Let's ignore the homophobia. Let's ignore the scriptural condoning of slavery, the sex slaves, that the Bible sets pretty high limits on how much you are allowed to beat your slaves. Let's ignore that the entire point of the entire point of the Book of Job is that God doesn't answer prayers or reward righteous men on Earth.
I'm not talking about how Christianity can lead people to commit evil deeds, like the fire bombing of abortion clinics or how Chic-fil-A fired an employee for refusing to take part in Christian prayer.
There is no point in claiming any of those things because there are easy responses that are impossible to argue against; that the people who try to murder medical doctors aren't really Christian (I never thought there were any true Scots anyway), that the Old Testament somehow doesn't really apply, or that the references to slavery in the New Testament are translated incorrectly. There's no reason to bring up obscure scripture to show that Christianity is hateful.
You don't have to look any further than the core message; that Jesus saves. There is literally nothing that could be more hateful than this message, what could be more hateful than the idea that all others deserve and will receive an unimaginably bad punishment for all eternity?
This is somehow perceived as an upbeat message, that all you have to do is have faith and you will be rewarded with eternal salvation. All these songs that people sing on Christmas about how great it is that Christ the Savior is here are directly songs about how anyone of any other religion is going to burn eternally. Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists; all going to burn forever, even the ones who devote their entire lives to helping the needy.
I have been asked by friends of mine (even ones who are openly atheist) why I do not go to church with my family on Christmas Eve. I have also had a few less friendly quasi-allegations that I am neglecting my filial obligations solely to avoid an hour of tedium. I cannot understand how people feel this way, how anyone can go along and sing songs that are implicitly about how your neighbors, your friends, your family, or (in the case of atheists who don't want to make waves) you will be burning in hell. It is a completely absurd scene, people literally damning themselves, shaking hands with other people who are there explicitly to pat themselves on the back for their salvation and your damnation, and doing it all with a big smile on their face.
So what? Why can I not accept that churches are a force for good in their community and that no person or organization is perfect? It is totally irrelevant to my point if churches today are a net positive force. No one can dispute that churches give people amazing consolation in times of need or that they provide impressive sense of community.
That is simply not enough for me. I can't just ignore the core message of damnation just because the organization also organizes food drives. The modern KKK also does community service, and I personally wouldn't consider it to be moral to be a member of the KKK even if you only gave lip service to the core hatred because you were able to achieve net good through their charitable acts. The core beliefs that an organization stands for are not simply erased by a few good deeds.
It is every man's imperative to be as moral as possible in this short life we have. I happen to be blessed enough with the life that I have that I have the luxury to stand up for what I believe in. I have sufficient luxury that I do not have to accept that hate is necessary to achieve good in the world.
Even if I could stomach sitting in a crowd of friends and neighbors cheering for a message that is condemning me to hell, even if I accepted Jesus Christ and my lord and savior, I still cannot imagine myself sitting through the another minute of the average church service. It would be a betrayal to all of my non-Christian friends and neighbors, how could I look them in the eyes on the same day that I condemned them to ultimate pain?
There is no reason why you have to accept hatred into your heart just to be a member of a community. The only reason why this continues in perpetuity is because people are unwilling to speak against the institutional hatred that they see every Sunday.
Aside: I am specifically thinking of sola fide (that you are saved by faith alone), which is I know is a mostly a Protestant belief, though from what I know about Catholicism they aren't exactly running handing out salvation to Buddhists. If there really are Christian churches that are teaching salvation purely through good works regardless of accepting Christ, then I am very surprised to hear it.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are reacting against is really a form of "Gnostic Christianity" - based on Greek philosophy - in which salvation is dependent on adherence to a certain message or set of doctrines. Unfortunately most evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity seems to take this form. I am a Christian, but I have the same concern that you have. I find it incomprehensible how, for example, a mission organisation working in Asia (I have one particular organisation in mind) talks about its great acts of love and compassion towards the poor and the needy, and talks about the love of God for all people, and yet also states in one of its major publications: "Unfortunately for millions in the Two-Thirds World, it will be too late unless we can reach them before they slip off the edge into eternal darkness." This book makes clear that this "eternal darkness" consists of a bottomless pit where the fire is not quenched and where the damned will be tormented forever. This organisation asserts that even those who have never even heard of Jesus (through no fault of their own) deserve to be thrown into this hideous place. And yet apparently "God loves these people". I find this attitude perplexing in the extreme. If God loves these people, then why does he not simply save them - or better still, create them in such a way so that they are never in danger of going to hell?
