WEEKEND REFLECTIONS: ARE THERE CHRISTIANS IN THIS WORLD?

I look at folks around who are Christian; I observe their behaviors and they do not jive with what I garnered should be the behaviors of Christians. Given this perceived contradiction, I ask myself: who is a Christian and are there, in fact, true Christians? 

Is a Christian a person who simply states that he is a Christian even if he does not behave as the New Testament part of the Bible said that Christians should behave? There is no doubt whatsoever that Jesus taught love and forgiveness. In the Sermon on the Mount (Mathew, 5: 43-48) he asked his followers to love all people and to forgive their enemies (Mathew 5: 38-42).

He said that if a person slaps one of your cheeks you should turn the other cheek for him to slap, too (Mathew, 5:39-40). He said that if a thief asks for your coat you should also give him the entire clothes that you are wearing (Mathew, 5: 40-42). In the only prayer that he taught his followers, the Lord’s Prayer, he told his followers to forgive those who trespassed against them if they want God to forgive them their own trespasses (Mathew: 6: 5-14).

In the adulterer’s scene, the Jews brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and asked him what they should do to her (John, 8: 4-11). Their Old Testament asked them to punish her, stone her to death. Jesus told them to forgive her; he said, let him who has not sinned be the first to stone her.

In the story of a man going to worship God and remembered that a neighbor wronged him, Jesus said that he must first go home and forgive his neighbor before he worships God (Mark, 11:25). He implied that you must first forgive people before you pray to God and ask him for anything; if you have not forgiven folks God will hear your prayer all right and respond to them but you will not receive what he has given to you until you forgive those who wronged you.

How many times should we forgive those who wronged us, Peter asked Jesus? He said seventy times; that is, infinitely (Mathew 18: 21-22). Jesus walked his talk. Before he died he forgave those who crucified him; he said, father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing (Luke, 23:34).

There is no doubt whatsoever that Jesus taught his followers to forgive folks and love one another. He said: do unto other people as you want them to do to you. We want other people to love us, so we should love them (Mathew, 7: 12). He said that all the laws and prophecies can be summarized thus: love your God with your whole heart and love all your neighbors as you love yourself (Luke, 10: 26-27).

If it is the case that the essence of Christianity is love and forgiveness, how come Christians do not love and forgive those who wronged them, why do they want to punish those who wronged them?  Christians, I have observed, are like other people: they bear grievances and grudges against those who injured them and seek vengeance for those who harmed them in the past; why do so if the Lord and savior told us to love and forgive people?

We could say that the same Jesus asked his disciples to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God (Mark, 12: 17). Caesar, that is, secular authority requires society to have laws that punished evil people, so Christians merely go along with the laws of their society and punish evil people.

Indeed, a book that fascinated me, A COURSE IN MIRACLES emphasizes forgiveness; it teaches that when we forgive one another we are able to deemphasize the validity of this world. To forgive is to overlook the reality of the evil forgiven. Since the world is an evil place to forgive is to overlook the world. It says that when we completely forgive those who harmed us we have overlooked the reality of this evil world and have done what Jesus did, overcome the world.

The book’s teachings interest me even though I realize that it is not doable in this world, for in this world we have to defend our bodies and egos to live here and if we do not defend our egos and bodies with food, medications, clothes shelter and socials we would die.

IS FORGIVENESS IMPRACTICAL?

In thinking about this conundrum, I reached the sad conclusion that forgiveness is not always easily practiced. Forgiveness is an abstract concept that religions talk about but real people do not practice.  

Our experience in the real world is that if we forgive evil doers, forgiveness does not seem to deter them from further evil behaviors. There is not a shred of empirical evidence that forgiveness stops anti-social behaviors.

Throughout history, no human society practiced forgiveness as its social policy. Thus, it can be understood why a lot of Christians do not do what the Lord asked us to do, love and forgive one another.

From pure reason it is clear that given human beings inherent freedom and proclivity to evil that some people will always choose to harm other people. You can stand  on your head and call yourself a Christian but in as much as you do not do what Jesus told you to do you, love and forgive at all times, in my view you are not a true Christians.