Jesus vs. Christians
Aug 4th, 2007 by Chris
What would happen if you asked random people what they thought of Jesus? What if you asked them what they thought of Christians? Over and over I have met people with high opinions of Jesus, but who have a completely opposite view of Christians.
On the UofC campus, when you asked who Jesus was, you would get everything ranging from a ‘good man’ to ’some ghost who went behind a rock’. Varied as they were, you would very rarely find someone who had something bad to say about Jesus. Christians on the other hand were another matter, you would get responses from ‘out of touch with reality’ to ‘judgmental’ and even ‘evil’. Yes, there were some positive opinions of Christians, but the majority were not.
Why is that? What has gone wrong? We are supposed to emulate Jesus, daily becoming more like him. I have heard many times that we need to be ‘Jesus with skin on’. Then why don’t non-Christians see us like they see Jesus?
The video below was taken for the Orchard Valley Community Church in Aurora, Illinois. The pastor Scott Hodge posted the video on his blog.
We are not leaving a good impression, but I am not saying that leaving a good impression should be our highest priority. I really believe that we should not go around worrying about what other people think. Even so, something is wrong here.
We should not sacrifice the truth to appease, but it IS possible to speak the truth and not give this impression. Jesus did it. Jesus spent his ministry speaking truth, sometimes very hard things to accept, but he had quite the following. I’m pretty sure he had quite an impact. He was loving, gentle, and caring towards sinners. And they loved him. But he always spoke the truth, he spoke against their sin and it brought repentance.
Jesus also did not hold back. He spoke out against the pharisees like there was no tomorrow. He constantly attacked them, speaking out against their rules, their regulations, and against the fact they did not want to hang out with the worldly. Wait a minute… How many Christians would Jesus speak out against today? Quite a lot I’m afraid…
Jesus could balance truth with grace. Maybe it would be good for us to read through the gospels again. Paying specific attention to how Jesus handled truth and grace. All truth leads to a broken fundamentalism that is all about following the Law. It is without grace, we become the pharisees of our day. All grace leads to relativism and a feel good, all paths lead to heaven (or not, if you don’t believe in heaven) attitude. Jesus knew how to balance the two, maybe we should pick up the Bible and try and learn from the one who set an example for all of us.
i like.
I stumbled upon this blog not long ago and I think this is a very interesting post. What would these people have said if they’d been asked about Buddha/Buddhists? Probably very different - though I suppose many North Americans have never met a buddhist, or if they have, didn’t realise.
I am a former Christian (now agnostic) and what gets me about some Christians is that they try to bring their faith to everyone around them. It’s pushy, and it’s annoying, and I think it drives a lot of people away.
Think about it - JHs and LDSs knocking on doors at 8 in the morning and refusing to go away (but those are cults that call themselves Christians, so I don’t really count them). The bible-thumpers in the South (as mentioned in the video) are especially scary. They have run after and thrown stones at foreign (British) journalists who have asked them questions. But those are not the biggest problem.
My biggest problem is the politically pushy Christians who want, for example, abortion illegal. I mean, if a woman believes abortion is wrong, then fine. She has the choice to -not- have an abortion. But consider this article: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/27/17744/0443. If you think abortion is wrong, abortion would not be a choice for you and your partner. Here’s another article: http://disgustedbeyondbelief.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-views-on-abortion.html. Personally, I’m pro-choice but if my girlfriend got pregnant I’d want her to keep the child - unless that child would be doomed to a life of severe pain. Surely a quick and hopefully painless death early on is better than that (something similar should be said about euthanasia). But I digress.
Politically pushy Christians (and it’s not just Christians - I have the same problem with people of any religion pushing their values on me) can also directly harm the people they are attempting to ‘help’: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4081276.stm. Though I think the archaic institution that is the Catholic Church really is out of touch with reality and that the guys at the top do not act of their own teachings. Then there’s the ‘Christian’ Republicans in office who believe God’s on their side and who advocate, and practice, torture and war. But they believe they are ‘right’ (W has said this on a few occasions), and that is their justification.
I know I’ve covered a lot but I wanted to start a bit of debate I guess. It’s not meant to be an attack or anything - just a different perspective.