Christianity and Society in 2011

Back in 1951, H. Richard Niebuhr wrote a book titled Christ and Culture in which he looked at different views of how Christians should face culture. One of the views was that Christians should completely isolate themselves from culture; another was that Christians should embrace culture as it is and accept it completely; a third was that Christians should live in culture but work to fix it; and the final view was that Christians should live in culture but accept they can do nothing about it. Each of these views has been lived out at some time or another by one denomination or another of Christianity. In todays world you see the Amish living out the first view, cutting themselves off from technology altogether. We see other groups, such as the emergent church, completely embracing todays culture and incorporating it into their worship. I think most churches fall under the third category, with programs for every societal problem. Few churches have the perspective of the fourth option, feeling helpless to do anything. Let us look at Christianity and culture for 2011.

If we look at Scripture, and use Jesus as our basis for interaction, we see that he did not isolate himself from society (with the exception of going into occasional solitude for his own spiritual well-being) but instead went to wedding receptions, attended community feasts and holiday gatherings, and even engaged people casually at wells. Jesus did not shun society and he never asked his followers too. We know that Jesus did not embrace every facet of culture either. If he did, he would have followed the exact same hypocrisy as the other teachers, because that was a societal norm back then. Jesus did not get married or have children (despite what popular media claims), and we know that he was without sin. We do know, however, that Jesus did not withdraw from certain social situation in order to uphold his clean reputation, but gained the reputation of a drunkard and glutton, as the Pharisees called him, because of the people he hung out with and perhaps because of his own behavior. So again, though Jesus did not embrace everything about culture (he himself preached for repentance) he did not shun it. Jesus also did not see culture as something to fix. People do not like to be approached with the attitude that they are broken and need fixing. Nor did Jesus approach culture with the attitude that he was helpless. Jesus, instead, approached culture with the attitude that with love and compassion, he could lift people to a higher potential. Jesus did not see the brokenness or sinfulness in people, he saw their need for love and compassion, and a potential higher than they saw in themselves. Jesus approached each person, no matter what their background (some were tax collectors others were adulterers and prostitutes), no matter what their religion (some, like the centurion and the Gentile woman, were of a different faith than Jesus), no matter what kind of lives they lived at that moment (one woman had had multiple husbands and was now living out of wedlock), with love and compassion, and with the attitude that that person had tremendous value. He never criticized a person for their behavior, he never condemned them for their sins. Jesus came to each person with a full acceptance of them for who they were.

I want each reader to take a serious look at the condition of the world today. Christians ask, if we do not condemn people for their sins, or judge certain behavior, how can we stand out as separate from society? My is that there is enough hatred, judgment, and criticism going on. If you want to be different, and if you want to make a difference, show unconditional love and acceptance, show extreme compassion for everyone regardless of their faith and background. If you want to be different from everyone else, turn the other cheek, be blind to other people's sins. If you want to stand apart from society, show other people their true value as God sees it. Make everyone you come into contact with feel worth much more than they value themselves. My resolution for this year is to make others feel more valuable after coming into contact with me than they did before they came into contact with me. I pray that that is your resolution also. It does not matter if a person is gay, has had an abortion, has gotten divorced, or has used God's name in vain; what matters is that they are worth an infinite value in God's eyes and they should therefore be worth as much in our own eyes. Bring Jesus' love to others today and you will be surprised how you might change the world.

How Christians have Strayed

Hi Friends,
Sorry I have not posted for some time. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. For those who are wondering, I have now completed 7 out of 8 chapters of my book and will begin working on the final chapter next week. Of course, this does not mean they are ready for the printers yet, as their is much editing that will need to be done. For today, I would like to share chapter 1 with you. Please remember this is copywritten material and any reproduction of it can only be done with permission from the author. If you use ideas from this chapter, please provide a direct link from your site. Thank you very much and God bless:

Chapter 1 How Christians have Strayed.

