lot of people who are very involved in the church:

1. Extremely judgmental

2. Gossip

3. Disloyalty, unfaithfulness and betrayal

4. Bad competition

5. Preferential attitude

6. Bitterness

7. Hypocrisy

Let me talk a little bit about the seventh, which is the worse of all of them: hypocrisy. I have met people from all backgrounds, some very Christian, some "somehow" Christians and some "word-of-mouth" Christians. I have found more loyalty and sincerity in the latter two. I understand of course this might be my personal experience and maybe some people have known very good and loyal "very" Christian people, perhaps my personality is not fit with this group even though I tried for a long time during my life to keep with them since I thought because they loved God and were really into spirituality I would have had more affinity with them. But that was not the case. For a reason I found out recently, I have more affinity with people who are not involved into RELIGION.

There is the problem- a lot of people who I have met who go to churches do not seem to have the ability to question, ask, and dare to "prove" what they are taught in church. What the Pastor says, he/she does, without hesitation. There are many authentic Pastors whose intentions are good and true, but there are also some opportunistic wannabe leaders who use God and the Bible as a pretext to get money and attention, without even being anywhere close to Christian or religious. These are the same who have been found to commit fraud, rape, and other evil things. The common excuse they give when they are found: "We are human, we are flesh, we are sinners, we were not strong enough to defeat the Devil's temptations", in order to keep the people they "preach" to, brainwashed and zombified.

I may sound very judgmental in this explanation, but to me there is no other thing that explains the hypocrisy found in many churches. There is this mindset that God wants people to enjoy rich lives (rich meaning wealthy, powerful, financially healthy) and do not seem to care about the true riches God wants in us. They go to church, but they are also very manipulative bosses, violent husbands and wives, and harsh parents. The attitude displayed is totally oxymoronic with what true Christianity wants to show.

This mindset of hypocrisy is also found in what I criticize more about Christianity and I can say it also goes with most religions independently- the mindset of "I am right, you are wrong". Jesus hanged out with undesirable people. He used to be around people who were not powerful and had different cultures.

I am pretty sure now that Jesus/God accepts all people who really follow what He desires, regardless of race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, culture and RELIGION. To say that only a couple of millions will be saved and billions will perish in hell is extremely oxymoronic and inconsistent on what Jesus taught and what true Christianity is.

I have asked before what is the proof Christians can provide to justify that they are the right ones, and until now, no explanation seems satisfactory. I have to admit I can't really accept any explanation because what Christians think, Muslims may think on their religions, as well as other religious people with theirs. I have noticed how badly interpreted has been the Bible and the proof is how many religions have used the book to manipulate people into fear and brainwashing instead of letting them know that God is a Being that is perfectly fair, lovely and wise. The question is, when is it that people will wake up from human domination and open their minds to true spiritual guidance?