The Trouble with Christians

Mahatma Gandhi (02 October 1869 - 30 January 1948) is reported to have said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

If many people feel that way, and it appears that it may be so, even among our own people, it is a terrible indictment of Christianity.  I believe there is both cause and non-cause (prejudice) for such an indictment. The accuracy of Gandhi’s judgment largely depends on which ‘Christians’ you look at.  One must take into account the degree of religiosity and integration of Christian principles and doctrines in the lives of members of the many sects of ‘Christianity’ and those who live in this and other traditionally Christian nations but in reality are not Christian at all. 

Gandhi’s problem was that in casting his net so broadly he generalized all ‘Christians’ as being the same.  They are not.  He should have known the apostle Paul’s delimitation: “There is one body (meaning church)…One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all….” (Ephesians 4:4-6) I agree with Paul; there is one true church.  As disagreeable as it is to state it, all others would have to be counterfeit, even though many of their communicants may be fine Christians.  It is those nominal Christians in any denomination whose behavior does not correspond with their professions that give all of Christianity a bad reputation.   

  

America is viewed as, and still is, a predominately Christian nation—again nominally—but the social landscape is rapidly changing with another wave of unanchored (and consequently disenchanted) cohort of young people.  Europe has virtually abandoned Christianity.  The under-age -thirty five generation in America and in continental Europe have increasingly bought into the secular humanistic (non-Christian) paradigm. There are other religious faiths among us: Jews have been among the earliest Americans; there is now a substantially larger Muslim population from the chronically unsettled mid-eastern countries that are a counterpoint to Christianity; and a lesser represented population of the Eastern religions. 

But the focus of criticism, in America, especially from the political ‘left’ is clearly aimed at what is perceived as the Christian ‘right.’  The focus of criticism from outside of America is against the moral standards of Western secular culture that is attributed to Christians but who really are not Christian at all. The ‘chaff’ is growing up with the ‘wheat.’

It is the religiously unrooted agnostic and increasingly atheistic younger generation that Gandhi, if he were alive, would now level his criticism. Moreover, it is precisely those ‘godless’ Westerners, and their moral depravity, that the mid-eastern Muslim Islamists and jihadists inveigh against.  And there is depravity in our society; but it is in no way countenanced by those who are true Christians. 

These realities come to focus in the 2010 book, American Grace, by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, scholars from Harvard and Notre Dame Universities respectively.  It is a landmark study of the subtitle to their book, ‘How Religion Divides and Unites Us.’ The demographics and analyses they cite in their 600 page plus book tells a fascinating and revealing story of who truly are the most religious people in America.  I will not attempt to even summarize their findings but will simply end this essay with a couple of observations I have personally witnessed and experienced in my own religious life as a Christian and that are substantiated by this research. 

People who more closely approach the Christ-like life (and who consequently would be less likely to have been judged negatively by Gandhi, or find they are being judged by other earthly critics and who will yet stand before a divine tribunal and are much more likely to be acquitted) are those who perform, without hypocrisy (play-acting) or guile at least the following: 

·        They will know, understand and integrate into their own lives the principles and doctrine as stated by Christ, His apostles, and the writings of the prophets that are found in the Holy Scriptures.  

·        They will have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, redeemer, and savior; repent fully of their sins; and participate worthily and regularly in the ordinances of the Gospel of Christ as administered by authorized agents of Christ. 

·        They will keep the commandments and strive to emulate the type of life Christ lived and taught (a life of kindness and charity and service to others, of daily prayer, of Sabbath observance, and of a willingness to sacrifice). Christ asked, “What manner of men ought ye to be?" He answered his own question:  "Even as I AM.”

Who are these people—these true Christians?  Look around… “by their fruits ye shall know them.”  They will not be found in bars or participating in pornographic activities or being entertained by R and X- rated movies or neglecting or abusing their families. They will be found doing good, in loving homes supporting their families and in their communities supporting righteous causes, and in their churches and temples supporting God’s work wherever it may call them. 

There is no trouble with Christians who “live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God,” who do not defile their faith by cloak or club or hypocrisy. 

  

I am proud, in all humility, to call myself a Christian.  

And I personally like Gandhi; he could have been a good Christian because he was a good man.