In Our Defence

Just recently I watched the movie Agora. The film left me with a disgusting feeling in my stomach. The feeling that, if I could, I would vomit out everything that I had just watched. The “Christians” depicted in the film utterly demoralised me with their hatred and violence toward the Jews. My housemate made the right call when he watched it after me – he switched it off early on (I kept hoping that the Christians would redeem themselves.) In all fairness, the scriptwriter did a good job at depicting the Christians vs Scientists in a manner which satisfied his own thematic aims, ie religion vs rationality. He did not do the historical story proper justice, but that aside, the historical story isn’t much more palatable.

I quickly laid the matter to rest in my mind and attempted to take refuge in my second DVD choice, The History of Christianity. I’ve always loved historical material and I was savouring the opportunity to fill in a few blanks in my knowledge of the history of my faith. The documentary was more demoralising than the movie! The extremely animated “guide” buzzed excitedly from one colossal old church building to another, gesticulating wildly with his arms as he told the harrowing history of the church. He went back as a far into church history as he could find an old building to walk through, up to the present day. He didn’t spare a single mind-numbing detail about every “holy war”, theological schism, theological council, religious dress code, religious artwork, religious enchantation from one end of the planet to the other. After suffering through the excruciating “tour” of this giddy modern-day-Pharisee, I was about ready to start calling myself something other than “Christian”.

Just before I sat down to write a blog about how outraged I am that these clowns who call themselves “Christians”, along comes this fellow called Anders Breivik who single-handedly kills 76 people in Norway. His reason for this slaughter? Apparently he misses the good ole “Christian” Europe and he is frustrated that the government has assumed such a lax stance on multi-culturalism. He says,

“no, you don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian-atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter))... At the age of 15 I chose to be baptised and confirmed in the Norwegian State Church. I consider myself to be 100% Christian. However, I strongly object to the current suicidal path of the Catholic Church but especially the Protestant Church. I support a Church that believes in self defence and who are willing to fight for its principles and values, at least resist the efforts put forth to exterminate it gradually.”

“Christian-agnostic”, “Christian-atheist”, wow! Is this what it is has come to?! He holds on to religion but dispenses with the God at the centre of it all. Sadly, religion has its own power. Religion is just another word for tradition, and people love it, like the “religious” zealots in Alexandria, like the conquering lords of the catholic papacy, like this lunatic in Norway. These are people who love their religion much more than God. People will die for religion just as easily as they would die for God, it’s like a drug. I have never been more compelled to ask myself the question ‘what exactly is Christianity?’

These nostalgic lovers of religion worship their own piety and self-righteousness, they spare no thought for the God who they claim to esteem. But worshiping a dead Jesus is just as sad as not worshiping him at all. Christianity without a living Christ cannot and must not be called Christianity. A “Christian” life is the pledge of obedience to and faith in a living Jesus. His life is not expendable to our faith. Both the spoken words and the words which Jesus is speaking define the lives of true Christians. We dare not call ourselves Christians if we presume to go our own way without Christ.

 “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:3