I was surprised and happy to see the response to my last column “I Am No Longer a Christian.” It seems to have resonated with many people who, I suspect, are also joining the ranks of the Nones. I’ve gotten more feedback “likes” and comments for this post than almost any other column I have published.
As I argued in my column, the Nones are probably the biggest story in American religious news and vastly outnumber the white Christian Nationalists who may be better organized, have louder mouths, and have deeper pockets. But the Nones have reshaped the American demographic landscape that will reverberate for generations. Their impact is not a finished story.
I had a conversation after the publication of that article with an acquaintance who, respectfully challenged some of my thoughts about why I gave up the term “Christian” as an identity. I was grateful for the conversation because it helped me to crystallize and refine my views and my thinking. What I’ll share with you is the result of some of that refinement.
In the conversation, my friend said that “Jesus loves the church” and went on to make the case that people who are dissatisfied should remain in the church to reform it. In other words, if Jesus loves the church why should any mere mortal reject it? Also, in other words… “Who do you think you are?” (He didn’t say that, but I think it was implied.)
As I thought about his case, I realized that this argument reinforces my decision to reject the “Christian” label, partly because, well, I don’t like labels, but there is also a fundamental difference in the use of the word “church.” My friend and I fundamentally define the word “church” differently.
A large part of the reason I have rejected Christianity is because it is essentially an exclusive, enclosed echo chamber institution that puts barriers and obstacles in the way of people finding and understanding God or concluding that a theistic God doesn’t even exist.
It is the same tribal understanding that the Hebrews of the Old Testament declared calling themselves “God’s chosen people.” That declaration allowed ancient Jews to justify all sorts of atrocities committed against their neighbors, which seem to be reappearing today in a stark and horrific way in Gaza.
The church today, especially the Americanized church, makes the same claim. They are the newly chosen people if they believe in the right things and become culture warriors. Not only are they the chosen people, but the United States is God’s chosen nation (in addition to Israel)… and,
if you don’t worship at the altar of the American flag which stands prominently on the church platform right next to the table that has communion cups and grape juice (no wine please), and a Bible, then you aren’t a “real” Christian or a “real” American.
Something tells me this is not what Jesus had in mind.
I retorted to my friend that what if I decided to come to his church, now that I had rejected the label “Christian” would I be welcomed? Or, what if a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew, an agnostic, or an atheist came to his church, would they be welcomed and treated the same as the Christians in the building? Let’s assume that these non-Christians were loving, caring people who took to heart the saying of Jesus that “the world will know you are my disciples” because of the love you have for others.
My point to him was that I don’t believe Jesus had a “church” in mind…of self-declared, “chosen people” who were an exclusive group who used doctrines, beliefs, and value judgments as the litmus test of who is a true Christian.
Jesus, who was a Jew, said the greatest commandment was to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. The only prerequisite for being a follower of Christ was to love. Period…end of criteria.
And Jesus said this message was for all peoples, nations, and corners of the world. In other words, loving people and fulfilling the call of Jesus was not exclusive and was never meant to create a new “chosen people.” It is for all people.
Then, the counterargument came…what about the “Great Commission.” “Go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of all people.” To my friend and most Christians, this is a mandate to recruit people to the Christian religion. Is it? Did Jesus really mean to go out and recruit people to the church and ask them to accept a set of doctrines and beliefs before they can be admitted? Did Jesus really mean to go out and prove that all other religions are false and the only true religion is Christianity?
Unfortunately, in the history of the church and colonization, the Great Commission has worked hand-in-hand with the “Doctrine of Discovery” to provide a rationale to enslave, destroy, loot, steal, and perform genocide on groups of people who refused to accept the Christian religion. And sometimes even when they did accept Christianity, they were still brutalized and killed. Often the “Great Commission” was the “Great Destruction” of cultures and groups of non-white people.
I don’t think Jesus had any of this in mind of course. If the Great Commission says to “make disciples” of everyone, and Jesus said they will know you are my disciples because you love people, then that is the message of the Great Commission…go out and make disciples by showing the way of love. It says nothing of recruiting people to another exclusive religious institution or doctrinal belief system.
In this universal message of love, there is no need or mandate to make others become Christians. I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind at all. It is a message that can resonate with all people in all cultures, and religions, and for those who do not even believe in God.
And that is the church: everyone who heeds the call of love to overcome hate to overcome pride to overcome violence with love…Jesus preached and demonstrated this love. He reached out to everyone, including the pariahs of his day. He showed that love is sacrificial, and that love means seeking to be last, not first.
The only ones I can recall that Jesus rebuked were those who tried to place obstacles and restrictions on people to aggrandize their own status, positions, and financial well-being. The white Christian Nationalist agenda is similar to those Jesus rebuked: maintain and secure white Christian privilege, force others into cultural conformity, and seek power above all, even if it means running over anyone in their way.
I can be a follower of Jesus and continue to be a Buddhist. I can be a follower of Jesus and continue to be a Muslim. I can be a follower of Jesus and continue to be an atheist. If I choose the path of love…I am a follower of Jesus.
The monstrosity that is the physical “church” based on exclusive membership with exclusive benefits and privileges has been the source of some of the greatest sorrows and atrocities committed in history. From Constantine to the Christian Nationalists of today, people who believe they can define the “church,” who is “in” and who is “out” and what the requirements are for membership, are simply perpetrating the same tribalism that Jesus preached against. Some of the worst atrocities have been committed by those who conflate Christianity with nationalism or some other political agenda. We see wars and genocides committed in the name of “Christ” over and over in history.
