FollowRoots. They can grow deep and wide, overwhelming the ground around them, making it difficult to dig them out. Culture and popular opinion, encompassing all who are in a society, can be as tough as these roots to isolate and expose.
A lot of electronic ink and raw emotional energy has been spent recently, addressing President Obama’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast. While I disagree with his assessment and judgment in what he said, his point that some in the Christian church have made a contribution to the horrors of our past is correct. All one has to do is look at the many churches which supported slavery and Jim Crow laws, not to mention the Crusades.
Why did the Church make such contributions during these horrific seasons in our history? This is a fair question today’s church must understand and address. Did these events originate in the believing church of Christm or was the Church simply complicit in going along with the prevailing beliefs and values of the surrounding culture.
Generally speaking, it was the latter. The Church was being shaped by the surrounding culture and values. This is understandable — the church was birthed in the midst of popular culture and values, and unfortunately she was slow to give up those values and beliefs, contrary to Jesus’ calling for her.
Christians were first called “followers of the Way.” What, or who, was the Way? It was Jesus and His teachings! This is to be the core of the Church’s identity, beliefs, values, and actions. When this is not her identity, she maintains and lives out the identity and beliefs of society and culture, or some perverted form thereof.
The church participated in atrocities such as slavery and racism because she failed to take on and be discipled into her new identity as those who have been called out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. She maintained her old secular identity, beliefs, values and behaviors, and lived like the culture around her.
Should the church be called to account? Absolutely! However, she is accountable for more than her bad behavior, which reflected the prevailing behavior and values of surrounding culture. She is accountable for not embracing her new identity in Jesus and reflecting His identity, beliefs, and behavior. Throughout history, present day included, too many churches are more like the surrounding culture than the character of Jesus. Those who comprise today’s Church need to reclaim their identity as followers of the Way.
Elim’s mission and vision is to develop passionate followers of Jesus and His ways. This is our identity, which shapes our beliefs and then our behavior. Honestly, nothing else matters as much as this one focus!
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I find it interesting that the same people who frequently cite all the damage that Christianity has (supposedly) done on the planet … which is, as you pointed out, damage done by people acting in the name of Christ but who aren’t following the ways of Christ … neglect to give a fair hearing to all the good that’s been done in the world by people acting in the name of Jesus.
Think about it. Who runs the ministries that feed the homeless and cloth the naked? And does a better job at it than the government? How many thousands of brave and selfless missionaries traveled to far-away places like China and Africa to share the Gospel and help people improve their lives? And what organizations are most effectively serving as the hands and feet of Jesus to help lift third-world communities out of the vicious cycle of poverty and survive natural and man-made disasters? (Hint: I work for one.) They are predominantly Christian organizations, as well as denominational representatives of a wide variety of types of Christian churches.
All these good deeds, and many more, unfortunately go unsung in the face of accusations of Christians being on a “high horse” when it comes to historical events like the Crusades. (And I’m not sure I even buy Obama’s perspective on those either. Charisma Magazine just published a very interesting article demonstrating that, historically, the Crusades were designed to liberate peoples who were being violently overwhelmed and oppressed by Islamist invaders. Sound familiar?