Christian vs Christian: Why we’re both wrong

Christianity has two extremes, and they’re both wrong. Extremes are often dangerous, but in few other cases are the results as unbearably grating on the spirit. I too find myself compelled by the magnetic wrench of progressive Christianity heaving me toward the polar brink of radical behavior like questioning Bible translation conventions, voting for Obama, and publicly mocking Mark Driscoll. If I had to answer in one word, yes or no without the luxury of explanation, to the question: “Are you a Christian like John Piper?” I would grit my teeth, weigh the outcome of how my answer would be interpreted, and probably just say no.

I wish I was able to make the argument that our extremes aren’t so different when viewed from outside of our microcosm. We worship the same Jesus, who has called us to act as one body, a single organism, each with a separate and unique purpose to serve. It is likely that, because of Heaven’s extremely lax perfection policy from which I myself would benefit, I will be spending an eternity with these people if everything goes according to plan. I wish I could say that no matter how we all disagree, our conflict is dwarfed by our greater commitment to the big picture of God’s plan for humankind and Christ’s message of boundless love. If I could argue that point, this would be a much better piece of writing. Unfortunately, we on one side are relatively convinced that those on the other side hold views that are intrinsically evil. One Christian’s obedience is another Christian’s sexist oppression. One believer’s Christ-like acceptance is another believer’s enabling of abominable sin.

The result becomes a very visible and very childish cat fight. On the day of Barack Obama’s second inauguration, Mark Driscoll tweeted "Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know." As appalling and off-base as I felt this comment was, I was more disappointed by the reaction from Christians who shared my disgust. The reaction was visceral, ugly, and surprisingly profane, which made perfect sense for someone accessing the levels of passion one should expect from a person of faith; but since when does the outrage of our passion surpass the spirit of why we are passionate? How badly does someone need to violate your beliefs to warrant violating them yourself?

It’s impossible to discuss extremes without considering Revelation 3:15-16:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

I remember growing up in the church, hearing this passage for the first time, and asking a woefully under-prepared Sunday School teacher “Why does He want us to be cold OR hot? Shouldn’t Jesus want us to be specifically one or the other?” This is a verse you hear a lot in the church, and it bugged me every time. Later, I just assumed that Christians were like coffee. Good hot. Good cold. Bad tepid? Rarely is the verse accompanied by the very next line “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” I never hear this passage mentioned as a warning against stagnancy brought on by prosperity, only against “casual Christianity”. Understanding that this verse is warning against stagnancy, and not a reprimand on philosophical moderation, it could also be argued that stubbornly subscribing to an extreme could actually lead to becoming lukewarm. I wonder how many people are familiar with this verse and have no idea that they are in danger of being spit out.

The issue of extremes has played a large role in my struggle with rejoining a church. I have as much difficulty attending a church that does not recognize its female members as equals as I would attending a church that sees the Bible as a loose set of guidelines and metaphors. Both ends of the spectrum are often held hostage by their political affiliations and the lies and disunity perpetuated equally by each party. I believe that Jesus fits the role of the extreme, but that his standard is outside of the 2-dimensional horizon between right and left, cold and hot, Driscoll and McLaren.

I am not recommending absolute moderation any more than I am recommending moral relativism. I believe there is a definable truth, but I also believe that our inflexibility makes us weak. We need to find the equilibrium where we can combine living without compromise but also allowing ourselves to be open to correction and accepting the possibility that our personal dogmas may not be, and are statistically unlikely to be, 100% correct. Not only does our devotion to the far end of the spectrum make us rigid, it is creating an obstacle in our ability to function as Christ’s body. It is causing us to represent ourselves as God’s bickering children, poking each other from the shopping cart at the supermarket. Unless we can find our peace, until we can accept each other as brothers and sisters, we are in danger of being spit out. We can disagree with each other, but we should see Christ’s love in our correction, not self-righteousness in our judgment. I am still likely to take my jabs at Pastor Mark, but I can also admit the he is making an effort to love and follow Christ the best way he knows how. And I need to be comfortable worshiping by his side, because I may find myself stuck next to him for an eternity.

