Who we are

“How are American evangelical Christians perceived by nonbelievers?” asks the author of an article I read this weekend. His response: “While nonbelievers will have to address the scandal of the cross, they should never have to address the scandal of the Christian. For many non-believers, Christians are the greatest single obstacle to Christian belief. We are genuinely offensive to them – sometimes this is because of their biases, often it is because of their experiences. Too often we are not salt and light among our non-Christian neighbors. There is little about our contact with nonbelievers that they would readily affirm as life enhancing and a beacon of goodness. Instead we are avoided at all costs...Until Christians face up to how we are perceived, and address the failures for which we alone are responsible, our neighbors will have few reasons to heed our lives and little motive to listen to our words.”*

I have no doubt that all of this applies equally to Canadian believers. The choice for nonbelievers has been between the tight-lipped fundamentalism of a Jerry Falwell, or the hypocrisy of those Christians who claim to live by a higher standard, yet live their lives accumulating the possessions of the world and the praise of man. The truth about the lies we live has been revealed with the disastrous consequences of fundamentalism applied to politics in America, and the ugliness and deceit of Ted Haggard. Christian bumper stickers, CD’s, radio, books, potlucks, attendance on Sunday and at events is not Christianity. We are the hypocrites, the Pharisees of this age.

And there is a greater tragedy I think in the legacy we have passed on to our children. They too have seen the worst of Christian witness, and so will choose to live as we have. And since we have not taught them what real Christianity is, they, like us, have no understanding or ability to confront their own unbelief or the challenge of an unbelieving world.

This is terribly pessimistic, even for me, but there is I believe an answer, which is found in the love of God. I want to discuss it in the next post.


*Preconditions of Cultural Influence, David John Seel, Jr., Ransom Fellowship, Issue #5, 2006, see www.ransomfellowship.org