The
most famous dissidents within the Puritan community, Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson, were banished following disagreements over theology and policy.
From Puritan Boston’s earliest days, Catholics (“Papists”) were anathema and
were banned from the colonies, along with other non-Puritans. Four Quakers were
hanged in Boston between 1659 and 1661 for persistently returning to the city
to stand up for their beliefs.
From
the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been
a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the
“heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here.
Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans
were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more
explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable
contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.” [i]
Let me step outside of
the American experience and look at the violent history of our own faith on a
global scale. From the dawn of the Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine
enforced Christianity with the sword, and made heresy a crime punishable by
death. In the Middle Ages, crusaders
were guaranteed salvation if they marched to Jerusalem and took it for
Jesus—because as the pope said, “God wills it!”
Millions of Muslims and Jews were slaughtered in the name of
Christ. Then there were the tortures and
executions of the Spanish Inquisition, and the extermination of Native
Americans by the Conquistadores in the New World. Violence perpetrated by Christians in the
name of Jesus is a horrible scar on our faith.
This is why we must not define a “Christian” as someone who is baptized,
who is a member of the church, or who signs a creed on the dotted line. Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my
disciples (John 13:35[ii]).” So we must ask ourselves, How Christian is the history of
Christianity?
You see, we Christians
have a bit of a martyr complex.
Certainly, we have been the victims of much persecution and violence,
but we need to come to terms with our own history of violence in God’s
name. As we say in the South, “we come
by it honestly,” meaning that we inherited this legacy through many
generations. Even in Jesus’ day, religious
people persecuted other religious people who didn’t see things the same
way. In John 11:45-57, the high priest
(who should have been the most godly man in the nation) conspired with other
religious leaders to put Jesus to death.
Jesus had to go into hiding and stop His public ministry because of
their persecution. John 12:9-11 tells us
that they not only planned to kill Jesus, but that they wanted to kill Lazarus
too, because he was evidence of Jesus’ claims.
Violence perpetrated by religious people for the sake of religion is all
over the Bible—and it seems that Jesus’ followers have learned from this
example.
How different this is
from the character of Christ himself—who never wielded His word as a weapon,
and who spoke against violence and advocated peace. “Those who use the sword will
die by the sword,” Jesus said (Matthew 26:52). The problem is that many Christians who have
learned about the “sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17)” have forgotten that
the Bible is a weapon against demonic strongholds (Ephesians 6:12), and have
instead used physical or verbal violence against people for religious
ends. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you
must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” But we have taken up the sword instead of the
cross. Instead of laying down our lives
for others as Jesus did, we choose to sacrifice others at the altars of our own
spiritual smugness and religious egos.
We do this every time we
degrade others because of their ethnicity, gender identity, nation of origin,
their faith, or lack of faith.
We do this whenever we
deny others the same rights we enjoy, because they follow different convictions
from our own.
We do this whenever we
insist that our way is the way it ought to be, because we happen to be in the
majority.
What if one day they (whoever they are) are in the majority?
Do we want the religious views of the majority to be the law of the
land? Or do we want a land that is
governed by equality, where people of every faith, and no faith at all, stand
on level ground? Those who stood opposed
to Jesus decided that verbal and physical violence was the way to accomplish
their goals. Too often, Christians have
learned from biblical violence and become persecutors instead of
peacemakers. Jesus told Saul on the road
to Damascus that when he persecuted others, he was persecuting Jesus Himself
(Acts 9:4). Jesus said whatever we do to
others, we do to Him (Matthew 25:40).
So, when we marginalize others for the sake of our religious
convictions, we marginalize Jesus too.
Jesus’ Golden Rule teaches us to do to others what we would have done to
us (Matthew 7:12). What could be more plain? Why can’t Christians just treat others
nicely, even if they have different views?
Jesus said, “Your love for one
another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” This Fourth of July weekend, as we
celebrate our freedom, let’s never let our religious liberty be a stick we use
to beat others with, and take away their freedom. Instead, let’s show we are Christians by our
love.
No comments:
Post a Comment