Take 2

It goes without saying that it has been a while since my last post.  Honestly, I never found myself with a lack of motivation to write or a shortage of topics to write about, but I can’t say I felt particularly proud of the tone or the direction I immediately picked up on from my first two posts, and felt uncomfortable moving forward from the path I started on.  I always wanted reChurched to be more than an outlet for passing churlish judgments of main stream Christians, but instead a common ground for the growing number of other Christians like me who are feeling frustrated and alone within the “body of Christ”.  I didn’t want to fall under the temptation of being the snarky blogger who was a bigger contributor to the problem then the initial conflict they were commenting on.

                I still believe that there are hugely damaging issues inherent with the vocal majority of the church and that they need to be addressed.  I believe that Atheists are making better arguments against us than we are convincingly refuting, and I believe that instead of coherently representing our Faith we are falling back on the infantile training we received in Sunday School.  I believe the Bible is truth and that so so so many people are reading it incorrectly.  However, I also believe in being the peacemaker, not the stone thrower, and I think my posts were better at starting fights than offering resolution.

                So I would like to try again.  I won’t be changing my subject matter, only my approach.  I understand I am not an expert on all things Christian.  I am a guy who left the church over 10 years ago and never lost my Faith despite some prevailing resentment.  I have a lot of rediscovery ahead of me, and perhaps that is really what reChurched should mean.  Not re-educating the mainstream church but sorting out what I thought I always knew.  This is getting pretty fluffy, it’s obviously midnight.  I said to myself that I would keep this short and informal, so I’ll leave it at that.  To my modest readership, thank you for taking a second look at this, and I hope we’ll make a better go of it this time around.

3 Things Christians Should Care More About Than Gay Marriage, But Don’t

If you are opposed to gay marriage, there is a good chance that you consider yourself to be “religious”, which is fantastic!  We live in a country that allows us to freely worship any religion we want to.  Many religions oppose gay marriage – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Mormons – it’s a chance for multiple Venn Diagrams to intersect.  Even though it is a mostly religious issue, we’ve made it a matter of US Law as well, which is interesting.  Not even the Ten Commandments are enforced legally, but somehow we have managed to sustain a faith based argument against the legal rights of Americans who are not otherwise forced to subscribe to any religious philosophy.

I am not assuming to tell you where to stand on this issue.  Well, no.  I guess I am, but I don’t assume I’m going to change anyone’s mind.  That's what makes us "religious", am I right?  What I WOULD like to do, it offer 3 other issues to solve that make more sense than waging a war on legal gay monogamy.

#1. Divorce – What greater threat to marriage is there than DIVORCE!  For the past 40 years, over half of American marriages have ended in divorce.  I propose that if gay marriage is illegal, so must we outlaw divorce.  Jesus clearly defined most divorce as adultery.  You would think that the Christian sensibilities of US voter’s would have ended Newt Gingrich’s campaign dead in its tracks.  Instead, he was applauded when he said he wanted to stick to the issues whenever the subject was brought up.   Yet the same verse than most Christians believes condemns homosexuality would condemn him on the exact same level, if not worse, as many believe the homosexuality in questions specifically refers to temple prostitution and rape, not committed relationships.

Clarification: I am not using this point to judge the divorced population in the US, but to point out the irony of opposing gay marriage when clearly less than half of the country really cares about its "sanctity".

#2. Prostitution – Most people seem to forget that prostitution is legal in the US.  It is localized to a specific section of Nevada, but the US Government legally condones prostitution in the US.  Somehow, this is never a political hot button come election season.  I would sooner vote for a President who is absolutely opposed to prostitution than one that opposes symbolic gestures of lifelong monogamy between two same-sex partners.  However, year after year, there is a specific lack of outrage from the Christian community on a national level to oppose prostitution on a Federal level.

#3. Starvation – Tony Campolo, an evangelical minister and leader of the Red-Letter Christian movement, has a quote:

“I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

While 1 out of 6 American’s struggle with hunger, while 15 million US children live in poverty, while that number grows and grows every year, the response from the political right about taxes and social programs is that it is socialism.  The politically conservative have fought against public healthcare options because they don't feel it is their responsibility to pay for the medical bills of the presently uninsured, even though we are the last industrial nation to provide a public health care option.  However, lets consider Luke 3:11: “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” The government cannot force people to follow this Bible verse, but it sees gay marriage as a threat to the American way of life.

Imagine two American Nations: one that successfully suppresses gay marriage but allows millions to starve, and another nation that effectively uses its wealth to feed the poor and care for the sick but allowed gay marriage.  Which of those two nations do you feel God will judge more harshly?

Really makes you wonder what we as Christians really give a “shit” about, as Tony Campolo would put it.

