It was the Fourth of July and I was invited to a “Christian patriotic” event. I came away rather disturbed by it. What I heard was a lot of angry rhetoric aimed at non-Christians. It was not a mob scene or anything extreme. And while some of it was over the top, I’ve heard much worse. But it was clearly an angry crowd. If I were a first time visitor I would definitely not be back to that church. I’m not attracted to angry people. Why would I want to become a Christian if it means becoming bitter and angry at the world?
It seems the loudest voices in Christianity for several decades have been angry ones. I hear this angry rhetoric all the time: people railing against scientists and against educators; against politicians, judges, lawyers, doctors; against foreigners and immigrants, legal or illegal, and so on. The list seems endless. It should come as no surprise that Christians are viewed as hostile and judgmental.
This particular event was not a big deal, except that it connected with several other things. A couple of weeks ago, I had to listen to someone telling me about the “secret homosexual conspiracy to destroy America”. My natural reaction is to say, “Oh, come on. What kind of fool to do take me for?” Except that there seem to be hordes of people prepared to believe a great many foolish things. I can’t remember a time when a secret conspiracy of baby-eating Satanists or communist lesbians or some other nefarious out-group wasn’t trying to destroy America. Conspiracy theories are as old as time, or at least as old as our desire to blame our problems on some out-group so as to avoid looking too closely at ourselves. (See Leviticus 16:5-10, for a description of the Hebrew ritual of placing all the sins of the people upon a scapegoat and driving it out into the wilderness.)
This morning I read an interview in Outreach with a woman who has a lot of spiritual concerns and has been trying on the Christian God in her mind to see if it fits. She sees herself as a spiritual seeker, but she is not comfortable sharing that with others, especially Christians, because Christians are so hostile and judgmental.
My point is, is this part of the answer to my perennial question: Why is the church not working for so many people? Is this one more part of the answer to the question: Why is the body of Christ continuing to shrink in this country? To be sure, I can sympathize with these church men and women. Culture has changed so much in their lifetime that they hardly recognize it. They don’t understand the world they live in, they see their way of life slipping away, and they feel threatened. So they fight back. It is the most natural thing in the world. And therein lies the problem: it is the natural thing to do . . . the worldly thing. . .
Jesus talked about this. “If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?” (Matthew 5:46-47) Was he just speaking metaphorically, and didn’t really mean what he was saying? Did he not intend us to actually do that? If not, why did he say the same thing so many times in so many different ways? Love your enemies occurs so many times in his teachings that it seems to be a primary theme. And it was no pie-in-the-sky platitude either. Rather, it was a practical, sure-fire method for converting your enemies into friends. As Paul put it,
If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
—Romans 12:20
This is the way Christianity overcame the Roman Empire. Watching as members of this small persecuted group boldly professed their faith in the face of brutal public torture and execution won thousands of converts to the early church. To the worldly and cynical denizens of the Roman world, the question was: what kind of God could produce such faith, such conviction, such heroism? Certainly no god they knew could inspire such loyalty. These people marched joyfully, victoriously into the arena. It was unthinkable! Read St. Ignatius’s letter to the Romans, and the Prison Diary of Perpetua. Far from fighting back, these martyrs set such an example that their new religion spread like wildfire.
Our culture today is much like that of the Roman Empire in which the early church emerged. Christianity succeeded largely because these early Christians fixed their eyes on Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2) We have come full circle and live in a culture more like Rome than any since the days of the Caesars. Shouldn’t the successful church be responding as did these early Christians?
Here are some quotes from 20th Century theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from The Cost of Discipleship
:
To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity.
If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity.
Every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection.
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.
Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die.
Suffering then is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master.
If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow Him. But if we lose our lives in His service and carry out cross, we shall find our lives again in the fellowship of the cross with Christ.
To bear the cross proves to be the only way of triumphing over suffering.
Every man is called separately, and must follow alone. But men are frightened of solitude, and try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their material environment. They become suddenly aware of their responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision. They are unwilling to stand alone before Jesus and to be compelled to decide with their eyes fixed on Him alone.
I have grown very tired of hearing affluent Americans in their comfortable homes with manicured lawns living in a nation that enjoys greater religious freedom than any other in the history of the world whining about how they are being persecuted for their faith. Anyone who wants to learn about real persecution should subscribe to newsletters from the Voice of the Martyrs. There, they can read about people around the world who every day are being imprisoned, tortured, executed, driven from their homes, robbed of their possessions, raped, beaten by mobs, sold into slavery, and more, for no other reason than practicing their faith in Christ.
We are not called to defeat non-Christians; we are called to win them over. You cannot browbeat anyone into salvation. No one is saved by hostile and bitter diatribes. And no one is attracted to whining, spoiled crybabies.
OK. Enough ranting for now.
