Jacqui Hampton

The Cultural Christian Jacqui Hampton

"I want to begin by saying that I am a believer. I love Jesus but his people use to make me question their faith. As a former skeptic, I used to question my own so understand that when I say I question other's faiths and beliefs, I do so out of love and curiosity. I am fortunate because I was given the grace to know Jesus before I exited this world. I am also fortunate for the fact that Jesus allows me to invade his personal space. But currently, I am considering the state of the world as it stands (declines however you may see that), and I wonder if the saints are praying. I wonder if we have not only retreated to our wicked ways but have refused to repent and so humbling ourselves is something we don't or won't do. I wonder if our sermons make sense. I wonder if people still preach the gospel in love or are we still seated with itching ears. I wonder if we are going to try and understand the depth of the cataclysm, we are the face in these perilous times or are we going to pretend they don't exist. Are we going to keep lying to God, ourselves, and our congregations to keep saving faces they can see through? We have created, cultivated, and maintained a culture of dismissiveness that not only is biblically incorrect but spiritually unsafe. We have given a dangerous amount of value to social media and gaining followers so much so because it serves our lies and facades so well. We can be and seem to be anything/anyone we want to portray. We can preach transparency and hide our sins. We can preach marriage and hide infidelity. We have accidentally misled other believers on purpose and instead of contending for the faith and being adequate representatives, we are misrepresenting who Jesus is, what He died for and why we even gather in His name. It is time refocus us, recenter our culture, and respond as believers to change our core value systems."