The Empire of the Church

"I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity"

This quote, usually attributed to Mahatma Ghandi, captures what is perhaps the biggest problem plaguing Christianity.

Ask any outsider of the faith what's the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Christians and they would be quick to tell you: homophobic, hypocrites, bigots, judgmental, self-righteous, anti-women, etc...

Might as well be describing a Pharisee!

Ask them what they think about Jesus, and you most likely get different answers.

How Did We Get Here?
I love reading about early Christians and the radicality that literally changed the world around them. Their upside down ways went in complete contradiction with the powers that be, and in their fight against these powers there was no other weapon or guns used against them, other than sacrificial love.

Early Christians were radical and puzzling to the outside world. Their declaration that "Jesus is Lord" went in direct contradiction with the world's declaration that "Caesar is Lord".

And then...Christianity became an Empire.

I won't go into much detail of how this came to be, but suffice it to say that Christianity became so intertwined with the Roman Empire that to be a Christian was to be tantamount to being part of the Empire.

This unlikely marriage brought about the institutionalization of Christianity, and becoming Christian became part of living in the Empire, and not necessarily living in Christ.

As all Empires, this Christian Empire was and still is more preoccupied with the care of itself rather than the care of its people.

We still see this in Christianity. I can give 2 examples of my own church, the Roman Catholic Church.

One is the fact that we have closed communion. If you are not part of the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, you are not allowed to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Do you believe in Jesus? Well, that's awesome, but it is not enough to bring us to our table. Wait, you even believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist? Oh man, I wish you can come and partake with me, but sorry. Wait?! You even believe in Transubstantiation?! You should come to RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) classes, and maybe in a year, you can finally take communion with us!

The example given above goes to show, that even in the extreme case that a believer were in complete agreement with what the Roman Catholic Church teaches on the Eucharist, if he or she is not a member of the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, then he or she is not welcomed to partake of the Eucharist.

It is obvious then, that membership in the institution is more important than being part of the body of Christ. If you can't see how UnChrist like this is, then I don't know what else is!

The other is some letters of Bishops and Cardinals that shows how the Roman Catholic Church dealt with the sexual abuse scandal that plagues the Church. These dealings, and the constant moving of accused clergy to different churches, show how the Church was more preoccupied with taking care of itself instead of the people they pledge to serve.

All institutions of Empire seek their self-protection first, even at the expense of the flock,

They remind of the hired hand that Jesus mentions in John 10, and how they run away when the wolf comes and scatters and devours the sheep! They offer the sheep as sacrifice to save themselves and the institution, instead of imitating the Good Shepperd who lays down their lives for the sheep.

If you can't see how UnChrist like this is, then I don't know what else is.

The Answer? Jesus
When I read the Gospels, I cannot help but being filled with love for Jesus. He is just amazing, beautiful and welcoming.

I am not afraid of Him. Something about Him attracts me to the core. There is no one else that has shown me the face of God as faithfully as He has. In Him I see the Father, and when I behold His face, I behold the face of the Father.

He is beyond all else that is. Beyond all institutions, and all who desire can partake of His Flesh and Blood.

Institutions can burn people. They can scare people away from Him.

Here is the Good News: Christ is not the institutions. Sure, He can use the institutions, but then again He can use anyone!

To know Him is to love Him, for He is Love Incarnated. God came and became man. As crazy as that sounds, I believe it really happened!

God came and became one of us, took on our weak flesh and walked the earth. He moved in into our neighborhood. When He saw us, He decided to hang out not with the rich and powerful, but He hanged out with the poor and the oppressed. The marginalized and rejected.

He taught us. He chose us how to live and love others. Even to bless and pray for our persecutors!

And then we killed Him. He was too much for us. We wanted a powerful show of God's mighty power, and our addiction to power and violence demanded Him to smite our enemies. He refused, and we killed Him.

Our sinful violence killed Him. And as we pierced His side, He forgave us! We don't know what we are doing, He told us. Indeed, we didn't. And the blood, His beautiful blood, as it fell on our hands, instead of imputing guilt, it forgave us and redeemed us. Crazy, I know!

The day God died, darkness filled the sky. Our Evil won. We got our way.

3 days later, while the dawn was slowly birthing its light over a cold night, death got tired of holding Him. We tried to kill life but death ran away from Him, like darkness runs away from light!

And He rose. He really did! Not metaphorically, no. He bodily rose from the grave! We could even touch His scars, the living memories of His suffering. The pain that we caused Him left a mark in Him, and He came back not kill us in revenge, but instead to breathe new life in us! He told us "Peace be with you, receive the Holy Spirit". And as He breathed a second creation breath in us, we were born again.

This is the Gospel, the faith we have inherited. Christ has died, Christ is Risen. Christ will come again.

And this is the Christ that we are called to be as well. As many of us know, "Christians" means "little Christs". We are called to be Christ to the world. What we are at this moment is some adulterous union of Christianity with Phariseeism.

Institutions are not inherently evil, and to a certain extent necessary. We need the institutional church because we need a framework and system so that our handing over of the faith can continue once we are gone.

We need the Institutional church, yes, but this church must be submissive to the Church, the body of Christ, because the institutional church was created for the Body, and not the Body for the church.

Belonging to the Body comes first, the IC (Institutional Church) comes to the service of the Body.

