Religion Is Like a Rolls-Royce

Religion is like a Rolls-Royce.

Don Kenobi argues....

The failures of Christians do not define Christianity.

To judge the faith, we must ultimately judge it by Christ.

What Did Christ Teach?

What Would Jesus Have Done?

No - the actions of those men did not expose the inferiority of Christianity. They simply brought Christianity down to their own level.

The analogy of a car may help explain what I mean.

The Purpose of the Automobile

Cars are involved in accidents. People are injured in cars, people are killed in cars, and cars can even be deliberately used as weapons. Yet none of this changes the fundamental purpose of the automobile. It exists to move us from Point A to Point B.

Its purpose is not redefined by every foolish, careless or wicked person who sits behind the wheel. If a drunk driver crashes a beautifully engineered automobile into a wall, we do not conclude that the automobile was designed to crash into walls. We look at the driver.

The same distinction should matter when we talk about religion.

Suppose a Man Is Given a Rolls-Royce

Suppose a man is given a Rolls-Royce. What he chooses to do with it does not change what the car is, although he remains entirely accountable for how he uses it.

One man may sell it and give the proceeds to charity. Another may hitch it to a refuse bin and use it to haul rubbish to the dump. Someone else may register his as an Uber and spend his days carrying passengers around town, while another may simply park his in the driveway so that the neighbours can admire it.

These choices tell us a great deal about the owners, but remarkably little about the automobile itself. Its engineering does not deteriorate because its owner behaves foolishly. Its craftsmanship is not diminished because somebody misuses it, and its pedigree does not disappear because someone employs it for a purpose its designers never intended.

The misuse reveals something about the owner. It does not redefine what has been entrusted to him.

Christianity Must Be Judged by Christ

So it is with Christianity.

Christianity must ultimately be judged by the Christ to whom it points, not merely by every terrible thing human beings have done while carrying His name.

The Crusades, the Inquisitions, slavery, colonialism, segregation, prosperity preaching, political Christianity, corruption and hypocrisy must all be examined. Where condemnation is deserved, condemn. Where institutions have done evil, hold those institutions accountable. Where religious leaders have abused their authority, hold them accountable. Where individual Christians have behaved wickedly while invoking the name of Christ, hold them accountable too.

But after doing all of that, there remains a more fundamental question: Was that what Christ taught?

Did Christ teach conquest,

racial superiority,

exploitation,

cruelty, 

greed or

the worship of political power? 

Or did human beings take His name and attach it to their own ambitions?

That distinction is crucial because Christianity makes extraordinary claims about Christ, not about the perfection of Christians. Indeed, Christianity begins with a rather unflattering assessment of human beings. It assumes that we are capable of pride, greed, cruelty, hypocrisy and self-deception. It should therefore hardly surprise us that human beings can take even religion and bend it towards those same impulses.

Look at the Christian

The corruption of Christianity by Christians does not necessarily disprove Christianity. If anything, it demonstrates something Christianity itself has always insisted upon: human beings are capable of corrupting even the highest ideals placed in their hands.

So the question cannot merely be, “What have Christians done?” That is an important historical and moral question, and Christians should never be afraid of answering it. But another question must follow: “What did Christ teach, and how closely have those who invoke His name actually followed Him?”

There is an enormous difference between those two questions.

Christianity does not become false simply because Christians behave badly, any more than medicine becomes fraudulent because a doctor behaves unethically or justice becomes worthless because a judge accepts a bribe. The corruption of an ideal may expose the people entrusted with it without necessarily invalidating the ideal itself.

The Tragedy Is in the Misuse

And perhaps that is the tragedy of Christianity throughout so much of history. Too many Christians have taken something noble, beautiful and transformative and brought it down to their own level.

They have taken a faith that calls human beings towards love, mercy, sacrifice, forgiveness and service, and sometimes converted it into an instrument for wealth, status, tribalism, domination and political power.

That is not the failure of Christ's teaching. It is the failure to live by it.

Perhaps that is where the distinction ultimately lies. We should absolutely judge Christians by Christ. We should ask whether their conduct resembles the faith they profess, whether their lives reflect the values they preach, and whether the Christianity they practise bears any resemblance to the Christianity Christ taught.

But we should not judge Christ by Christians.

Christianity must ultimately stand or fall on Christ.

Hope this helps 

Don Kenobi
#MyFrancisEssays 
#OldManInTheMolue