Mary felt ashamed because of what she was about to do, but she did not feel like she had a choice. Her husband had left her and her family had disowned her and she had no means of making any money. She had to eat. Her children had to eat. “I have to do whatever is necessary to feed me and my children,” Mary reasoned. But it did not take away the shame that she felt as a prostitute. It was not the job she wanted to be in and she despised doing what she did. She tried getting other jobs, she tried earning money in a more legitimate way, but times were hard and the system was broken. The only other option left for her, so she thought, was prostitution.
As Mary was preparing to engage in an act that would have brought her shame for years to come, something even more shameful occurred, she was caught by her religious authorities about to partake in a terribly sinful act, causing another to commit adultery. They seized her and dragged her off to a man whom, if he was who he said he was (so they thought), would condemn her and enact the appropriate punishment: capital punishment. He then began to write in the dirt, building the anticipation of the religious authorities, as they thought they had trapped him. Instead, he displayed grace in a most extreme way, he instructed that the one among them who had not sinned should begin the process of putting the woman to death. After writing in the dirt one last time, Jesus looked up to find only the woman. Jesus asked her, “Did no one condemn you?" When she answered that they had not, Jesus responded, “I do not condemn you either.” Though we do not really know the name of the woman in this story (which takes place in John 8), or her back story, the remainder of it is true, and it illustrates an attitude that is no longer reflected well in the Christian culture: the attitude of grace that Jesus possessed so strongly in his ministry on earth.
In Jesus’ time the worst of the sinners were prostitutes, adulterers, and tax collectors. Yet these were the exact people he spent the most time with. We read of Jesus sitting and dining with prostitutes, adulterers, and tax collectors and telling the religious authorities who opposed him that “the kingdom of God was made up of people [like them].” Jesus took those who were considered the most sinful of his time, and gave them the highest place in heaven. This is the common reversal we see in Scripture that Jesus often made of the received norms of his time, encompassed in such sayings as “So the last shall be first, and the first last” (Matt 20:16). Jesus showed grace and mercy to people who never received grace and mercy from anyone else, exemplifying what he wanted from his followers. We see from Jesus over and over again throughout the Bible this forgiving attitude reflected in the way he approached people, bringing compassion instead of condemnation, love instead of judgment. When Jesus was here on earth sinners flocked to him, wanting to be with him, because he accepted them for who they were. Sinners felt Jesus’ love and compassion for them which is why they wanted to be around him.
Yet today, Christians who are supposed to represent Christ on earth, reflecting his attitude, are viewed as judgmental, critical, and condemning of others (Christian and non-Christian alike). Among the vast majority of non-Christians, Christians are viewed as judgmental and condemning. This is backed up by polling done by Christians themselves through the Barna group and discussed in David Kinnaman’s book, UnChristian. Within the abundant amount of polling done by the Barna group in its research of the view of non-Christians of Christians, the three most common negative perceptions about Christianity among non-Christians aged 16-29 are that it is antihomosexual (91% of those polled), judgmental (87%), and hypocritical (85%) (Kinnaman, 2009, 27-28). Eighty-seven percent of those outside Christianity, view Christians as judgmental. I understand that some will argue that it should not matter what others think and that it was prophesied that Christians would be judged and condemned and the target of much ridicule; but when eighty-seven percent of non-Christians feel that they or others are heavily judged by a group that is supposed to be exemplifying Jesus’ grace and forgiveness, we have to question whether we have been approaching non-Christians appropriately. Christians, then, are placed in the role of the religious leaders in the above story, as opposed to the role of Christ. Instead of exemplifying Christ on earth through grace, forgiveness, and love, it seems that Christians are exemplifying the condemnation of the religious leaders who Christ so often came up against.
We find that those most viewed as sinners in our culture feel judged and rejected by the Church. The number one negative perception among outsiders of Christians, as seen from the poll above, is that we are anti-homosexual. Homosexuality is highly attacked today by the Church as one of the most prominent sins in the world today. Popular evangelists blame natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and acts of humankind such as 9/11 on the sinful behavior of homosexuals, calling those acts punishments for our toleration of such sins. We occasionally read of the members of Westboro Baptist Church protesting outside a veteran’s memorial service with banners that say, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” because they believe the death of our soldiers is God’s way of punishing the United States for tolerating homosexuality.
This majority perception of outsiders is not based on fiction, but is based on actual, widespread, judgmental behavior within the Church of which the examples in the above paragraph are just a sample. In the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the main characters who are faking a homosexual relationship are leaving a gay pride event where outside a man is yelling slurs on a bull horn and surrounded by people carrying signs indicating that gays are going to hell. As it turns out, the man yelling the slurs through the bull horn is the pastor of a church and those with him are the members of his congregation. This is not a mere caricature of the Church, but an accurate (and a sad) portrayal of the way most churches function.
We see this type of condemnation on a large scale where Christian leaders state in large venues their negative view of certain sinful behavior or where other Christian leaders perform acts of terror such as the bombing of abortion clinics. We see this also on a smaller scale within our own churches where a person is shunned if a particular sin is revealed or where a Christian speaks words of condemnation against an outsider in a context outside of the church. Regardless, this type of judgmental attitude is widespread among Christians, as evidenced by the poll already cited by the Barna group. Christians, instead of showing forgiveness and love, are casting stones first. The Church, instead of being a place outsiders and insiders (Christians) want to come and be a part of, is a place seen as unwelcoming and unloving that many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, want to avoid.
