Baptism by waterboarding? Really?

1 Peter 3:13-4:6

          Doing good is like loving, maybe one in the same. You are going to get hurt in life no matter what, you might s well do so while you do good and love, at least that way you have done the good and you have loved. I suppose the converse would be a belief that you are going to get hurt in life so screw everyone else, I'm going to make sure everyone else gets hurt too. The latter is clearly not what Jesus would do.

          You can tell what a person believes by their actions. There have been centuries of Christians behaving badly, inquisitions, burnings at the stake and it clearly is not the actions that result from the Gospel of Jesus Christ even if they claimed they were Christian while doing it. This is clearly why Ghandi stated his full support for the message of Jesus and Christianity but he had never really met a disciple. That is, someone who truly followed His teachings and life.

          Then there are others who clearly are at peace and filled with love and compassion and you know right off there is something special within them. We might say they are filled with the Holy Spirit or that the Spirit is fully alive in them. 

          This reminds me of a news item the other day where Sarah Palin compared water boarding to Baptism. Is there any doubt that this is the Antichrist of politics and religious belief?  How could a so called Christian even utter such words. It speaks to a whole host of people who proclaim they are Christians and yet some of the most unloving and fowl words and judgements come out of their mouths.  There is no goodness there. Sadly there are many people who are misled by such individuals. 'Better that they should hav a mmillstone around thier neck and be thrown in the sea'.

          There is enough suffering in life without us inflicting pain and suffering on each other intentionally. Doing so makes a mockery of any faith we may proclaim. No matter the justification, we are called to act according to the good news of Jesus. Not only what would Jesus do but what did Jesus do? 

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.