A few months ago, I had an interesting talk with a friend from my church. The conversation started off talking about life and teenager-stuff like What do you want to do with your life?, What are your plans for summer?, etc. before we started talking about the church in general and how many Christians have – to put it simply – become very complacent and ignorant about their faith or anything outside their bubble. During that part of the conversation, my friend made a very astute observation that I had never heard anyone else except my family make and that was: “Atheists look at Christians and say ‘Those guys are stupid,” then Christians also look at other Christians and say ‘Those guys are stupid.’” For some of the Christians reading this, you might be clutching your pearls and gasping something along the lines of, “That’s not true! We don’t think that at all!”
Sadly, you’re quite wrong. My friend’s observation was 100% accurate and we would both know, as both he and I have left churches and have seen first-hand how many “Christians” act. Many of them are completely ignorant on what the Bible says, couldn’t give a good defense of their faith if their lives depended on it, and try to justify their actions no matter how sinful or unbiblical. And that’s not just the laypeople in the congregation. That’s also many of the pastors, only with them, they make money off of the ignorance of the people.
Unfortunately, this isn’t new. Ever since the creation of what I’ll call a formal church (which includes a hierarchy, an actual building, etc.), Christianity has had a major problem with the church turning corrupt. In the past, we’ve seen this play out most notably in the Catholic church with its strict rules that seemed to effect everyone but them (or the people paying them) and its constant battle to snuff out anyone who disagreed with them by calling them “heretics” and burning them at the stake. However, in more recent years with our million and one different denominations, we’re facing the same problem, though on a somewhat smaller scale. Instead of publicly burning people at the stake, a large amount of pastors nowadays will burn you at the pulpit if you disagree with their teaching, usually by doing a sermon that’s basically about how you shouldn’t ask so many questions. They will work to make sure to push you out of the way so that you don’t scare off any lukewarm “Christians” who may be interested in coming to that church, even taking legal means if necessary (as we’ve seen in the case of Hillsong, the megachurch that was the subject of a huge scandal). If you have family or friends in some of those types of churches that are very loyal to that church, then you’ve unfortunately become the butt of a ton of drama.
With this in mind, it’s easy to see why so many former “Christians” (I put “Christians” in quotes because who knows if they ever actually believed in the first place) deconstruct and why Christianity and the church as a whole has a bad rep.
However, though Christianity has a massive problem with the church, that doesn’t mean that the entire religion is false. Just because the people who say they’re Christians act like the rest of the world doesn’t mean that Jesus never lived. To base your view/belief in a religion (especially Christianity) based on how the people act is a fallacy. Sure, it can tell you something about what the people believe (actions speak louder than words), but if you actually want to understand Christianity, you have to actually go and study the original writings found in the Bible and the proof for them and run it through a logical filter.
Now, when I say “run it through a logical filter,” I don’t mean that you get to interpret the Bible however you want. That’s how you end up getting all these crappy “believers” and false teachers who run around thinking that Jesus never condemned x, y, and z and that actually you are a little-g god (many people actually teach this). What I mean by this is that you should read the text in its original grammatical/historical context and ask yourself questions like, “What stake did these guys have in writing this? What was the motivation? Can they be authenticated by anyone else? Are those other guys credible?” etc. If you do this and do the research well, you’ll be able to spot the fakes in the church and your faith won’t be like a leaf that’s quickly sinking in a big river. We get our faith from what the Bible says (because it is the inspired word of God), and not from what other people say or do. If we base it entirely on what other crappy people (because, let’s be real here: we all suck) say or do and don’t do any actual thinking for ourselves, then we will be screwed in the end.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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