The Great Failings of the American Church

Didn't know where to put this. But I would love discussion.

The Great Failings of the American Church

December 12, 2017

It's a funny thing, this American experiment. Everyone views it a little bit differently than their neighbor, and we never seem to be able to come to a consensus as to what the end goal of it even is. We were ordered by great men to be a land of freedom and justice. However, those can be conflicting ideals.

 

You see, for there to be justice, there must be concentrated power. And concentrated power is the single most dangerous enemy of freedom in human history.

 

Free and benevolent leadership must be monitored constantly and guarded jealously. It must be examined for flaws in logic and sincerity, lest it be left unchecked. We take no pleasure in doing so, but the ability to ever-presently criticize power is the true mark of freedom. That being said, the largest three sources of concentrated power in America are government, The church, And business. Traditional wisdom says to write what you know. Well, I have never held public office, and I’ve never quite been the business type… But I did grow up Methodist. 

I still am, if you made me label myself. I believe in God and walk with him every day. As I grew older, though, I began to look at the things around me in a more questioning way.I found that the church that I loved and felt at home in displayed itself to the outside world in a way that was uninviting and antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.  Obviously, this was on a much smaller scale than the national dogfights over policy and dogma we are having now. However,  even on a micro level, on a church to church basis, if we really look at ourselves in the mirror the cracks begin to show. 

 

To put it bluntly, we have a massive image problem. Public perception of Christians is that we are judgmental, hateful, hypocritical, inflexible and snobby. Now, before any Christian reading this gets defensive, ask yourself a question. How did the bibles message of peace and tolerance get botched so badly? How is the same God that saved my life viewed as a symbol of ignorance and fear? My brothers and sisters the answer is simple and brutal. Because the same god that saved your life is being put on signs held by people shouting “F**s deserve Hell!” Outside of funerals. 

 

That's hyperbolic, yes. But it is not untrue. While it is an extreme example of religious lunacy, it is only a small part of a larger problem. Each of us is a flag bearer for our religion and its creed, and we are failing. We are so often very loud about our beliefs. I fear that it is much rarer that we act upon them when it's difficult. 

 

When non-Christians look at us. They do not see what we think of ourselves. They see examples of who we are. They see Westboro Baptists shouting vile. They see pastors on million dollar jets taking ski trips and telling their followers that if they just give one dollar more everything will be okay. They see politicians overstepping their powers and passing laws that ignore constitutional boundaries of church and state while their supporters applaud them for it. These problems obviously are not all Christians faults. But they should be all of our concerns. 

 

It is an epidemic that we all deal with. This tendency to use religion to do what we were going to do anyway and call it God's will. Every crooked preacher, every extremist, every person wearing a cross around their neck saying something racist at Target is ammunition for the doubt of the very same people we are supposedly trying to show the light to. 

 

We focus so much, friends, on examining the bible for every little sin. We scour the test for every small thing we are and are not supposed to do. And then we spend even more time looking at other people and holding them to that standard. We miss the point. The core of Jesus's teachings gets lost. We are not ordered to be judge, jury, and executioner for some high moral calling. We are ordered to be the light. 

 

Give without questioning. Love without judging. Vote outside of your own best interest. Be someone kinder and softer than the world you were born into. It is time to fight, and it will take all of, to take back what the church is and what it means. Because when I look at the modern church in America, I do not see the face of God. I see God in the people in my community doing good. I see him in the near misses and the breeze and the sunset. Christians need to stay together, but a church is just a pile of brick and mortar if we do not bring the holy spirit into it. 

 

If your preacher grows greedy, leave his congregation. If your brothers and sisters show a lack of compassion, stand up to them. An injustice against one person is an injustice against all of us.  If you feel called to lead, run for office with dignity and respect. Or join the Priesthood and build a church that holds up to your ideals. We pray so often for God to show us the good in the world. It's time to be the good in the world.

 

Keep fighting, and God bless you. 

Reviews

[lchildress]

I absolutely loved your commentary! I don't consider myself a Christian for a lot of the same reasons that you mentioned. A friend of mine is a pastor at a local church. He knows I'm not religious and takes every opportunity to tell me about Christ and what he can do for me in my life. One day during a discussion about politics we started talking about terrorism. He told me those of the Islamic faith were all sinners and lovers of death and violence. He pointed to groups who called for Holy War and Islamic extremist groups as examples. I didn't tell him but when I was in college I studied Islam for a semester because I knew so little about it. I was shocked to see how similar Christianity and Islam were. Now there are of course differences but I never saw the hate or violence in Islam that he told me about. I reasoned that a lot of people who call themselves religious are actually using their religion as a way to feel better about their own internal hate for ideas and other humans. In this example his own misunderstandings and dislike for someone who follows Islam is made acceptable by the fact that his Bible says it is a sin to worship a false God.

When I was younger I made friends with a boy that was a year older than me and who went to the same church. One day the preacher pulled my mother aside and told her to be careful letting me play with this boy because he thought he might be gay. My mother in turned told me I shouldn't continue to be friends with this boy anymore or should at least be careful around him. I was too young to understand the concept of gay/straight. This particular kid did nothing wrong and I lost a friend because someone used religion to make it ok to hate this person who might have been gay.

The concept of religion in itself is not inherently a bad thing. The overall guiding principle is that you should love and respect everyone regardless of their sins, for we are all sinners. Somewhere along the way we've lost that principle or given it parameters. Love everyone equally unless: they believe in a god besides your own, might be gay, have made mistakes in life, etc.

I believe that someone's relationship with their god should be a sacred and private as their relationship with their spouse, children, or parents. It isn't something that should be put on display every Sunday or something that needs to be shared with the public every moment of every day. It isn't something that should be used to make money or take advantage of someone.

Even though we take very different paths to get there you and I have the same overall opinion: give without questioning, love without judging, andrespect and celebrate uniqueness and difference. We have so little time on this Earth together and we can either work together to make it better or work against each other to destroy it. I think we can both agree that in the end we can both win if we decide to work together to make it and the people who populate it better.