When people say that they love Jesus and his ideals, but they don't like the church or the term Christian, I get it. My reasons for looking for a new faith community were the same reasons people have today. People have done absolutely awful things in the name of Christ, from war to cheesy t-shirts that co-opt a corporate logo and give it a pseudo-Christian spin. The Church has a 2000 year laundry list of mistakes, but does that mean it is evil?
In today's culture, people are suspect of the organized and established religion. I can't blame them. We love to blame other people and organizations for the struggles of the world. Today, with Catholic sex abuse scandal, Westboro Baptist "Church," and crazy people saying things like God ordained natural disasters to punish us for homosexuality or whatever "sin" they think is the worst at the time. Therefore, we have decided to use Christianity/the Church as a scapegoat. If the church hadn't gotten involved in politics the nation would be in better shape. If Christians would butt out there would be less wars because Just War Theory is bogus. If the church was more like Jesus we would absolutely be involved with it, but it isn't. It's actually the reason for all of the ills in the world.
You know what is amazing about the church. It is a mix of people who meet together as broken, awful, sinful, wounded, and unloved people to hope for a life of fullness, grace, and love. The Church has done awful things because it is made up of broken people. We do awful things when we forget that we are in fact people who are capable of being wrong and horrible to each other. Let's stop blaming the Church for our problems and start trying to authentically do our faith with other people who are hurting. Then, we should call that the Church.
2 comments:
ehhh. the church and Christians have always been a convenient scapegoat. Jesus was getting blamed for stuff before he even died, so it's not like the harsh words are news to us.
Most folks will admit that people are broken - that's a nearly universal rule in the world's religions.
The source of some scapegoating is actually the hypocrisy, whether present, or perceived, in the Church. I mean, we'll admit that we, and others, are broken - but it's when someone or some group pretends to have all the answers, and pretends to have attained a higher level of moral propriety that people get upset.
Meaningful assertion on a day when I find myself wondering how I fit in/relate to the church when I don't tend to agree with those politics they shouldn't be into in the first place.
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