That is why those in history who choose love over hate and love over politics have been abused and murdered…starting with Jesus, to many of the early Christian martyrs, to Gandhi, to King, and others who preached love among all people. This message of love, which is the Good News, throws a wrench in the political machinations of those who want to use religion to divide people, for social, economic, personal, and political gain. They won’t stand for it.
But I suggest to you that is why we are currently seeing the emptying of the church in America today. This is why the Nones are a much larger group than those who identify as evangelical Christians. It is why white evangelicals feel threatened and persecuted because people are rejecting their poisonous preaching of exclusivity, cultural superiority, and lust for financial and political power.
There is a hunger and thirst for righteousness today which is another way of saying, there is a desire to see love become the foundation and motivation for our society…not power, not greed, not racism, and not self-appointed keepers of the gate to some supposed “Kingdom of God.” That message is the false gospel. And millions are seeing through it and rejecting it.
So, I am doubling down on my decision to expel the label “Christian” from my own life. I choose love. If every person who leaves Christianity and chooses the way of love as they become a None…that could end up being one of the most transformational changes in our history. For this reason, I am optimistic.
I couldn’t possibly agree with you about staying in the “church.” In my opinion this is for one thing an illusion. There is no such thing as “the church” as in all Christians of all the many denominations of Christian churches composing “the church.”
I assume your friend means that you (and me and all the rest of the “nones” ) should not only not leave our respective physical churches, but also should not abandon Christianity as a religion. This is ridiculous. We have left because we finally realized that Christianity as a religion has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus in a truthful or practical way. To me , Jesus is not the means by which I manage to escape the hell I was born to enter and remain in after death at the wish of a wrathful God who required a bloody human sacrifice of his only and beloved son as the price for forgiveness of “sins.” He is not the judge who is expected to return in person someday and judge everyone, an activity he purposely refused to engage in during his time on earth. He is not what the invented Trinity doctrine says he is : both the Son of God and God the Father - the ultimate in logical fallacy. An impossible contradiction that is the definition of total nonsense. He is the son of God, whom God sent to reveal who He truly is, what He is in character and how He regards His human creations. He was also sent to make absolutely clear what God wants from us, how he wants us to treat each other. His teachings are without ambiguity and there are no exceptions or compromises to them, such as the members of the Christian religion have made and continue to make throughout the history of Christianity as a religion. He is not even the “only mediator between us and God.” This role implies that we need an advocate to whom God will listen and who will persuade Him to relent and forgive us wayward humans who cannot seem to stop “sinning.” He had revealed that God is exactly like His son - unconditionally loving and forgiving. He doesn’t sit in judgement and He doesn’t mete out retribution. Jesus did “take away the sins of the world” in the sense that he gave us the opportunity to be free of the judgement of our failure to live up to his teachings as “sinful” meaning evil or corrupt or indicative of an absolutely inadequate/defective moral compass according to our fellow human beings. We can choose not to allow others to make us live carrying on our consciences a heavier and heavier burden of “sins” (as defined by these self appointed arbiters of behavior) that may or may not be forgiven depending on what you believe or what you try to force yourself to believe because these arbiters tell you you must believe to be forgiven. Sin is a human concept just as religion is. Jesus freed humanity of both. Or rather, he told us that we were allowed to throw off both and answer only to God when we fail to measure up to the standard Jesus set regarding how to see and treat others. It has been almost 2000 years, but finally people are “getting it.” Or at least that is how I see it. The “nones” are not abandoning Jesus, not all of them at any rate. They are perhaps finally realizing what he saves us from, if we just take the opportunity. I am no theologian and I don’t want to be. I am no biblical scholar and I really, really do not want to be one of those. I may be completely wrong in all I have said in this response to your article. However, this is how I see Jesus and why God sent him to us. And it was NOT to found a new religion with ancient sacred writings to turn to for guidance in every little thing. Yes, his purpose and his teachings are in those writings and for that alone, I respect the book known as the Bible. If Jesus is truly the Savior of the world who takes away its sins, then it is religion along with all its theological dogma and beliefs that are the result of humanity’s theorizing about how God should be and act towards us, and religion’s pernicious definition of sin and how to be forgiven from it, that he saves us from. The first Christians knew this. They knew that God doesn’t want worship services with songs that are composed of endless choruses of how wonderful He is and how awful we are. He just wants us to do our best to imitate His son and messenger to the best of our ability. It is no easy thing. Religion is the easy thing. Obedience to doing and thinking as we are told without using our own powers of thinking, understanding, evaluating, and reasoning. Following the teachings and example of Jesus is often very difficult, but I don’t think he judges us or condemns us when we fail as human beings judge and condemn each other. He doesn’t see our failures as moral deficiencies, as evil.
Well, I think I have repeated myself several times. I may be as wrong as every other theologian and amateur theologian who c ever developed a religious philosophy. However, at least I am not going to try to profit from it or try to make others believe it. So, I will finish up. There is no “church” of which Jesus is the “head.” There are only thousands of petty denominations each of which thinks it has a monopoly on the “right” beliefs. This vast array of denominations has resulted in acrimony and division rather than union. Anyone who chides someone who wishes to follow Jesus rather than talk about following Jesus by leaving a “church” whose focus is on irrelevant and/or false beliefs is delusional. Perhaps there once was such a thing as “the church” way back when the apostle Paul wrote about it, but it vanished a very long time ago.
Another good article Dan. I totally agree with you.