Sad, Angry, Hope-filled

Listen here.

I am sad. I am sad because a new friend told me about how cruel Christians are. Christians not only fight with each other over power and control in churches, but also hurt each other by being judgmental and being self-righteous. Fighting, hurting, and shaming do not demonstrate Christianity. Yet, we as Christians cannot seem to stop doing these terrible things.

Imagine a situation. You and your non-Christian friend are driving through a small village in upstate New York. You notice that you are running low on gas. You check to see what you have; a credit card that has expired, a gas card from a Canadian company, and some Canadian dollars. You realize that neither the credit card from the Canadian gas company nor Canadian dollars are any good. Naturally you ask for a direction to a bank.

At the bank you are told that they would not exchange Canadian dollars to American unless you have an account with them. You find out the bank will be closing very shortly. As you go outside with your friend to figure out what to do, you see a woman walking out of bank. You explain to her your situation and ask her if she could change some Canadian money for you at the bank.

Instead of saying, yes or no, out of the blue, she asks you if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour. You answer her saying that you are a Christian and that you believe in Christ as the Lord and Saviour. She, then, asks you to say a prayer for your need since God would answer your prayer. You pray with her. After the prayer, instead of helping you to change money, she tells you that God will solve your problem. She also tells you that a man should never ask a woman to do such a thing and berates you for parking your car wrongly and walks away.

This was what happened a week ago to my new friend. Hearing this story made me very sad. Sure, a person may be suspicious about those who were asking for help in front of the bank, but was this the way a Christian ought to treat another Christian? Why ask to pray and say that God will answer your prayer—just not through her? What example did she set for a non-Christian friend when he witnessed this exchange between two Christians?

Unfortunately, Christians do hurt each other terribly. Christians are cruel as they criticize and judge one another and others because others do not meet their standard of being Christians. As Christians we are petty, controlling, and spiteful to one another in many ways. We even fight over what kind of musical instruments are acceptable for worship or not. Some people have told me often that if they see drums in the sanctuary, they are never coming back to the church. Love, forgiveness, and reconciliation are missing in Christian communities. Instead our churches are filled with controlling, self-righteous, selfish, and unbearable people. All these things make me sad.

I am also angry. I am angry that we do so little about their terrible behaviours. I am not talking about we judging, punish or be more self-righteous than them. I am thinking that we ought to do more in demonstrating patiently what forgiveness, reconciliation, and love are in Christ Jesus. I am angry that Christian communities are so reluctant in confronting all these bullies with love.

Yet, I am very hope-filled. Every time I think of every one of you, I am filled with hope because each one of you see how wrong these (judgemental, self-righteous, selfish, self-centered, uncaring, hurtful) behaviours are. You not only want to do nothing with those with these behaviours, but also try your best to be forgiving, healing, reconciling and loving in your actions. In many ways you are not afraid to speak up about how wrong these pain giving behaviours discredit who we are. In your own way, you try to be patient, kind, not boastful, not insist on your own way, and not resentful.

Though I am sad and angry because of so many Christians hurting others, I am hope-filled because you are doing more and will do your best to love others. Keep up and be courageous in loving always.