To Be a Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian now, in this present time and place? It is a question I have been asking myself with increasing urgency in recent years. Safely within the four walls of the church I attend we sing “They’ll know we are Christians by our love” and “Christian hearts in love united,” and the pastors preach of Jesus’ love for the whole world. Then I go home and read the news, and so much of what is identified as “Christian” is very far from what I know of Jesus’ teachings.

As a member of a mainline, ecumenically active Protestant denomination, I’m inclined to hold a generously broad view.  If person or group identifies themselves as Christian, I’m willing to take their word for it without applying any test of doctrine or practice.  But when I observe their words and actions, I have to wonder – if that is Christian, then what am I?

Jesus taught his followers, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-16a) Examining the fruits of those who claim to be Christian, then, is a Christ-approved way of discerning whose example we should imitate and whose we should reject.

There is a secretive, politically powerful Christian organization known as “The Fellowship” or “The Family” which since 1953 has organized the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. They gained quite a bit of unwanted notice last month when the U.S. Department of Justice filed an affidavit against Maria Butina, stating that she was an unregistered Russian agent who, among other tactics, used the Prayer Breakfast for entrée into the highest levels of government.

The many intricacies of Family involvement in U.S. and international affairs cannot be detailed in this brief column. What is important here is the teaching on which their activities are based.  As investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet explained in an interview published by Vox, the Family was begun by Abraham Vereide, a Christian leader of the 1930s, who “felt that God spoke to him and told him that Christianity may have been getting it wrong for 2,000 years, with this focus on the poor and the weak and the down and out, and what God actually wanted was for Abraham — and those whom he chose — to minister to those whom he called the ‘up and out,’ the ‘key men.’”  Thus they privilege one man’s private vision over the witness of the Gospels and cultivate powerful leaders who will live up to their idea of Jesus as an authoritarian strong man.  Abandoning the poor in favor of the powerful doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

The Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby chain, are well-known for having successfully argued before the Supreme Court that their deeply held Christian faith prevents them from providing contraceptive insurance coverage to their female workers.  That faith did not stop them, however, from illegally importing thousands of antiquities artifacts that had been looted from Iraq. Federal prosecutors uncovered a complex smuggling operation, seized the items, and fined Hobby Lobby $3 million.  In May of this year the objects, some nearly 4,000 years old, were returned to Iraqi officials.

Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby, is also Chair of the Board and primary funder of the Museum of the Bible that opened in Washington, D.C. late in 2017.  Museum authorities insist that all of the items in their collection were legally imported and are properly documented. Their exhibits include a number of objects from Green’s personal collection, however, and serious scholars have expressed reluctance to trust the Museum as a legitimate place for research. Deceit, smuggling, theft – are these the fruits of truly devout Christians?

Even more troubling than either of these examples is the on-going intertwining of Christian theology with racism and white supremacy.  The Rev. Jim Wallace has termed racism “America’s Original Sin,” but its roots go back centuries before the founding of our country.  Christian ministers used the Bible to justify slavery and the subjugation of people of color.  The Ku Klux Klan “lights” (that is, burns) crosses, a central symbol of the Christian faith, as a means of terrorizing their Black neighbors.  The churches belonging to Christian Identity, a particularly virulent racist and anti-Semitic sect, gained considerable popularity among white supremacists in the 1980s and 1990s.  Though not so numerous now as they were a decade ago, they are still spreading hate around the nation.

More insidious, and far more widespread, are the everyday expressions of bigotry and bias.  There are the Facebook friends who post “Type Amen and share if you love Jesus” in the morning and a few hours later forward a foul-language rant against a Black politician.  There are the regular church-goers who insist that all Arabs are terrorists, that Mexicans are drug dealers, and that sports teams named for a racial slur against Native Americans are just following tradition.

The list goes on and on.  I haven’t even mentioned the preachers who live in multi-million dollar homes and own private jets while cajoling poor believers into sending donations they can ill afford. Or the litigants working to redefine religious liberty so as to give them the freedom to avoid non-discrimination laws and refuse service to folks with whom they disagree, all in the name of their interpretation of Christian scripture. Are bigotry, hatred, and greed the proper fruits of the Christian?

So I am left with my quandary. What does it mean to call oneself Christian in today’s world?  I have already had experiences of needing to convince non-Christians that, though I identify as Christian, I am not their enemy.  I pray for the day when every person who bears Christ’s name is indeed known for our love.