When Christianity first appeared on the scene, it existed in a polytheistic culture. The 'Way' had to compete against all sorts of occult religions, Greek philosophies, and your bread and butter polytheists. I remember a temple of Aphrodite(?) getting upset at Paul for cutting into their profits. Apparently, religion was big business back then and even as it is now. However, all through European history and the early parts of American history, the Christian Church has created and maintained a theological monopoly. There was only one God and one Church. But now the theological landscape has changed back towards polytheism and Christianity finds itself facing a swarm of Eastern religions, occult practices, and various philosophies that are vying for the souls of Americans. It's Rome all over again. But is this necessarily a bad thing? I think the arrogance of Christianity that imajinit is referring to, is a relic from the days of the Church's former dominance. It is the arrogance of the righteous, the elite, and most importantly, the powerful. It is the power to impose Spanish Inquisitions. The power to order and encourage the Crusades. The power to declare someone a heretic, excommunicated forever, a soul damned to hell. It is the power to take religion and humbly "shove it down people's throats" as you so eloquently put it. But it is not their intentions I disagree with. Most Christians I've met are actually nice, decent people. Their hearts are in the right place, but they do not see that the times have changed and they must change as well if they wish to communicate with the world around them. Perhaps they don't want to. Perhaps that is why I am seeing so many Christian pop bands, and Christian private schools, and Christian movies popping up. Christians in America are forming their own subculture, one that is sheltering itself from the decadent, immoral influences of MTV and the dreaded F-word. Yet if I am polytheistic in my outlook and your religion dictactes that you at least make a passing gesture of trying to show me "the joys of knowing Jesus", how will you convince me to convert? If we were living in medieval Europe, we could both begin with the assumption that there was a god, but these days we cannot even begin with that.
I am Japanese, Okinawan actually, and my people worshipped the spirits of our ancestors. I respect my people's history, but I do not want to worship a god of the dead. I wish to serve a living god, one who would fight alongside me and deliver me from my enemies. I must say, the person of Jesus intrigues me. I have served many fools in my time, but he is a captain I could respect, the kind who would bend over backwards for his men. Those leaders are rare in my experience, and if you're ever fortunate enough to find a boss like that, you stick with him even if he gets the crazy notion to go and save the world.
But Evangelical Christians have no notion of tribes or a people, these are some of the most splintered and divided people I've ever met. Baptists hate the Church of Christ. Church of Christ want nothing to do with the Assemblies of God. And of course, everybody hates the Catholics. Perhaps hate is too strong a word. They've learned to 'tolerate' each other. Yet this is supposed to be the body of Christ! Jesus must be in a lot of pain because his right leg just tore itself off from the rest of the body. Yep, there goes another church split over some doctrinal issue like clapping hands in church. Hmm. Poor guy. They wish to persuade me with arguments and creeds, mere words, which betray their salesmanship and marketing skills. These are American Churches after all, and Americans are reknown for their dexterity with words. You'd think salvation would be an easier sell.
What are they offering me? What is this salvation they speak of? Sadly, when I look at most Christians I see broken people. Their marriages are in trouble, some struggle with depression, eating disorders, and alcohol; they are arrogant, afraid, and narrowminded just like me. Yet if what Jesus taught was true, then even the most horrifying, humiliating, and hurtful experience of our lives can be turned into salvation for another person. I know I've got a few of sekletons locked away in my closet somewhere. But even monsters can be redeemed. If grace is true.
I seek a tribe of wounded healers who would have the courage to bring their sin and shame forward so that it could be used to heal and encourage others, instead I find a tribe on an ideological warpath, seeking to dominate the theological landscape and reclaim their monotheistic throne. Christianity is everywhere these days, and by god they are right! Pounding their message of one faith in one god, and we heathens must be converted. Every time I engage in a theological conversation with fundamental Christians, I get the sinking feeling that I am being hunted and cornered until I am just another notch in a headhunter's belt. They do not want to hear about my pain, or listen to my story, nor can they teach me the craft of forming my sorrows into a song that will mend the broken hearts of others. They cannot show me how to carry my cross, nor the Alchemist's secret of turning a hardened heart of lead into a heart of gold. They are barely getting by themselves.
Christians need to wake up. The good old days were never that good. They will never go back to being the reigning religious superpower like when they had the patronage of Rome, or the full backing of the Medieval fuedal system, or tacit support of the American colonial system. They can finally return to the Early Church model they so desperately want. Because the Church of the New Testament was a religion among religions. Rome was a polytheistic enviroment then, just as it is in America now. Christians are once again a tribe among tribes. But they hold an ace card in that their god Jesus is actually a very cool deity, and the tribe he was raising would've been the thirteenth tribe of Israel, who's name meant, "He who struggles with God". Imagine a tribe of seekers, wounded strugglers trying to survive in a spiritual warzone being lead by the only man to face death and live to tell the tale. Why everyone with broken hearts and psychological wounds would flock to such a tribe! It would've been a tribe of medics, not Crusaders. I could at least respect such a religion. And what if it were true? What if such a god did exist? One who spilled the same blood in the same mud with the rest of us grunts? Such a god would be worthy of my respect and praise. But I cannot say he is the god of Christians. Sadly, I see more "Moral Majority" and right-wing conservatism in Christians than Jesus. To any Christians out there reading this, do not take this as an attack, but instead take it as a challenge. In a polytheistic world filled every kind of god imaginable, I am rooting for your god, the wounded healer. Call me sentimental, but I'd like that such a god exists. Such a god would be worthy of my respect.
