Christianity for the Few, not for the Many?

Famed Christian historian and teacher Martin Marty appeared recently on a Chicago public television station to discuss his new book, The Christian World. The retired University of Chicago professor is distinctive for his balanced approach to the faith. He is both an unbiased scholar and a fervent believer.

In the book and interview Marty followed the same pattern, telling both sides. He touts how the Christianity grew in 2,000 years from a veritable handful of followers to become the world’s largest religion boasting over two billion adherents. But at the same time he discusses how membership in the faith is currently in decline.

If you want to know why Marty believes Christianity is shrinking, you’ll need to read the book. The question that fact opens in my mind is, should we be concerned?

In its early centuries Christianity was not only a minority practice, it was very much an outsider religion. Christians felt themselves differentiated by their faith from other members of their cultures. That all changed early in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of Rome. From that point on Christianity began to integrate with the cultures in which it was practiced. In Paul’s New Testament times, Christians wondered how they could accommodate their secular lives -- such as membership in professional guilds -- to lives centered on their Christianity. After Constantine the question became how Christianity could accommodate itself to majority status. As a result Christians became much less “a peculiar people.”

So the church is shrinking. Should we be concerned? Or should we just smile and say, “so be it?” I’ve long puzzled over the so-called Great Commission passage: “Go ye therefore a teach all nations …” It seems at odds with Jesus’ attitude in “pre-Easter” gospel accounts in which he calls people to change essentially if they care to follow him. If they are unwilling to give up much, he lets them walk away without regret. Jesus in his wisdom seemed to know this is a faith for the few, not the many.

By contrast, the majority voices in American Christianity today carefully craft their message to isolate the powerful majority from their slings and arrows while picking off the weaker minorities. So we receive constant barrages from organizations like Dr. Dobson’s Focus on the Family against tiny minorities like the gay and lesbian community while messages like Jesus’ challenge to the rich young ruler to give up his many possessions seem to have been stripped from their Bibles.

In a recent issue of its online magazine Dr. Dobson’s group attacks Barack Obama for something he once said about marijuana use. Yet they have remained quiet or have tried to justify the devastation caused by our current war. On the smaller issues that won’t offend their constituencies, they cry out. But on the great issues of life and death, war and peace, economic injustice, compassion for oppressed minorities? Silence. Many true spiritual seekers who were born into Christian homes spot the shallow phoniness and want nothing to do with such a church.
What should it mean to be Christian? I’ll answer with Jesus’ own statement, made at the beginning of his ministry and recorded in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”

Finding the Church's Voice on the Violence of War

I’ve now lived long enough to see our nation engulfed in two protracted wars in which hundreds of thousands lost their lives. While the two wars -- Vietnam and Iraq -- have significant differences, they share these things in common: both were justified by clear deceptions, massive numbers of people died who otherwise would have lived, and many more had their lives thoroughly disrupted. In both situations the church either stayed substantially silent or waved the flag as if it had forgotten its special mission.

This weekend I’ll attend a Peace Conference in North Carolina sponsored by the Southeast Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. I’ll drive some 600 miles to be a part of it because I want to add my “amen” to the effort.

I know many heartfelt Christians will disagree with me on this, but it’s my impression from careful reading of scripture that of all the betrayals of God’s intentions the one most likely to bring a tear to God’s eye is the violence we practice against each other. In Genesis it is central to the way we strayed from the beauty of creation and the primary reason for God’s overwhelming disappointment in the story of Noah and the flood. “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,” God tells Noah, “for the earth is filled with violence because of them.”

Many would argue that violence perpetrated by governments is essentially different than that of individuals. I would say yes; it is worse. If the church will not join God in deploring this violence there’s little chance anyone will.

So it is a sign of hope that at least one corner of one of our major denominations is holding a conference to address a question many individual Christians have asked: why isn’t the church’s voice more audible on this subject? By no means am I suggesting nothing is being done or that I’m the only one who cares about this issue. In September I attended a rally which brought many believers together at a local church to celebrate the International Day of Peace. In fact, I believe it’s because a ground swell of individual Christians have rejected our government turning so quickly to war as an answer to political conflict that the institutional church is now facing up to the issue. Whatever the motivation, I’m pleased to see it happening.

The conference will feature a series of workshops on practical questions facing clergy, lay Christians and congregations on the local level, such as Preaching on Difficult Issues, the Local Church as Peace Advocate, and Building Communities of Nonviolence, as well as presentations on international action involving peace through the United Nations, peace in Palestine and how the church played a crucial role in South Africa’s peace accord.

Dr. Peter Storey will launch the program with a conference opening message titled Finding the Church’s Voice in a Violent World. I hope it happens soon. I don’t feel it’s hyperbole to say if the church is unwilling to cry “peace” loud enough to shake the halls of congress and rattle all the news networks’ talking heads, then we should simply admit we haven’t the courage to champion God’s values. We could close the doors, reconvene at a local sports bar and get ready for a real religious event like the Super Bowl.