Religion and Christianity In America
There is a certain climate that has been established it regards to religious belief in america over its small existence. I am not sure when, how or why this exactly all started or who started it. I think its easy to say the majority of america is christian, practicing or not. About 1/3 of the world or approximately 2 billion people identify themselves as christians. There are plenty of other religions in america but I don’t have the background or the knowledge to correctly write a commentary on all of them. I would like to talk to you about morality as it relates to this religion and the conflicts that surround it.
There are a few major things I think in a way have become self deprecating to the christian community. First off they have built the vast majority of their beliefs on something that has no basis in the roots of the religion itself. That is to say a lot of what a christian in america today believes has little or no basis in the bible, teachings or other ancient writings of the creation of the religion. The bulk of what a christian believes is what someone has told them to be true. They are told to believe on “faith” what is being spoken to them which in my opinion is a corruption of the religion itself and totally the improper way of forming a belief system.
To prove my point let me dissect some of the major ideas of the christian belief and show you that it is not always as clear as a preacher in a pulpit may have you believe. Most christians in america will tell you if you want to be a christian and go to heaven you must be saved. Being “saved”, however, looks a lot less black and white in a biblical context than it is perceived in this culture. Most of christians think being saved may involve “asking jesus into your heart” or “confessing all your sins” all of which are catch phrases drilled into the culture by preachers, pastors, fathers, etc. However I want to propose to you that confessing something has no impact on your belief system. Simply saying something does not make it true. Some may point to the scripture 1 John 1:9 which says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” But if they had simply looked up a few verses to verse 6 it gives a bigger picture: “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” Simply saying something in a biblical context has no bearing on how you “walk” or the way we live our life. You can go into a confessional booth, spill your guts, talk about changing yourself, maybe even tell yourself you are different but if nothing changes, in a very practical sense, it was a complete waste of time.
The phrase “salvation” is even a major question mark when compared to the real evidence that ancient christianity provides. If you ask an evangelical christian about what being saved is you will often receive the response “It means you asked jesus into you heart you are going to heaven!” This is usually considered in modern christian circles as a one time act of saying a prayer and conforming to the church. However there are verses in the bible such as Philipians 2:12 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” This suggests that being “saved” is not a one time act as modern christians believe. In fact there is very little biblical evidence to link salvation and entrance to heaven. I believe that this term is actually referring to a life that has been freed or “saved” from oppression and evil rather than a “I’m sorry” prayer and a ticket to heaven. The kind of heaven view that has perpetuated is very narrow sided compared to what the history shows biblically. If you took the time you would find that many of the major discussed beliefs in christianiy today have little or no basis in its own ancient writings. If people just simply had to “confess your sins” or say a prayer and “ask jesus into your heart” then everyone could do this easily and there would be no moral responsibility by anyone.
I think lack of moral responsibility may be exactly what is happening in the christian culture. I have seen statistical evidence to suggest that, in many cases, within people that are self professed “christians” crime, rape, divorce and other rates are higher than other non-christian people. There is really no way to be totally sure of this in my opinion, because the controversy surrounding religion causes many statistics to be stacked in a way to prove an agenda. Still, christians today act very similar or worse than anyone else in our culture. We’ve seen evidence of some of these statistics for example through the various scandals involving child molestation in the catholic church. Because christians are so often told to believe blindly and are constantly being bombarded with what they are not to do, it is more readily in their minds to think about doing immoral or criminal type acts. The christian religion has been reduced to a mere outwardly appearance of goodness rather than inwardly moral change. What I mean by this is that, to this country, being a christian is most often an act of allegiance rather than an improvement of the soul. Most christians can’t tell you why they believe what they believe and for the most part it is simply a meaningless act to somehow prove themselves to the social scene of other religious people. The most serious moral questions that people ask about christianity are replied to by the followers by short pre-canned answers. For example if one asks how to change their life for the better, most christians will not talk to you about self analysis and introspection but how to “ask jesus into your heart” and how to “believe in him” which can usually be equated as the same as doing absolutely nothing when you actually study a christian’s actions.
I think that one of the biggest things that has degraded the religion from within is the lack of open discussion in terms of what is believed, and the segregation that has occurred so rapidly between different beliefs. Its been over 450 years since Martin Luther nailed his work of 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg and the great church Reformation began. This event forever changed church history and spawned an age of freedom from the severely oppressive and equally contradictory catholic church. However this event seemed to give the protestant church an entirely different idea. Instead of provoking genuine discussion and thought whenever conflict arose, more sects and denominations were established to divide opinions. Whenever even the slightest bit of minor discrepancy begin to arise someone would create a new denomination of christianity and separate themselves from others in the religion. This has had a very adverse and contradictory effect on christianity in present time. Today so many adherents to the religion place so much importance on minor beliefs that it has been counteractive to church reform, free thought and constructive criticism.
Similarly, the church has lost sight of what the important issues of its own religion are. Instead of being more proactive in the area of philanthropy and charity the church has chosen to become involved in imposing christian beliefs in politics. No one in christianity wants to talk about solving the problem of homelessness and poverty. Instead they want to talk about abortion, gay marriage and condemning non believers for their non submission to christian values. Values which for the most part are not even spelled out as clearly in the religion as people would have you think.
I think the christian church in america has a lot of issues it needs to sort out. The main problems have been lack of consistancy and the failure of the church to be something viable to solving the worlds problems and cause a genuiene desire in its followers to improve themselves. The church has caused itself to fall into general ineffectness and stagnancy. Most modern christianity has become not much more than a place of social status rather than socital improvement. I think all of us are trying to form some sort of belief system and you can not deny it, wheather you are a religious person or not, what you value and think is true will have some sort of effect on the actions you take in life. These values need to be formed in an objective and and cafeful inspective manner for you to form a meaningful set of effective opinions on life. Never be afraid of a good discussion and don’t let religion block you from pondering life, let’s face it, it’s just a sham in the form its taken today. Inner stregth is a quality that is important to life but the church has only caused great confusion about morality to society. We need to embrace self values and self regulation in a way that is free from the dogma and ridiculous unmeaningful tradditions that the christian religion has created.
