From time to time I have been known to blurt out this statement: "I don’t like Christians."
Don’t get me wrong. I am one. There are, truthfully, many, many Christians that I really like. I am willing to be patient with most. I recognize that we are all in process, and I am totally excited about who we can be as we live in Christ, rest in His love, and share His compassion with others. We, truly, can be awesome people.
But we can also be miserably religious, ridiculously petty, unbelievably shaming of others, and embarrassingly judgmental. My passion for "counter-cultural" church is not just a desire to "do church different" nor even an attempt to "do it better." It’s really just a passion, in any way I can, to stand up as a contrary voice to the spirit of religion that destroys true spiritual life, leaves wounded people wherever it goes, and yet is so often tauted as Christianity despite the un-Christlike nature of it. Religous Christians can be the absolute worst of the worst.
These rantings are inspired by a true story recounted by Brennan Manning in his book, "Abba’s Child:"
A while back Roslyn and I took a day off and decided to play in the French Quarter here in New Orleans. We roamed around Jackson Square sampling gumbo, inhaling jambalaya, and finally stopping at the Haagen-Dazs shrine for the piece de resistance– a praline-pecan Creole hot-fudge sundae that induced a short-lived seizure of pleasure.
As we turned the corner on Bourbon Street, a girl with a radiant smile, about twenty-one years old, approached us, pinned a flower on our jackets, and asked if we would like to make a donation to support her mission. When I inquired what her mission was, she replied, "The Unification Church."
"Your founder is Doctor Sun Myung Moon, so I guess that means you’re a Moonie?"
"Yes," she answered.
Obviously she had two strikes against her. First, she was a pagan who did not acknowledge Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Second, she was a mindless, witless, naive, and vulnerable kid who had been brainwashed by a guru and mesmerized by a cult.
"You know something, Susan?" I said. "I deeply admire your integrity and your fidelity to your conscience. You’re out here tramping the streets doing what you really believe in. You are a challenge to anyone who claims the name ‘Christian.’"
Roslyn reached out and embraced her, and I embraced the two of them.
"Are you Christians?" she asked.
Roslyn said, "Yes."
She lowered her head and we saw tears falling on the sidewalk. A minute later she said, "I’ve been on my mission here in the Quarter for eight days now. You’re the first Christians who have ever been nice to me. The others have either looked at me with contempt or screamed and told me that I was possessed by a demon. One woman hit me with her Bible."
I hope, before God, that we don’t take any issue, including the type of church we believe in or prefer, and make it a religious one. Religion makes us ugly in the worst possible way. There are NO issues, in the most primary sense, other than LOVE God and LOVE others. Whatever it takes, can we Christians just get on with THAT!
Comments
7 responses to “I Don’t Like Christians”
I just wanted to say, Roger…I really really liked this post!!!!
It is sad that we get caught up in who we are, forgeting what wer are to do. And that is being a light to the lost.
Scott
Hirsch and Frost told us that they don’t even claim to be Christians in Australia (the type of Christians that most people think of there). They’ll describe who they are by their allegiance to Christ, a subversive radical who loved all kinds of people, sought justice, and died in our place. I wonder if “Christian” will ever be a “taboo” word in our culture (if it’s not already). Are we ready to drop the nomenclature to be “all things to all men”?
Great post.
Fortunately, I know a few who would have done just as Manning and his wife. Unfortunately, there aren’t many……………….
Haha, “I don’t like Christians”, sounds like something I could blurt out in the heat of the moment!
And, Bill, defining what we are when we call ourselves Christians by saying that we are followers of a “subversive radical who loved all kinds of people, sought justice, and died in our place” is just fantastic! Truly and honestly, we Christians should more often remind ourselves of what Jesus did for us and what it all means. I know I need it.
Great blog, by the way. Great posts, and good info on things happening house church-wise.
Wow. I feel the same way. There are so many good intentioned Christian’s that somehow believe that God has called them to be a religious bigot or a-hole. If someone doesn’t believe exactly as they do, then “let the hatred begin!”
This kind of hatred extends not only to the lost or disillusioned (like the girl Brennan ran into) but to other Christians as well. I can’t tell you the number of times I have had an uncomfortable feeling around a hyper-Calvinist when I told them that I do not hold to the 5 points. Sometimes I wonder if they are going to pick up stones…
We must continue to be like Jesus and not let people like this represent our faith. LOVE!!
I was on a airplane one day ,sitting next to a guy from a Baptist Church, who was on his way to Disneyland with a group of Christians(!?) to bash the gay people working at Disneyland.I was so totally shocked.But during the plane trip we talked about Jesus and I asked”Do you think Jesus would do that….what you’re planning on doing? and after our long talk he said”No”,thank you for reminding me who Jesus really is. I was so relieved that Jesus spoke to this man through me and that the man listened.Thank God…thank God.I hope I always follow Jesus and not people even the ones who call themselves a Christian.God knew people,and how they think,in the flesh! Jesus tells me to walk in the spirit and to follow “him.”Jesus always works through love and many people will follow people/other Christians and not Jesus himself.I think when there is a problem then that is the problem with Christians today.