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The Reason for God:
If Jesus Is Great, Why are some of His followers such jerks?
“Don’t you have doubts about any religion that has so many fanatics and hypocrites? Non-religious people can be more kind and moral than many Christians I know.
If Christianity is true,why are so many non-Christians living better lives than Christians?”
The Christian faith actually teaches ‘common grace’: That no matter who performs it, every act of justice, wisdom and beauty is empowered by God who gives good gifts across all humanity toenrich and preserve the world. (James 1:17) So we should not be surprised that people who haveyet to know Christ personally are capable of goodness and wisdom.The gospel also speaks of the seriously flawed character of genuine Christians. Since we are justified by grace not by our works, we should expect the church to be filled with broken peoplewho still have a long way to grow spiritually, morally and emotionally. They don’t have to ‘cleanup’ their lives before becoming Christians.“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints”. It is not a self-help program.RC Sproul: The Christian church is one of the few organizations in the world that requires a public acknowledgement of sin as a condition for membership. In one sense the church has fewer hypocrites than any institution because by definition the church is a haven for sinners. If thechurch claimed to be an organization of perfect people then her claim would be hypocritical. Butso such claim is made by the church. There is no slander in the charge that the church is full of sinners. Such a statement would only compliment the church for fulfilling her divinely appointedtask”.Consider someone with a broken past who becomes a Christian and her character significantlyimproved over the years. But she still may be less secure or disciplined than someone who is sowell adjusted in a non-Christian, stable family environment. Unless you know the starting pointsof their life journeys, you can easily conclude that Christianity is not worth much. But it wouldnot be a fair conclusion.
If Christianity is true, why has the institutional church supported war, injustice and violenceover the centuries?
Christopher Hitchens: Religion “transcendentalizes” ordinary cultural differences so that peoplefeel they are in a cosmic battle of good versus evil.Weren’t Christian nations responsible for Crusades, Inquisition, imperialism and African slavetrade? Or militaristic totalitarianism in Japanese empire of 20
th
century emerged from a culture of Buddhism/Shinto-ism? Or jihadist terrorism today from Islamic societies while ruthlessoppression can also come from Israeli forces? Or religious violence in India perpetrated by Hindunationalists?But don’t forget that the Communist regimes in Russia, China and Cambodia also perpetratedmassive killings and oppression even when they rejected all organized religion and belief in God.When the notion of God is gone, Alister McGrath points out, a secular society will‘transcendentalize’ something else, some ideology perhaps, and used it as instrument for violence.
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