Things that trouble me: Loving your enemies
Just saw this posted by a prominent African American attorney in Philadelphia:
And I get it. There's a history in this country of "Christians" using their religion to subdue black people. I'm reminded of this:
On the other hand: Loving your enemies is really fucking hard to do. Almost nobody is inclined to try, and very few make the attempt.
And I'm convinced that the proportion of people claiming to be Christian who really endeavor to love their enemies is exceedingly small.
I'm maybe not the person to lecture on this. My own faith is ... shaky. I can best be described as agnostic-with-one-foot-still-in-the-faith. But I believe Christianity's ideal is a challenge for adherents, not because of its sexual ethic, but because it requires us to love the most unlovable of people, in the most unlovable of situations.
That is an extraordinary demand. That so few of us follow it make the meme above seem pretty reasonable. But I hate that it is so.
And I get it. There's a history in this country of "Christians" using their religion to subdue black people. I'm reminded of this:
On display now at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., is a special exhibit centered on a rare Bible from the 1800s that was used by British missionaries to convert and educate slaves.
What's notable about this Bible is not just its rarity, but its content, or rather the lack of content. It excludes any portion of text that might inspire rebellion or liberation.
"About 90 percent of the Old Testament is missing [and] 50 percent of the New Testament is missing," Schmidt says. "Put in another way, there are 1,189 chapters in a standard protestant Bible. This Bible contains only 232."A religion that contorts itself to maintain the mastery of its adherents is bad religion. It is propaganda parading around in the garments of faith. But I'm going to resist the temptation to say the people who do such things aren't "real Christians," because let's face it: Christianity is whatever its adherents actually do.
On the other hand: Loving your enemies is really fucking hard to do. Almost nobody is inclined to try, and very few make the attempt.
And I'm convinced that the proportion of people claiming to be Christian who really endeavor to love their enemies is exceedingly small.
I'm maybe not the person to lecture on this. My own faith is ... shaky. I can best be described as agnostic-with-one-foot-still-in-the-faith. But I believe Christianity's ideal is a challenge for adherents, not because of its sexual ethic, but because it requires us to love the most unlovable of people, in the most unlovable of situations.
That is an extraordinary demand. That so few of us follow it make the meme above seem pretty reasonable. But I hate that it is so.
Comments
But this kind of thing is just a platitudinous psudo-zinger meant to get likes and reshares from the echo chamber of social media, not to work toward a productive dialog.