The search for a Comprehensive Life and Faith: Part 2


Yesterday I ran a list of questions, and posted a link with the questions on Facebook. I have had a long running dialogue with someone concerning the last question, “Does Christianity make sense, or is it just the hiding place of right-wing fascists who want to run everybody else’s lives?” My dialogue partner has raised very serious questions concerning the use of Christianity to justify heinous crimes, genocide and murder over the centuries.

I actually concur with the concerns of my interlocutor. It is why I ask the question. He has serious doubts about the efficacy of belief in a divine figure when belief in that figure can be so easily misused and abused to justify despicable acts. Right now there is legislation appearing in every state that cuts education, imposes strict standards on what decisions women can make concerning their bodies, forces certain invasive procedures on all women seeking abortions. These are all sponsored by legislators parading their Christian credentials in order to get elected. Talk show hosts have spoken in very degrading terms about women, freely violating the 9th Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” A legislator in Idaho recently spoke in session and proclaimed that women will use the excuse of rape just to get an abortion. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-winder-rape-abortions_n_1366994.html)

This is my point of struggle. These criticisms of how Christianity is practiced by its many contemporary adherents are very legitimate. The words of Jesus railing against the abuse of the religion of his time rings in my consciousness:
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,* so that the outside also may become clean. ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
 At this moment in history, there is a tremendous struggle going on for the heart and mind of the Christian faith. The very hypocrisy that angered Jesus so deeply is being played out on our national stage. Politicians pander to the votes of a conservative Christian constituency and turn a blind eye to very real social needs crying out for solution. Jesus said “Truly I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me” (Matthew 25:40. Read the whole warning: Matthew 25: 31-46). These supposedly Christian lawmakers have the most powerful means available to them on the face of the earth that could be used to feed the hungry, provide medical care for the sick (which is what it means to “visit the sick”), clothe the naked and welcome the stranger (foreigner). Why don’t the expressly stated concerns of Jesus Christ occupy the legislative dockets of Congress and our Statehouses?

This main issue behind all of this is the nature of our witness as Christians. An unbelieving world looks at the teachings of Jesus, and looks at our actions and sees a tremendous disconnect. Or worse yet, they look at the actions of Christians and presume them to be the teachings of Jesus.

What I am searching for is a comprehensive life. I am searching for a way to live that fully embodies the Way of Jesus, and which searches out and dissolves everything in me that prevents me from living that Way. I am searching for a way that heals and transforms all the ugliness, pain and anger within me into wisdom, compassion and mercy. I am looking for a way that harnesses that wisdom and compassion and turns it into service in the world that endeavors to transform the world into a place of justice, opportunity, kindness and beauty for all.

Is this too much to ask of my religion? Is it too much to ask of any religion?

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