How did Christians go from being the source of grace and love and forgiveness, to being the source of judgment and condemnation, the moral police of society? How did Christianity transition from being such a welcoming and accepting group, a group all people ran to be a part of, to being an unwelcoming, alienating group that many people, now, want nothing to do with? These are the questions this book intends to answer and the problem it intends to correct.
This condemning attitude now so prominent within Christianity is due to a misunderstanding of how Jesus interacts with different people in Scripture. In the Gospels, Jesus interacts with three main groups of people: 1. The religious leaders of his day, 2. Outsiders, and 3. Insiders. This group can be divided differently by different people for different purposes; different groups can be added, some can be taken away. But in the Bible, we find that Jesus interacts with three different kinds of people: 1. Those who associate themselves with the religious elite, 2. Those who choose not to associate themselves with Jesus’ group, and 3. Those who do associate themselves with Jesus’ group. When reading how Jesus responds in different circumstances, we find that he is interacting with one, two, or all three of these groups.
Who Jesus interacts with determines his style of interaction. This point is often lost on those interpreting Scripture. They simply see how Jesus interacted without consideration of who Jesus was interacting with, leading to false assumptions about how Jesus wants us to interact with people today. So when people read passages where he is being condemning and judgmental, without noticing who Jesus is interacting with, they create a universal rule which says this is how we should react at all times, using Jesus as their example.
I will discuss throughout how to identify each group as Jesus responds to them in Scripture, and how we should translate that interaction in the Bible to our interactions with the same category of people today. This is necessary because of a “category mistake” we have made. We see Jesus interacting with a certain category of people in one way, and use that as our model for interacting with a completely different kind of person in our day. This has created a culture in which secular society and Christ-followers alike label Christians as hypocritical, judgmental, unfriendly, anti-homosexual, and the like because we are interacting with people in an unintended way, mixing up categories of people in our everyday interactions. This book aims to fix this category mistake.
Many remember the popular Christian mantra of the 1990’s when faced with a dilemma: “what would Jesus do?” I am sure some of the readers wore bracelets or necklaces with the saying or wrote WWJD on your backpacks. I remember friends who would recite the question to me without elaboration when I brought a problem to them, as if they had just given me the whole secret of life. My response? Well, I would nod back to them just like they gave me the whole secret of life. As I look back, I see the well meaning intention behind the trend. Jesus is our ultimate example of how we should behave and interact with people. Asking the question, “what would Jesus do?” to help bring clarity regarding a tough decision is admirable. The problem is that the direction of the question is wrong. The question should not be asked, “what would Jesus do in this situation,” but “what did Jesus actually do?” The first question assumes we already know what Jesus actually did. But as we look at many of the actions the Church has backed through the years, from slavery to apartheid, from the crusades to the inquisition, from violent attacks against abortion clinics to hated protests against gays; we can see that often we have not answered that first question correctly. As we hear or read today of Christian leaders speaking in judgment and condemnation against a person or group, as we hear the news stories of Christian groups protesting and name calling and acting out violently in the name of Jesus, as we perpetrate some of these actions ourselves, we will see the need to ask the second question: “what did Jesus actually do?”
As we look at the different groups Jesus interacts with and discuss the ways he interacts with each group, we will start to see that Jesus is consistent with the way he responds to each group. To the religious leaders of his day, he is consistently harsh because of the way they have abused their power in first century Palestine. To the outsiders Jesus is consistently gracious and merciful, concerned more about the person than what they have done in the past or who they have associated with. To the insider, Jesus again is consistently loving and gracious, concerned with their growth and well-being as they remain with him. As we discover the consistency of Jesus’ response towards others, we too will become consistent in the way we treat other people. We will no longer need to ask the question “what would Jesus do” because the answer to the question “what did Jesus do” will make clear what we should do, and will ring through our lives like the clang through a church bell.
As we explore Jesus’ approach in his interaction with the insiders and outsiders, we will notice that Jesus’ approach is never aggressive, never judgmental, never exclusionary. Instead, Jesus’ approach consistently is inclusive, welcoming and accepting of everyone, breaking down boundaries so others would feel his love. Nothing in a person’s past or present excluded them from being welcomed into the arms of Christ. Jesus’ approach was consistently filled with grace, not counting a person’s misdeeds against them, but instead showing them mercy and love, not even considering their failings. Finally, Jesus’ approach was consistently gentle, never forcing anything upon another person that they were not ready to accept. Jesus did not aggressively try to “win converts” but gently tried to help people feel loved and important and cared for. His approach was consistently characterized by one word: “compassion.” Jesus cared nothing about his own agenda, but instead sympathized with others, feeling what they felt, hurting when they hurt.
Beginning in the following chapter I will discuss how Jesus interacted with each group mentioned above: 1. Religious leaders, 2. Outsiders, and 3. Insiders. After we look at how and why Jesus interacted with a particular group, we will then look at how we can identify the contemporary version of that group. We will then formulate a method of approach for that group of today that is wholly and completely based on the way Jesus approached each group of his day. In the end, we will have a clear picture for the proper Christian approach to people in our day; an approach that comes straight from Scripture, direct from the method of the ultimate example himself, Jesus Christ.