Christians Embroiled in a Crisis of Faith

While the Nation of Islam welcomes a huge and rabid surge to the Muslim faith, and the Jewish faith enjoys an insular growing population, the Christian religion struggles to envelop the hearts and minds of the western world’s remaining majority. So why then, with our planet teetering on the brink of proving ancient prophecies correct, are we not witnessing, as one might reasonably expect, a massive resurrection in Christianity? Why has the flock not sought the guidance and deliverance of all that is holy?

Religion is a daily news event now. It hasn’t always been this way. But religion is being politicized as never before, to the point of being used as an adjective a la the news reporting during the American civil rights movement where someone described in a news story would be identified as colored (or the many euphemisms used during those turbulent times). The defining of one’s religion now seems to feed the hysteria of division among the general population. It helps to sell newspapers.

Colonial empires and Christianity collaborated (in the name of God and the monarchy, of course) to invade foreign lands and peoples, plundering the rich resources, razing the aged cultures, and writing the history books to make it seem as though the invasions were ‘discoveries’ and that the inhabitants of these new found lands were justifiably and mercifully saved from themselves and delivered into the righteous hands of God Almighty Himself.

And perhaps that very expansionist collaboration is at the root of the crisis of faith which embroils Christians today. From such a pompous tree of greed can come only spoiled fruit.

Amassing untold wealth after centuries of ransacking indigenous peoples around the world has provided Christian churches with the financial means to privately address the criminal acts committed by the many sex abusers they employ and protect. Bribery, cover-ups, and out of court settlements don’t come cheap, but save for the selling of a few underperforming local churches, the major Christian sects are still among the richest corporations in your country. Business is slipping though as it would be a rare follower indeed who could knowingly condone, through continued membership and tithe, the rape of their sons and daughters.

The world clips along at a pace few can maintain, and while it is comforting to have sanctuaries in our life where we can find solace, those refuges must be realistic and congruent to the realities of our life if they are to be an influence. Christianity, as one of those possibly coveted sanctuaries, fails to address many of the complexities of modern times, choosing instead to maintain obsolete and ultra-conservative interpretations of often conflicting ideals, burying its head in the sand like an ostrich.

We need to believe! We want to believe! But, frankly, it is almost impossible to believe in Christianity when the image of the religion is suffering greatly at a time when it could be basking in the radiance of salvation. In troubled times, we need a strong focal point to guide us through the minefields of trepidation. For many in the world, that shining light is a religion or some form of spirituality.

Increasingly so, Christianity is losing its devotees to alternate forms of worship and other organized religions that are more representative of a contemporary life and bereft of the morally corrupt activities recently exposed.

Originally published August 23, 2010