Being a Christian, I find it challenging when I see the non-Christian doing something just 'because it's the right thing to do' (effectively a statement in agreement with the Golden Rule), while the church seems at times so intent on getting it's doctrines and how it implements those doctrines 100% correct (if that's even possible) and often seems to miss to some degree the importance of the Golden Rule.
In the parable of the sheep and goats, the sheep are the ones who are praised because the Golden Rule is their standard (without any real indication apologetic doctrine as we might usually understand it), whereas the goats are criticised and ultimately condemned for their "Lord, Lord" religiosity that holds the Golden Rule in low esteem.
I really love "Chesterton’s assertion that “the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting,” but instead the Christian ideal has been tried and found unwanted." Even if he was an apologist of yesteryear, I find much of his writings speak to me and the current world I live in.
I think the answer to Question 1 is that we as humans are often no different that the non-Christian who is equally or more so brutal...but that somewhere in the midst of everything, we search (if truly converted and in a personal relationship with Christ) in our hearts and we do the best we can in the culture we find ourselves in. Yes, I'm sorry such horrors were/are inflicted--I have been on the receiving end of no small number of brutalities by self-proclaimed Christians and clearly non-Christians--but I am not going to take responsibility for what others have done in a different age, time, and culture anymore than I can take responsibility for what those perpetrators inflicted on me. I can't. To even try to take other's responsibility is psychologically sick and induces mental illness. (After all, does the non-Christian take responsibility for Jeffrey Dahmer, since he was a non-Christian? Such logic is not only sick but absurd). No, I can only deal with what I am in here and now...I am only responsible for myself not others. God only requires of me the responsibility of my actions. To try and push or blame or shame me into a position of responsibility for other's actions is to replicate the very behaviors and believes one is claiming to remove.
Christianity is NOT a white man's religion, it never was and it never will be. To go down that rabbit hole is going to only fan the flames of racism. Racism goes every which way--it is based on the assumption that "I am better than you because of ___________." It is a victim position in which a person or group blames others for anything and everything. It isn't limited to the color of your skin, or culture, or ethnic group--unchecked it pervades the entire person in a pitiful way that will destroy them from inside. It is the failure to take responsibility for one's own actions by blaming others either justly or unjustly. It never leads to unity, nor is it a logically sound argument.
For me, the answers to the questions you raise can only be answered in how I personally live my life in Christ. The church, as any institution, is always flawed, but the way one views an institution is based on that person's experience with an individual associated with the institution on a personal level. And that is what I am responsible for. I can't change an institution, but I can reflect Christ in those I serve.
If you have the time, the 5 sermons preached by Randy Roberts @ LLU.org for their "Camp-meeting" series, addressed the very questions you are raising under the series title, "To Believe or Not to Believe: That is the question" (loosely adapted from Shakespeare's famous quote). Randy has a gentle approach to this difficult questions that has helped my understanding of some of the worst stories in the Bible, including the last one in the book of Judges.
Thanks for this thought provoking article, Shawn.
Being a Christian, I find it challenging when I see the non-Christian doing something just 'because it's the right thing to do' (effectively a statement in agreement with the Golden Rule), while the church seems at times so intent on getting it's doctrines and how it implements those doctrines 100% correct (if that's even possible) and often seems to miss to some degree the importance of the Golden Rule.
In the parable of the sheep and goats, the sheep are the ones who are praised because the Golden Rule is their standard (without any real indication apologetic doctrine as we might usually understand it), whereas the goats are criticised and ultimately condemned for their "Lord, Lord" religiosity that holds the Golden Rule in low esteem.
I really love "Chesterton’s assertion that “the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting,” but instead the Christian ideal has been tried and found unwanted." Even if he was an apologist of yesteryear, I find much of his writings speak to me and the current world I live in.
I think the answer to Question 1 is that we as humans are often no different that the non-Christian who is equally or more so brutal...but that somewhere in the midst of everything, we search (if truly converted and in a personal relationship with Christ) in our hearts and we do the best we can in the culture we find ourselves in. Yes, I'm sorry such horrors were/are inflicted--I have been on the receiving end of no small number of brutalities by self-proclaimed Christians and clearly non-Christians--but I am not going to take responsibility for what others have done in a different age, time, and culture anymore than I can take responsibility for what those perpetrators inflicted on me. I can't. To even try to take other's responsibility is psychologically sick and induces mental illness. (After all, does the non-Christian take responsibility for Jeffrey Dahmer, since he was a non-Christian? Such logic is not only sick but absurd). No, I can only deal with what I am in here and now...I am only responsible for myself not others. God only requires of me the responsibility of my actions. To try and push or blame or shame me into a position of responsibility for other's actions is to replicate the very behaviors and believes one is claiming to remove.
Christianity is NOT a white man's religion, it never was and it never will be. To go down that rabbit hole is going to only fan the flames of racism. Racism goes every which way--it is based on the assumption that "I am better than you because of ___________." It is a victim position in which a person or group blames others for anything and everything. It isn't limited to the color of your skin, or culture, or ethnic group--unchecked it pervades the entire person in a pitiful way that will destroy them from inside. It is the failure to take responsibility for one's own actions by blaming others either justly or unjustly. It never leads to unity, nor is it a logically sound argument.
For me, the answers to the questions you raise can only be answered in how I personally live my life in Christ. The church, as any institution, is always flawed, but the way one views an institution is based on that person's experience with an individual associated with the institution on a personal level. And that is what I am responsible for. I can't change an institution, but I can reflect Christ in those I serve.
If you have the time, the 5 sermons preached by Randy Roberts @ LLU.org for their "Camp-meeting" series, addressed the very questions you are raising under the series title, "To Believe or Not to Believe: That is the question" (loosely adapted from Shakespeare's famous quote). Randy has a gentle approach to this difficult questions that has helped my understanding of some of the worst stories in the Bible, including the last one in the book of Judges.