Unchurched Christianity: Where do we go from here?

Disclaimer: This article is not intended as an attack on Christianity or any established church organization, but is rather attempting to address a growing trend from the perspective of someone directly affected by it and looking to take actionable steps in response.

If you’re like me, you wish there was another word to identify with other than “Christian” as Christianity has become associated with the stigma of being politically extreme, anti-science (anti-fact), narrow minded, or simply intolerant of those who believe or live differently.  If you take offense to that statement, and I myself know that it does not represent Christianity in its truest form, you may need to come to terms with the fact that it is the reputation that we have earned due to the actions of those of us with the loudest mouths and failure of the rest of us to make any noise to the contrary.

I believe in God, but I just can’t go to church anymore.  By “anymore”, I mean since senior year of High School.  As a Christian, I feel bad about this fact, but it would appear that the stats are in my favor in that I am not nearly the only one that feels this way.  For example:

• According to USA Today, 70% of Protestants between the ages of 18 and 30 will leave the church before age of 23
• Christianity Today cites a study that claims the percentage of Americans checking the “no religion” box has almost doubled from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2008
• Andrew Sullivan made a stir recently with the article Forget the Church, Follow Jesus published in the Daily Beast and featured on the cover of Newsweek

On the “Tony Campolo & Friends” blog, Red Letter Christians, Christian Priatt found 7 main responses to why young Christians have chosen an alternative to contemporary church:

1. We’ve Been Hurt
2. Adult Life/College and Church Don’t Seem to Mix
3. There’s No Natural Bridge to Church
4. We’re Distracted
5. We’re Skeptical
6. We’re Exhausted
7. I Don’t Get It

One or more of these reasons may resonate with you.  If not, here’s a list compiled by David Kinnaman, author of You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith:

1. The Church is too insular
2. Church isn’t relevant or interesting
3. Christians are too anti-science
4. Christians are sex-negative
5. Christianity is too “exclusive” — you’re either one of them or you’re the enemy.
6. Christians are hostile

If you Google “Young Christians leave church”, you will not be at a loss of lists and studies like these.  What I found fascinating about them is the general absence of the response “There is no God”.  Whereas I find it likely that atheism, or at the very least agnosticism, is a byproduct of church disillusionment, it isn’t the catalyst for people leaving.  People are branching off because they are either exhausted from trying to live a life free of judgment or guilt, or they simply don’t feel that the church is accurately representing their beliefs.  They aren’t quitting God so much as they are quitting other Christians.  They aren’t straying from the Shepherd, but from a wayward flock.  Unfortunately, some don’t see the difference and find themselves making philosophical conclusions based on their observations of the folly of other followers.

Today I am so disengaged with the Christian community that I raise my guard when I hear someone quote the Bible or invoke the name of the Lord because I more often than not see how the Bible is abused and misinterpreted to push an agenda deviant from the true message of the scriptures.  Although I believe in God, and find new evidence every day that He is real and that He is a true force of love and compassion, I have difficulty relating to mainstream Christians and have developed a phobia of regularly attending church services.  The problem is that I feel this has made me ineffective in living my own beliefs.  Am I a living example of God’s love?  Am I feeding the hungry or the poor?  Am I doing anything to bring to light how Christianity is being misrepresented?

When John the Baptist is first introduced in the gospels, he almost immediately launches into a tirade against the religious leaders for how far they’ve fallen from their purpose.  I wonder what he would say about the state of modern Christianity.  So what is the alternative?  The trend is that my generation is leaving the church, but what is that trend leading towards?  Despite my caution to connect to other Christians, I feel a need for community (or “fellowship” to use a Christian-ese term) to feel that I am completely connected to my own path in understanding and living like Jesus.

The problem is not that others like me don’t exist, but rather that we’re so turned off by the organization we left that we are afraid to organize something new in fear of simply restarting the cycle.  I am not claiming to be the leader of a new movement, but I would like some feedback from you, whether you are churched or un-churched, on how you see this issue.  Do you see a need for a dramatic change?  What change would you like to see?  If you have left the church, what will it take to get involved in something again?  Who else do you know who identifies with the trending exodus from church?

I would like to continue this blog to express my concerns on the topic above, but also to relay my own observations on the side of Christianity that is under-broadcasted.  For any comments, suggestions, or hate mail, please feel free to contact me at: rechurchedblog@gmail.com.