After attending an evening vespers service last week I am stuck with a tune in my head. Not just the tune, really. It’s the words. The refrain sings, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
I remember learning the song as a child. Of course it didn’t make much of an impact on me then. But now, hearing those words again after decades of thought on the subject, I don’t really agree with them anymore. Christians are not just known for their love. In fact, the public perception held by the majority of non-churchgoers is that Christians are among the most unloving citizens in our country. I wish I had a bag of canned goods for every time I’ve heard someone say they don’t go to church because Christians are too judgmental.
A new seam began to develop in American mainstream Christianity in the years following World War II. A crack then a chasm, polarizing the tradition along a divisive liberal-conservative spectrum increasing in depth as the millennium approached. Why that happened can be chalked up to ideas ranging from doomsday prophesies to spurious political agendas. But it revealed a weakness in the interpretation of scripture. We either interpret them through a metric of fear or of love. The difference comes down to the focus. Either the sins, or the sinners. Liberals tend to seek out the sinners to raise them up, conservatives seem hellbent on targeting them for punishment. We tend to notice the latter. They are generally much louder because they are more afraid. We hear their cries of anguish as torrents of judgement and even hate.
Fr. Peter Scholtes wrote the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians” in the 1960’s recalling the very earliest days when Christians were persecuted and killed while at the same time being ironically recognized for their goodness. He would not be able to say the same for us today. The persecuted have already long become the persecutors.
To be fair, the Christians who live up to their spiritual practice know who they are and will not feel offended by these words; they know they are not for them. I know Christians of all denominations who are anything but hypocritical. I admire them and their dedication to what their faith instructs them about elevating the poor, healing the sick, and visiting those in prison.
But these faithful ones are not on the news.
Those we see in public forums being pandered to by fear-mongering and deceitful leadership, those with signs denouncing love in all but the forms they are not challenged by, those with walls to build and families to destroy, these are the voices which echo loudest. These are not Christians. They are against what Christianity truly stands for. Pray for them. And pray for those who quietly (or not so quietly) set about the work we are genuinely asked by our faith to do: Love others as we love ourselves.
I am a Christian, but I flinch a bit when I say it. Because I know what some people think about it. They don’t know there is more to this soup than the film which develops on the top when it sits too long. They don’t know there are those who actually do their best to live up to the teachings of its master.
It’s not easy of course. Being nice is usually quite a challenge. Tolerance is sometimes all we can muster even though acceptance is better. But that’s all it really is. Do your best. Be nice. Make friends. Learn about each other. Learn from each other. Lift each other up. Save the world. Fear not.
The image problem Christianity has can be fixed. But only with faith and courage to stand for something more loving will it ever be done. Whatever seed we water, will grow.
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