This morning, it happened again. On a radio program they were talking about the open discussion of death and dying and the way our society, very geared towards individualism and social isolation tends to be death denying, and people are generally squeamish or downright scared of the subject. The fellow being interviewed went on to mention as examples those societies with religious roots: Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Islamic. Because they are socially cohesive and community oriented there is a relative openness about embracing the reality of death. Then I noticed something missing. The word Christian was not mentioned.
When spirituality and faith are being discussed in the public forum it appears that the Christian faith has become the elephant in the room, the ugly sister, the poor mentally ill cousin. Someone we don`t like to talk about nor even mention. An embarrassment.
There are many reasons and excuses for this. The most popular being that Christians of all stripes and denominations have done so much to disgrace their faith that no one is going to take them seriously. I accept that there is some truth to this. The scandals of sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic church, the religious conservative right in the US and almost every other odious absurdity in between has done much to discredit Christianity. I suppose there is no need to mention the burnings of witches, heretics and anyone else the Pope didn`t like during the Middle Ages in Europe and in Latin America until the eighteenth century. Yes, Christianity is probably the most discredited faith in the world.
Except...
When you explore the faith with an open mind and an open heart, something very different can occur. And there is also the possibility of meeting Christians who don`t validate the negative stereotypes of intolerance, hypocrisy and pure flakiness. Which is to say, the kind of Christians never mentioned in the media: people who care for the sick and infirm, who support and shelter the homeless, who feed the hungry, help impoverished communities help empower themselves and develop, provide disaster relief, work for social justice, visit and befriend prisoners and sex workers, care for the dying, comfort the bereaved...
Even though we live in a post-Christian era, the eponymous faith has done its share to define our civilization, our culture and our values and this still resonates in our understanding of liberal democracy, respect for human rights and multiculturalism, pluralism and inclusiveness. That`s right, Gentle Reader, all Christian virtues.
But, to condense and summarize within a few lines the four Gospels of the New Testament, this is what we believe as Christians: God became one of us, in the form of a helpless baby born to poor humble parents in a remote corner of the Roman Empire where he grew up in the Jewish faith. He shared all of our weakness, frailties and imperfections except for one small and significant detail: he lived without sin. As a young adult he came into the fullness of his ministry, preaching the good news of God`s love for everyone, especially the poor and vulnerable and he went about healing illness and restoring broken lives. The religious authorities hated him because of envy and they handed him over to the Romans who executed him as a common criminal. He descended to the realm of the dead where he liberated the imprisoned souls and three days later rose from the dead. He gathered together his frightened followers, encouraged them, empowered them, then ascended to heaven. Ten days later he anointed them with the Holy Spirit, empowering them further to spread the good news of his love and redeeming power throughout the world, to all people, even though they were ruthlessly and mercilessly persecuted to the death.
Those who are Christians have accepted Jesus as God made human and have received into their lives the power and restoring love of his Holy Spirit. This does not make us perfect and often our imperfections and frailties get in the way of this beautiful truth. By the same token, as we further surrender our lives and our desires to God we come into a process of healing, growth and maturation and our lives increasingly reflect the love of the God that so few people seem to believe in. There are a lot of Christians like this. The media tends to ignore us because we tend to be rather inconvenient to the popular narrative and the stereotypes of the intolerant, right wing pedophiles who hate freedom of choice and marriage equality and deny the reality of global warming from climate change. But we aren`t all like this and far be it from us to inconvenience the popular misconceptions of what Christians really are.
In the meantime, there are other religious faiths. Are we better than Muslims, for being Christians? Better than Jews? Buddhists? Pagans? But that is not the right question. I did not choose to become a Christian because all the other faiths are inferior. I don't know if they're inferior or not, and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. I am a Christian because that is how God has called me. I respect other faiths. Beyond that I have nothing to say about them, because my reality, my experience, is uniquely Christian, and this is the faith that I am resolved to honour with the desire to respectfully coexist with others.
It would be nice if the media began to understand this, stop believing all the bad press without considering the other side to the story, and stopped vilifying us, if only by default and silence. I think that we as Christians also have a role to play in disabusing the media of some of the inaccurate nonsense they have swallowed about us. But only if we are prepared to be true disciples, and also if we are prepared to steel ourselves against the unpleasant and chronic misunderstanding that we are still going to be faced with because not everyone is going to like or approve of what we are, nor of whom we represent.
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