There are any number of ways the subject might crop up, but crop up it will: ‘Religion causes all wars… ’; ‘Christians are hypocrites… ’; What about the Crusades / the Inquisition / conquistadors… ?’; ‘Those Christians really hurt me… ’.
These are different kinds of statements and, as we’ll see, they should be addressed differently – especially that last one. But there’s one thing they all accomplish: they tempt the Christian to dissociate from church.
In reply to these statements we reach instinctively for the quick response we discussed last month: ‘Forget the church, look to Jesus.’ That kind of response might give us short-term respite, but long-term this cannot be our strategy. Head and body will not be so easily divorced. Given the way Jesus has united Himself to the church – and united His mission to the church – we ought not to be offering people a ‘disembodied Jesus’.
So what do we do? I suggest three things – not necessarily in this order:
Bust the myths; Own what’s crooked; Insist on the straight line.
All three of these approaches can prove fruitful at different points. I go into them in more detail in my book The Air We Breathe. But let me take each of these points in turn over the course of the next three columns.
Bust the myths
At the historic and global level, the church of Jesus Christ has been an extraordinary blessing to the world. Let’s, for a moment, put to one side people’s personal experiences, which can be very mixed. But, at the global level, to consider the church as a force for evil is about as absurd as flat earth-ism.
By any measurement, Christianity has been the greatest movement for change the world has ever seen. It has ended great evils (like blood sports, infanticide, and slavery); established great blessings (like charities, hospitals, hospices, orphan care, education for all, and universities); and engendered great values (like the individual, or equality, or compassion, or parliaments, or human rights).
At some point the myth of Christianity’s awfulness needs busting. And because it is such a myth – so bloated beyond all reasonableness – it doesn’t take much to prick the bubble:
‘No, religion does not cause all war, the best estimates say 7% of wars have been caused by religion. 100% have been caused by humans, what is the real common denominator here?’
‘The Crusades, the Inquisition and conquistadors are crooked, but they’re also wildly misunderstood. What are your sources on this and how are you comparing them to non-Christian scandals?’
Again, the timing of busting these myths needs to be considered, and you’ll want to speak these truths in concert with the next two points (owning what’s crooked, and insisting on the straight line). But sometimes myths need busting. And that can be true even when it comes to personal expressions of mistrust in the church.
Evangelist Michael Ots tells the story of a lunch with a non-Christian friend who dropped into conversation the old commonplace, ‘Christians are hypocrites’. Michael decided to inquire further about the Christians which this friend actually knew: ‘What about X? And Y? And Z? And what about me?’ The friend had to admit that he couldn’t think of an actual Christian who fitted his ‘hypocrites’ myth.
When Michael busted the myth it really served his friend. He had been living uncritically with a picture of the church that was holding him back from considering Christian faith for himself. There’s no way our friends will seriously consider becoming a Christian if they think it means becoming one of the deplorables. On the other hand, if they can see how they’ve swallowed one myth about Christianity, it opens them up to the question: ‘Have I been looking at this all wrong?’
Don’t get me wrong, ‘busting the myth’ is not always right. Sometimes it can be the worst thing you could do. I’m not encouraging you to question your friends’ stories of church abuse for instance. In those cases especially (and for all cases generally), you need to take the other two approaches. And please don’t treat every criticism of the church as a myth. Many hit the mark. A lot of them are more true than even the critic knows. But at the same time, there are some significant untruths circulating regarding the bride of Christ. And sometimes standing up for her honour is not only right, it’s a crucial step in the faith journey of our friends.
