Sins of the Church
A few days ago I asked, “Are the sins of the church more grievous for those who believe in God or those who do not?” Now I want to take the time to unpack that a bit more.
Regardless of who you are or where you come from, it is not hard to find things to criticize the church for: There is the clergy sexual abuse cases and financial scandals. You have the stories of people like Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard. There is corruption and abuse of power at every level. Countless Christian churches and organizations are known more for their hate and bigotry than their love. We have pastors who wear Rolexes while people starve. And all of this happens in the name of God.
So who should find this more appalling? Is this type of behavior more troublesome for Christians or for those who do not beleive?
On one hand, those who have experienced the radical love and grace of Jesus should find these acts particularly disturbing because they tarnish the face of Christianity. If you have found your life woven into the tapestry of the Christian story then stains on the fabric reflect and affect you. Only those who fully grasp the message can realize just how contradictory these corporate sins are.
Yet on the other hand, if you reject the story of God and Christianity, the inconsistencies are even more glaring. There are been countless acts of violence and hate committed in the name of God. How much worse are those acts if God does not even exist. It is one thing to bomb an abortion clinic if you are doing it because you think you are purifying society in God’s name. But, if there is no God then these actions are completely lacking justification.
It is one thing for pastors to live extravagant lives built upon people’s tithes (literally money given to God) if they think it is justified by scripture. But, if God does not exist then these people are diverting people’s charity without furthering any noble cause.
I don’t have the answer to these questions, but I can say this. As I have allowed myself to wrestle with the notion that there may not be an all powerful God who is active in creation, I find my displeasure with the church exponentially increasing. If God does not exist then humanity has spent an inordinate amount of time and resources on petty and self-seeking things when those same resources could have been leveraged to bettering all of creation.
Just think if we had built hospitals and schools instead of sanctuaries and steeples. What if we had sent people to heal the sick instead of convert the heathens? Imagine a world where instead of paying pastors we paid to provide clean drinking water and basic health care to all people.
Only those inside the church can understand the true message of the church and realize the depth of grace, love and forgiveness this institution is called to. But at the same time, we need to hear the voice of those on the outside as they lament what could have been.
Ben, this is an interesting construct/question you have set up. I was instantly intrigued.
In thinking through your question, here are a couple of thoughts:
1) God hates hypocrites. Some of Jesus’ strongest words were against the Pharasees and those masquereding as children of light when they are really wolves in sheep’s clothing. Thus, hypocrites are not part of his bride, the church, unless they are repentant hypocrites (like some of us (dv) because we must not put ourselves on higher moral ground than sinners like Swaggart & Haggard). This seems to me to be the substance of what makes this question provocative – these sins of the church make true followers look bad, give God a bad name to the watching world, and God hates them and they will be judged severely.
2) Doubt doesn’t discover truth.
You say, “if there is no God, these actions are completely lacking justification” – I see what you are doing here Ben – you are climbing into an atheist’s worldview and trying to understand and empathize with how they must view these sins of the church (as one who is disgusted by these sins yourself), yet I don’t think this can be rationally done for two reasons.
a. God does exist
b. Atheistic worldviews are irrational
In my opinion, I think a horribly sinful justification with God in the picture (eg. God told me to blow up this abortion clinic) is worse than an equation with no God and thus no justification. Because if we fully immerse ourselves in the worldview in which God doesn’t exist the least I can say that sin isn’t as bad in that worldview (because sin isn’t against God).
Therefore, I conclude that “sins of the church” are more appalling in a theistic worldview than an atheistic worldiview because I don’t think we can make sense of these questions by only diving halfway into a worldview like you seem to have done – although maybe I am misunderstanding you…
However, Scripture itself asks a similar question to you in I Cor. 15:19:
“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. ”
Btw: I have been thinking a lot about your post on the penal substistion several months ago and just haven’t put a response together because as you can see, my blog responses aren’t exactly blog worthy. Hope all is well man. Merry Christmas. Look forward to catching up sometime soon.
Good stuff Dan,
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that atheistic wordviews are irrational (although I would to explore the argument further), but I think you bring up a good point. If you don’t beleive in an all powerful, loving God and you don’t subscribe to a larger meta-narrative about the redemption of the world, then you would have no expectation that the church would behave in a way more morally upstanding than any other collection of people.
By the way, I think your comments about hypocrites is right on. I think the reason Jesus is so harsh towards them (and YHWH was so harsh towards the syncratists) is because of the effect it has on larger image of the people of God.
Good stuff.
Ben,
I think you make a fundamental error in your view of the Church, which is ahistorical, and ultimately not Christian. Historically, the Church was never identified solely as a conglomerate of Christians who may or may not live up to the teachings of the faith. Rather, the Church was first and foremost identified with Christ, Who, as its Head, is its Source. Hence, in so much as Christ is the Head of the Church, and Christ is perfect, then so is the Church perfect.
Christians, on the other hand, are sinners seeking salvation, i.e. healing. We unite to Christ through the Church in order to be healed, because it is the Church which gives us Christ, the incarnate Word of God. The Church is the continuing presence of Christ in the world, and we partake of his divinity by our willing love and obedience, and through our communication with Him in prayer and the sacraments. Hence, sin is the moving away from that life-giving stream and toward nothingness, i.e. non-being. Christ is the Source, and our departure from the Source is the gradual loss of ourselves.
The idea that the Church, whose source is Christ, can commit sins signifies a divorce from Christ from His Church – His Bride – and ignores or even denies the on-going presence of God in His creation. The identification of the Church merely with the adherents of Christianity is a recent innovation and specifically Protestant in nature, and has done much to effect the near complete desolation of western Christians’ sacramental view of the world.
This notion of the world as sacrament – a gift to be offered back to God – has been the pretext for the building of beautiful and awe-inspiring cathedrals. But attention to their construction has not precluded the building of hospitals. While hospitals were built to heal the sick in body, churches have always been understood to be the hospital of the soul. It’s where we go to commune with God and with other believers, receive the sacrament of confession and repentance, and actually see, hear and touch God. We are far too near-sighted to think that the full healing of the world reaches only the physical.
While Christians have been responsible for much evil, they have also – only through cooperation with the living God – attained much good, the possibility of which would never have been possible without the freedom endowed upon us through the Gospel.
@Derek
I would agree how we understand the church is essential to this question. For me, the church represents the “People of God” as such, they are not only the manifestation of God’s salvation, but are also the agents of God’s redemptive plan. For this reason, those who claim to be a part of the church, yet perpetrate acts of oppression/hate/indifference are working against what the church is called to be.
The concept of “church” is nebulous at best. Most will agree church is not about bricks and morter, but understanding it beyond that is a tricky proposition.