Shame on Us Christians

By Kevin Turnbaugh

Kevin Turnbaugh is a logistics management specialist for the US Army at New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. His work is performed, and this book was written, on a computer equipped with screen reader software that allows the blind to hear what is shown on the screen and input the data or words, using keystroke functions instead of the mouse. It is from his more than twenty-five years of service as a civilian in the army and from his numerous years of exposure to the ministry that Kevin has become the source of information on current affairs in our country and churches, attitudes surrounding those areas of life, and the threats to our freedoms as Christians.

It is from these areas of work and ministry exposure that Kevin has developed the background for his two previous books, Time Witnessing and Critical Condition, as well as the information and contents of this book. By using the Ten Commandments provided to Moses and to us today, he brings forth the how and why of living as a Christian and considers where all of us fail, including his own failings and shortcomings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490802220

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 Kevin Turnbaugh.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-0223-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0224-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0222-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912956

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/18/2013

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Shame on Us Christians

1.   Laid Out Straight

2.   They Are Commandments, Not Suggestions

3.   The One and Only God

4.   Loving Our Fellow Christians

5.   Profanity and the Christian

6.   The Sabbath Day

7.   Mom and Dad

8.   Killing Each Other with Words and Deeds

9.   Short Skirts, Bikinis, and Elevator Eyes

10.   Being a Good Witness

11.   Stealing Ourselves Right Out of our Victory in Jesus

12.   Lying, Bearing False Witness, and Perjury

13.   Envy, Coveting, and I Want It

14.   Violating the Ten Commandments

15.   Peer Pressure to Sin

16.   Dimwit Christians

17.   Making Things Right with God

18.   The Devil Is in the Details

19.   Passive Christianity

20.   The Results of Disobeying God

21.   All Aboard the Heaven Express

Conclusion: Soldiers for Christ

In Memory of a Faithful Child

References

To the memory of my late parents, Reverend Ray and Edna Turnbaugh, who passed from this life into the loving arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in January 2013 and November 2009 respectively.

Also, to the memory of eight-year-old Brooklyn Cross, who died of leukemia at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in December 2010.

Preface

I wrote this book to address many of the problems, issues, doctrinal differences, and just plain idiotic attitudes among Christians today. As the son of a minister, I have seen so many stupid actions by people who claim to be Christians. My parents experienced some of these things firsthand during Dad’s forty-five years of ministry.

In our country today, being a Christian is taken so lightly, as if it were the same as saying I’m from Texas or I’m a Cowboys fan. The meaning behind stating one is a Christian has been lost in the muddle of life. I will endeavor to address several things we as Christians are doing to mess up the name of Jesus Christ and in so doing deter others from wanting to be Christians.

Kevin Turnbaugh

Acknowledgments

I thank my nephew, Brett Reichart; his wife, Emily; and my wife, Lori, for their ideas, suggestions, and work on the front cover design of this book.

Leann Bortner Photography of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, took the photo of my guide dog, Jodi, and me on the back cover.

I give special thanks to my pastor, Reverend Jerry Shoap, for his review and scriptural validation of this book.

Introduction:

Shame on Us Christians

A few years ago, everyone was wearing T-shirts with the letters WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? The problem with this was that many wearing such T-shirts were also smoking or letting fly profane comments here and there. One case I heard about was of a girl in a mall wearing one of those T-shirts and a very short skirt that barely covered her lower vital statistics.

Have you ever seen a Honk If You Love Jesus bumper sticker, honked your horn in response, and saw the driver flip you the middle finger? How about those people you meet who claim they are members of this or that church but act like 1920s gangsters? Finally, consider the C and E Christians, those seen at church only on Christmas and Easter.

In all these scenarios, people might claim to be Christians, but the world sure is not seeing it. The big problem here is that some—not all—may have had a time in their lives when they had a real and sincere conversion as Christians, but since that time, they’ve done the backsliding thing.

I admit to having been one of these people, especially when I was in my twenties and early thirties. Church was just a place I went on Sundays to meet friends, chat about whatever came up, go out to dinner, and go home. The rest of the week, I did as I felt at work, home, and everywhere else. I knew all the hymns, played the Christian really well, and even served as an usher and Sunday school superintendent.

I had a sincere conversion to Christianity while attending church camp in Texas in 1966, but as time went by, I did the backsliding thing to a point you would have had a hard time proving me a real Christian at all. Shame on me and on you if you fit into this category. We are not supposed to live like the world; when we become Christians, we need to come apart from the rest of the world (John 15:18–20; 17:13–17). We may have to live in it, but we are not to live like it! If we take Christianity to heart and act like sons or daughters of Christ, the world should be able to see it in us and our actions and reactions to issues and situations. However, we frequently don’t want to be considered outsiders, strange, or different, so we let fly profane comments, ogle members of the opposite sex, and simply try to fit in with the crowd.

In our world today, so many organizations are trying to remove or eliminate anything Christian or any symbols of Jesus Christ from our nation; we don’t need to act as if we endorse such actions. The problem, however, does not stop with how we are acting in public; it is right in our churches today. In this book, we’ll consider matters such as why churches split and over what, why pastors run away with church secretaries, and why some Christians engage in shameful behavior at church and elsewhere.

My dad dealt with shameful actions right from the start of his ministry. I was born in Bad Axe, Michigan, where my dad was serving in his first church as pastor following his graduation from Fort Wayne Bible College. A gentleman, if you want to call him that, would get angry and throw his hymnal at Dad if he didn’t know the song the congregation was singing. Whether he was dealing with a short circuit between his earlobes or was just a hateful person trying to act the Christian I don’t know. My dad told me he never found out what the problem was with that man. The problem eventually led to Mom and Dad moving from Bad Axe to a church ministry in Dodge City, Kansas.

It’s bad enough for pastors to deal with threats outside the church membership; to have internal problems as well can chase good men of faith out of the ministry, frequently for stupid issues. My dad and I disagreed on some issues, but that did not mean I did not talk to him and love him; our disagreements did not mean a thing in the bigger picture. My dad felt Christians should give tithes and offerings based on gross income, but I felt it should be based on net, and oddly enough, we both used the "render to Caesar what