ReplyDeleteI certainly believe in "salvation", but my salvation does not imply the damnation of any other person. When I sing about the love of God, it is not simply on the basis that "God loves me", but that God is objectively love towards all people. How that love is worked out in other people's lives is not for me to judge. I agree that there are some very difficult issues in the Bible - particularly in the Old Testament - concerning the points you raise in the first few paragraphs of your article. But it is interesting to note that when God called Abraham with the promise that he would make of him a great nation, the intention was that that nation - Israel - would be a blessing to other nations (Genesis 12:3 - "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.") As I see it, the choice of Israel is the basis of the New Testament doctrine of election: we are chosen, not in order that those who are "not chosen" are damned, but in order that we should be a blessing to others, irrespective of whether they agree with Christianity or not. So I see my Christianity as something entirely positive, and it does not imply a hatred or condemnation of those of other persuasions (even though I may, of course, disagree with other positions. Intellectual disagreement does not imply personal condemnation).
As for the idea of hell: I do believe in "hell", in the sense that a moral universe in which there exists free will must imply the possibility that some people will ultimately reject the love of God, which is not the same as disagreeing with or not believing a set of doctrines. Perhaps it's actually the love of God which torments those whose hearts are full of evil, pride and violence? And perhaps many of those who ultimately reject this love will be "Christians" doctrinally? Who knows? And perhaps the only reason hell is eternal is to do with the stubborn free will of the unrepentant and not to do with God eternally refusing to forgive (in other words, the door is locked on the inside)?
How absurd that you support Israeli occupation and oppression to please God. That God must be a psychopath.
DeleteYou know the irony of this entire article? If sin really is the central problem of humanity, if sin really does give us eternal death, and if we really do need to be forgiven, cleansed and set free, then nothing about the message of Jesus is hateful at all.
ReplyDeleteYes, you have made it clear how much you dislike everything about it, but disliking it does not make it false. There are lots of things about life that I detest, but how I feel about them has no bearing on whether or not they exist.
It's only hateful if it's not true. It is only hateful to tell people they need to be rescued if they do NOT need to be rescued. If they do need rescuing, if they ARE facing an eternity of punishment, then frankly, NOT telling them is the hateful, evil thing to do.
Since the central assumption of your entire article is that Christianity is false, and your arguments are completely dependent upon that foundation, you haven't really proved anything. You have assumed Christianity is false. You have presented no evidence to support your belief.
So, all you have shown is what you believe, and what could be assumed if your belief is correct.
Having spent 35 years examining the linguistic, historical, physical, psychological, and scientific evidence for Christianity, I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that it is true. Doesn't mean I can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, but there is more than enough evidence to convince me it is true.
Therefore, to me, your conclusions are utter nonsense. Because I believe it is true, it is no more hateful to tell the world they need salvation from sin than it is to tell a cancer patient they need surgery to survive.
If I am wrong, and you are right, I lose nothing. So I win either way. I am living a fulfilling, enriching life now, and I get the exact same reward or lack of reward that everyone else gets.
If you are wrong, and I am right, however . . .
There is a third possibility you are ignoring, which is that there is a real supreme being and afterlife and those who preached or held hate in their hearts will be damned. I don't think this is incompatible with Christianity, perhaps you are a modern day Job and the hateful message that you see is a test, and the righteous are those who can truely drop the hate ("my Jewish neighbor will burn in hell") and keep the love ("love thy neighbor").
DeleteIn which case of you are wrong ...
Oh. Pascal's Wager. Now THERE'S an original position.
DeleteYou're also an example of one of Christianity's prime faults. Sheer unadulterated arrogance.
DeleteNarrow is the gate that leads to salvation, few find it.
ReplyDeleteWhy narrow? What gate? What salvation? Salvation from who or what?
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