TRFG - Doubt 4 - The church is responsible for so much injustice
In order to make these lessons more readily digestible, I have decided to switch up the format a little. Here, I will publish a more succinct summary of the topic discussed in Keller’s book along with some questions. Please read the summary, answer the questions, and be prepared for discussion on Sunday. I also highly encourage you to discuss these topics with your parents and now more than ever, you might want to consider buying Keller’s book.
The Challenge
The church has a history of supporting injustice and destroying culture. If Christianity is the true religion, how could this be?
I have to doubt any religion that has so many fanatics and hypocrites. There are so many people who are not religious at all who are more kind and even more moral than many of the Christians I know.
The Argument
Throughout history, we find several examples where the major, traditional, orthodox religions of the world have all led to extreme violence and oppression. For instance, the Inquisition and African slave trade plagues Christian history. It was a culture steeped in Buddhism and Shintoism that brought about the militaristic Japanese empire. Hindus in India have burned down Christian churches and Muslim masques in the name of their religion. Finally, much of the terrorism in the world today is fueled by Islam.
All of these examples have caused some to say that orthodox religion must be the problem. They argue that religion provokes racial differences and magnifies them. It provides a deep and over-arching reason for societal differences causing one class to be seen as inferior to another.
On a personal level, it’s not hard to find plenty of examples of professing Christians with glaring character flaws. We hear of tremendous moral failings by church leaders. And, there is much more divisiveness within the church than within other voluntary organizations. Why would this be if Christianity is the true religion? Doesn’t Christianity change people?
Probably the number one deterrent for most people is what they would deem “religious fanaticism”. Many people know someone who has been “born-again” and then begins to rage against all the things they see in our culture, be it the public school system, movies and television, or democrats. These people are labelled fanatics. In a lot of people’s minds, religious expression exists on a scale from nominal, where one hardly believes or practices their religion to fanatical, where they believe “too much”. In this scenario, the ideal “amount” of faith is somewhere in the middle. You need to believe what you say you do, but not be too extreme.
The Response
It should also be noted that much suffering in the 20th Century was caused by groups who were not religious, but secular. The Communists in the Soviet Union and Nazis in Germany come to mind. Preceding these, the French Revolution similarly replaced traditional religion with human reason. In each case, something else became the over-arching principle used to oppress others. For the Communists it was the state, for Nazis it was race, and for the French it was liberty and equality.
We cannot overlook, justify or lessen in any way the suffering that has been caused in the name of Christianity. However, we should all recognize that there is something so twisted within people that literally anything can be used as an excuse for violence and oppression. So on this point, I think we can call it a draw between the secularists and the religiously orthodox.
I think we should also all admit that the Bible contains the seeds for fighting oppression including the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. In his writings, Martin Luther King Jr quoted the prophet Amos saying
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24, ESV)
The Old Testament prophets fiercely condemned the use of religion for oppression. For example, the prophet Isaiah said:
Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58:2-7, ESV)
Jesus regularly condemned those who would use religion to gain wealth and power
Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness…. you… neglect justice and the love of God….you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers… who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Luke 11:39-46, 20:47, ESV)
It is clear that the Bible is full of harsh words for anyone who would choose to use their religion to oppress others.
But why does it seem like there are so many non-religious people who are more moral and well-adjusted compared to those in the church? Christianity actually explains this phenomenon in a sense. First with the doctrine of common grace, the Bible explains how “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). So no matter the source (whether a believer or unbeliever), any good deed is a gift from God to poor undeserving sinners. Second, the Bible also teaches that no one is made right with God based on moral performance. Instead, we are reconciled to God as a gift of his grace (Eph. 2:8-9). We shouldn’t be surprised then if we see moral failings within God’s people. “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
Good character is largely shaped by families, schools, and social environments.1 These are things that the individual cannot control. Many people come from broken homes and have terrible struggles in their personal lives that you know nothing about. Imagine someone with such a background. He is hypersensitive, distrustful and angry but this brokenness drives him to God and he becomes a Christian. His character improves significantly from where it started, but he may still be less secure and self-disciplined than the person who grew up with a better background and does not recognize their need for God.
So the view that treats Christianity as a moral improvement plan, where we go from nominal belief to fanatical falls short. If we only consider Christianity as a way to live a moral life, those who are fanatics would really be intense moralists. They are really the same as the religious Pharisees in Jesus’ day. If instead, we consider what the Bible teaches about how we are sinners saved by grace, then the natural response is not pride at how moral we are, but humility because we see our desperate need for a Savior. As Keller says, those who are considered fanatical are typically “overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian, but because they are not Christian enough.”
The Quotes
If what you want is an argument against Christianity … you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say … “so, there’s your boasted ‘new man’! Give me the old kind.” But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people’s souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next-door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count when the anesthetic fog we call “nature” or “the real world” fades away and the Divine Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?
C.S. Lewis
[Fanatics are] overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian, but because they are not Christian enough.
Tim Keller
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Dietrich Boenhoeffer
A private faith that does not act in the face of oppression is no faith at all.
William Wilberforce
The Questions
Question 1 Helen states “I have to doubt any religion that has so many fanatics and hypocrites. There are so many people who are not religious at all who are more kind and even more moral than many of the Christians I know.” How would you respond to Helen?
Question 2 Do you agree with the criticism that if Christianity really does transform lives, then the behavior of Christians should surpass that of the average human? Discuss your response.
Question 3 Jessica asks “The church has a history of supporting injustice and destroying culture. If Christianity is the true religion, how could this be?”