Onward Christian Soldiers

 

Jesus engages in fisticuffs in the temple.

Another argument against religion: “Pie in the sky when you die.” It serves to reconcile people to a lot in life that they should be striving to change. It serves to perpetuate social and personal wrongs.

Christianity certainly can be and has been used to do this. The concept “gentle Jesus meek and mild” and the demand for forgiveness can be manipulated in this way.

But this is a manipulation, a falsification of Christian doctrine. Christianity cannot be blamed for it. 

There is no gentle Jesus in the gospels. He condemns the powers that be, the scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, in uncompromising terms. He tells his followers to arm themselves. He overturns the tables of the moneychangers. 

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12: 49-54)

He merely advises against fighting lost causes. That is what “turn the other cheek” is about.

He preaches forgiveness if and only if the offender has repented and tried to make amends. Otherwise, self-evidently, one is endorsing sin. “Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus teach that forgiveness should be offered unconditionally.” “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.” (Luke 17:3)

Christianity is often blamed for “the divine right of kings.” This forms no part of Christian doctrine, and was proposed by secular rulers. Pagan religions usually see the king as a god, who rules by divine right. Christianity rejects this. In the Old Testament, kings are commonly called to account by the prophets. In the new, civil government is said to be in the gift of Satan. “It has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.”

As a practical matter, no other religion or ideology has done a better job of righting the wrongs of the world. Christianity produced liberal democracy and the doctrine of human rights. The doctrine can be traced back through the Jesuits to Aquinas; Locke explicitly based it on the Bible. Wilberforce successfully appealed to Christianity to end slavery. MLK successfully appealed to Christianity to end discrimination against US blacks. Desmond Tutu appealed to Christianity to end apartheid in South Africa. John Paul II appealed to Christianity to end Communism in Poland.

Christianity gives guidance on when to fight, and when to hold back, “A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” With the assurance of ultimate justice, something that gives heart and strength to those who know they are fighting for what is right.