When did Christianity jump the shark?

When did Christianity jump the shark?

If you ask the average non-Christian in America what their impression of the church is, they’re going to rattle off things like intolerant, homophobic and Islamophobic; and easily could get into the support Trump enjoyed from white evangelicals.

Those things probably aren’t true of the local Episcopal church, but the brand is marred pretty extremely.  They didn’t use to be true of evangelicals either, but that fight has been lost to the extremesAt some point the entirety gets redefined by one part, whether by actual size or by volume and noise. in that movement.

Christianity isn’t about morals or sin at all. It’s about a resurrected man, and whether we want to follow him. Take a look at the first creed: “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For it is with the heart you believe and are justified, and with the mouth you confess and are saved.” No recognition for sin required there.

Read Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill. The message there is “he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.” No discussion of sin there. Paul even says that God has overlooked the idolatry of the Greeks!

For that matter, read Jesus’ parables like the Sheep and the Goats, or his seven woes sermon in Matthew 23. He’s not railing there against sin but against systemic wickedness. The sine qua none of Judaism and of Christianity isn’t morality, it’s the pursuit of justice. The Sermon on the Mount isn’t about morals, it’s about something deeper than morals. Jesus pretty much calls morals a distraction from deeper matters.

Repentance isn’t about sinning or not sinning; it’s about which direction we’re going as people, and as a people. And the message is, “You’re headed the wrong way. Follow me.”

Follow him and issues of sin and morality sort themselves out.

When did Christianity leave that behind that glorious heritage to become the religion of angry, know-nothing scolds? This isn’t just our reputation, it’s our identity too. We absolutely revel in it.