I believe this is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 1:12, when the church in Corinth used to say "I follow Apollo" or "I follow Paul". Then Paul answers "Has Christ been divided?...Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"

We need a new vision of the IC, one where the marriage with Empire is dissolved. We need one that doesn't require uncompromising devotion to the IC but to the Body, who is us and Christ Himself.

For we are baptized in the name of Christ, and not in the name of the Catholic Church, Presbyterianism, Martin Luther or non-denominational Protentatism.

Why I Believe Liberal Christianity is Doomed

2 Thessalonians 2:15 ESV “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter”

To put it bluntly, I believe Liberal Christianity is doomed.

Many have claimed rather infamously that the future of Christianity is Liberal Christianity. Looking purely at satitistics, it is hard to see how. It is a very well known fact that Christian denominations that have adopted liberal stances, with a few notable exceptions, have experienced a dramatic, free fall drop in church membership.

Now, this is not to say that church membership alone is a great indicator of the health of a Christian community, but, at the same time, without members there is no community, and if things continue to go as they are now, many Christian denominations, especially the mainlines, will cease to exist in this century.

Look at it from any perspective you want, memberless communities, and communities who fail to attract new members to their communities, are hardly the “future” of Christian communities.

Healthy Christ-like Communities Must Be Attractive

Reading the gospels, it is hard to deny that Jesus had some sort of attraction. We see in the gospels, especially in the gospel of Mark, that crowds followed Jesus wherever he went.

We can be cynical all we want and say that was because Jesus performed miracles, fed the crowds, and because the crowd all expected their military liberation from oppression from Him, and while all of this is probably true, I do believe there was something beyond that that attracted people to Him.

We shouldn't ignore how people were attracted to His teaching and the way He taught with “authority” unlike the Pharisees and the Scribes. We must not ignore how his character of compassion and attention to the poor were also things that attracted crowds, especially the poor and the oppressed.

I say with trepidation what I'm about to say, and I know it will sound harsh, but I feel it's true to my limited experience: whenever I go to a “liberal” congregation, it is usually not filled with the poor or the oppressed, but with people with power and privilege talking about, well, power and privilege.

That alone tells me there is something seriously wrong with these congregations.

What's more, the church, who is the bride of Christ, should be attractive! This attractiveness is described in revelation, where the church is a “spotless” bride, one who has been washed by the blood of the lamb.

Also, Jesus describes us as “light of the world”. One charateristic of “light” is its attractiveness.

If your congregation is not attractive, then a question that should be asked is “is that congregation Christ-like?

I'm not a Liberal. I am a Progressive

That might be surprising to some of you who know me and know what I stand for.

Some people might confuse and use the words Liberal and Progressive intercheangebly, as if they were the same thing. Some, filled with cynicism, may say that Progressive is just a new word for Liberal, a new marketing spin to clear a bad name.

I do believe there is a substantial difference between the two, and while I think that there is no future for Liberal Christianity, I do believe there is a future for Progressive Christianity.

Liberal, by definition is: open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.

Using this definition, it is hard not to see why Liberalism is not compatible with Christianity. A central tenet of Christianity is the “passing down” of teaching from the Apostles, and the calling to “stand firm” on those teaching.

This “passing down” and receiving is just another way of saying “tradition”. The greek used for tradition in Tessalonians 2:15 can be translated not only as “tradition”, but also as the passing down or receiving a message.

As Christians, we are pleaded to pass down faithfully, to the next generation, what we have received. This goes in contradiction with the Liberal value of being “willing to discard tradition”.

This is evident in many Liberal congregations that I have been, where many people in authorities and responsible to pass down and keep the faith (like Bishops) are willing to discard, reinvent and innovate on many Christian traditions.

Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, but this is a myth that offers the hope of new life and new beginnings in our everyday life.

The Trinity is really just an ancient understanding of God, and we need not see God in that way.

Jesus is really not “Divine” but had the “divine” in Him.

Jesus didn't really die sacrificially for our sins, and His death on the cross has no atonement power, but He was simply killed by the system to give us a new model of non-violence to fight the system.

There are many other examples of how Liberal Christians are willing to discard traditions that have long been held universally by all Christians, but these suffice.

Progressive Christianity, on the other hand, is one preocuppied with the poor, stands alongside them, and advocates for their needs.

Progressive Christianity is involved in social justice, but should do so not just in solidarity with the poor, but joins the poor in their struggles and fights the system alongside them.

Progressive Christianity is not a willingness to discard traditions, but instead to stand firm in the tradition of Jesus to do His ministry with the poor. Jesus didn't come to serve the poor from a suburban, privileged place in Palestine. He came from Nazareth (what good can come from Nazareth?) had no place to lay His head. 

He ate and lived with the poor. He didn't serve the poor from a distance and didn't find refuge in a comfortable place of privilege after a long day of ministry with them. Rather, He “emptied Himself and took the form of a slave” and served alongside them.

Progressive Christians should not only talk about serving the poor, and about power and privilege, and fighting the system, but should talk about ways of emptying themselves of their privilege and power, and serve the poor in proximity, not from a place of privilege.

I believe Christianity has become a religion of privilege, of empire and of power. Liberal Christianity, despite all the talks to the contrary, it is still a manifestation of this kind of religion.

I want to see, instead, a Christianity that is Christ-like, willing to live and serve with the poor, willing to give away all their riches in service to the poor, willing to advocate and fight the system with all who are opressed.

I want to see a Christianity that empties itself and takes the form of a slave. When Christianity does this, then it will be truly Christ-like. Its light will attract all the nations, and the name of Jesus Christ will be glorified. Amen.