\n<\/p>\n
So this is what I\u2019m thinking about today.<\/p>\n
How Christians treat each other effects, as much as any other factor, whether or not someone stays in the faith. I wish that weren\u2019t the case, but that at least is my experience.<\/p>\n
I have known many\u00a0over the years with\u00a0stories of being badgered, beaten down, betrayed, and pushed out the door and over the edge by fellow Christians and Christian leaders.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not talking about disagreements, debates, or arguments among basically good-willed people, where things might have gotten out of hand, everyone feels bad, and they eventually work it out.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about people of ill will, for whom plain old nastiness as a game plan, a strategy, a badge of honor, evidence of strong piety\u00a0that protects \u201cthe faith\u201d\u00a0at all costs and takes no prisoners.<\/p>\n
It may have happened to you, or someone you know\u2014caught in the sharp-cutting machinery of church and institutional politics,\u00a0the\u00a0dark underbelly of Christian organizations that\u00a0looks more like\u00a0House of Cards<\/em>\u00a0than the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n Under the high-lofted banner of \u201cdefending the gospel,\u201d backroom politicking, gossip, maligning the character of \u201cenemies,\u201d lying, vengeance, and even destroying people\u2019s livelihoods are excused as regrettable yet necessary tactics in their holy war (battle metaphors abound) to root out\u00a0traitors harboring \u201cunbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n I have heard with my own ears such sub-Christian behavior defended as \u201cjust business, nothing personal.\u201d That\u2019s what they say in The Godfather<\/em> movies . . . when someone is about to get\u00a0a bullet to the back of the head.\u00a0Ah, but\u00a0such casualties, though\u00a0truly unfortunate, are deemed necessary when \u201ctruth\u201d is compromised and \u201cthe gospel is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n But it seems for some the gospel is always at stake\u2014whether with elections<\/a> or Starbucks coffee cups<\/a>.<\/p>\n They have become so enamored of their own self-referential God-talk and believe their own propaganda that they can\u2019t tell the difference.<\/p>\n When Christians feel crushed by such \u201cpeople of God,\u201d faith is exposed as something that just doesn\u2019t work here and now. And if something doesn\u2019t work, staying loses its\u00a0appeal over time. Why bother? That\u2019s why they leave.<\/p>\n A faith that eats its own not only drives people out but also sends up a red flare to the rest of humanity that Christianity is just\u00a0another exclusive members-only club, and that Jesus is a lingering relic of antiquity, rather than a powerful, present-defining spiritual reality;\u00a0a means of gaining power rather than relinquishing it. And who needs that?!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard said that the end goal of the New Testament story is the formation of a new people of God, the church, the ekklesia,\u00a0<\/em>made up of people from every tribe and nation.<\/p>\n That makes a lot of sense to\u00a0me. And that also drives home the travesty\u2014the sin\u2014of those who put fine-tuning their\u00a0theology over the purpose for which their theology exists: to build Christian community, to be a light on a hill, salt of the earth, and a haven for the weary.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThey have mistaken their own thinking about God, their theology, with the real thing.<\/h2>\n