A born again Christian friend of mine, who is a biblical literalist, would be calling fairly peaceful and generally 'chill' religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism as satanic or evil. Why? Because they just plainly go against her religion. Even yoga is satanic to her. She is a really nice, friendly person. But this view of hers just disappoints me.

I say "in Christianity", because she argues that anything against the bible or Christianity is demonic and wicked. Are her beliefs biblical? Do other Christians (particularly Protestants/born again Christians) also share this view?

P.S. I'm an agnostic with some 'cultural Christian' leanings. To me, not all religions are equally bad --Some are pretty peaceful (i.e. Taoism, Confucianism).

Anton LaVey, author of "The Satanic Bible", tells us that to be a Satanist, we need not worship the devil. Rather, a Satanist worships themself as their own god. Satanists work magic rituals through which they attempt to gain things like wealth, love, or revenge. A Satanist's primary concern must be their own welfare. If a Satanist were to utter a prayer, then, it might very well be something like "Make me rich, make me happy, let me have a great sex life, protect me from bad luck. Give me the job I want, the car I want, give me this and that. Give give give give give."

It occurs to me that most Christians these days, in churches or in private, pray something like this: "God, please give me the job I want, the car I want, the love life I want. Please give give give to me me me." Or, they might pray something like this: "God, please make this church great and successful in Jesus name. Please cause lots of people to donate and let us increase in members. Please give give give to us us us us us."

The prayers aren't very different, are they? In fact, by the definition of Satanic Bible, Christians who pray like this would pretty much be Satanists! Even the Christian Bible seems to agree, with Jesus accusing the Pharisees of being "white-washed tombs" because, even though they had the appearance of being holy, they were only in it for themselves. They desired the "high seats" and "being called Rabbi"; for them it was all about "me me me". This is very strange, considering that Christianity and Satanism should be polar opposites. Let's compare this though to some of the prayers of Jesus: we read that he prayed "Give us the bread we need for each day, forgive us our sins as we forgive others"; it is never recorded that he particularly prayed for wealth or things of that sort, as he was separate from the world. He also prayed "Let your will be done hear on earth as it is in heaven." In another passage, shortly before his crucifixion, he prayed, "If possible, let this trial pass from me, but not my will, your will."

Have you spotted the vital difference between the prayers of Christ and these others I mentioned? Christ effectively said to God: if it is your will for me to suffer, I am willing to suffer, because I esteem your will above my own. Do you see that it is not about what God can do for YOU, it never was. It is about what YOU can do for Him.

So how do you pray? Do you pray "Me me me me me" like the Satanist? Do you pray "us us us us us" like the common church-going Christian, or even the Pharisee? Or, will you pray "not me, God, but YOU" like Jesus did? Are you willing to say to God: "Here is the job I want, and here is the car I want, here is the wealth, or the love life,or the success, or the members of my church, or whatever it is that I deeply desire, but if it is not your will to give me these, please do your will, not mine- I have faith that, like Christ being crucified, this too must be for the greater good." Or, even better than that, is this: "God, I only pray that your will be done in this world, and your will be done for me, whether it is to happiness or to suffering, even as Christ or Job suffered. All I ask is that you show me what YOU want from me, because that is more important than anything I, or we, could want from you. Help me to be a better person than I am, for your sake; please teach me to pray in a way that pleases you; please help me to never put anything above you; please keep me from being selfish."

In the Old Testament a good man utters a prayer to God, something like this: "make me not too rich, lest I become proud; make me not too poor, lest I steal and disgrace thy name. Only give me enough, that I may serve thee as I ought." Like Christ, his concern is not for himself, but for God. If he thought he could best serve God poor, he would have prayed "God, make me poor!" I wonder how many Christians have prayed to be made poor, so that they can focus more on prayer? Virtually none.

Christians- stop praying for yourselves only! Stop praying for the things you want! Stop putting priority on the job, the car, the money, the donations, the social life; let the world seek after these, but as Christians you are called to put God above all. If there is even one thing you are unwilling to give up for God, then that is lukewarmness. You cannot hope to enter a deeper spiritual life.

I will also warn you of this: the blood of Christ is not a free ticket out of being judged for your actions. Christ died so that we could receive forgiveness of sins when we repent of them, not so that we could live happy, worldly lives and only put God second. Christ dying on the cross means you can claim forgiveness of sins if you truly repent of them, and are intent on never commiting them again. But if you want to say "Christ already died for me" as an excuse to live however you want, then I tell you now there is no forgiveness. None.

As Christians you are not free from judgement; on the contrary your judgement increases because you have the light: more is expected of you. "You must be better than the Pharisees if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven". On God's day of judgement, when he condemns sinners for their selfishness, he will also condemn those sinners who thought they were Christians; "Did you really take upon yourself the name of Christ, and yet did nothing for my name except what would also benefit yourselves? You are worse than the sinners who never called themselves Christians to begin with."

Is this you? Are you more concerned about your happy, worldly life than about the things of God? Is T.V. and Internet and entertainment more important to you than humble prayer? Do you spend more time reading Harry Potter than the Word of God? Are you more concerned with serving your church than the Lord? Yes, it's good to serve your church, but would God rather you gave those donations of 10% to a rich church or to the homeless on the street? Would God rather you sung hymns and read Bible verses and hung out with your church-friends on Sundays or that you spend private time alone with him, in solemn prayer? Have you even bothered to ask? If you haven't even bothered to ask, then have you really been living rightly up to now? Have you really been praying in a way and going about your life in a way that pleases God? It's up to you to discover the answer to these and no man can do it for you: it's up to YOU, to pray right NOW, "God, if I have sinned, I now repent. What do you want from me? I'm willing to do whatever you require; to give up to you whatever you want. Only make me better than I am now." Perhaps all God wants is for you to spend a few moments in respectful silence.

The main point I want to get across is this: "The one who gives up his life will find true life, the one who loves this life forsakes true life" forever. If this makes you uncomfortable or worse yet, angry and bitter, it is a sure sign that maybe you have placed too much value on worldly things, and too little value on God.

Blessed is the one who is not offended by me... or by this word.

Just wondering