Please, go read this article at Christianity Today. (Thanks to Daniel at Alien Soil for the link.) It’s a powerful expose on modern western Christianity. Ronald J. Sider does an excelent job pointing out the hypocracy of what is called Christianity in the US today. Quoting many polls and other research, he points out that most Christians today are so in name only.

Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most “Christians” regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.
The findings in numerous national polls conducted by highly respected pollsters like The Gallup Organization and The Barna Group are simply shocking. “Gallup and Barna,” laments evangelical theologian Michael Horton, “hand us survey after survey demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general.”

This story from South Africa is simply disgusting.

Graham Cyster, a Christian whom I know from South Africa, recently told me a painful story about a personal experience two decades ago when he was struggling against apartheid as a young South African evangelical. One night, he was smuggled into an underground Communist cell of young people fighting apartheid. “Tell us about the gospel of Jesus Christ,” they asked, half hoping for an alternative to the violent communist strategy they were embracing.
Graham gave a clear, powerful presentation of the gospel, showing how personal faith in Christ wonderfully transforms persons and creates one new body of believers where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, rich nor poor, black nor white. The youth were fascinated. One seventeen-year-old exclaimed, “That is wonderful! Show me where I can see that happening.” Graham’s face fell as he sadly responded that he could not think of anywhere South African Christians were truly living out the message of the gospel. “Then the whole thing is a piece of sh—,” the youth angrily retorted. Within a month he left the country to join the armed struggle against apartheid—and eventually giving his life for his beliefs.
The young man was right. If Christians do not live what they preach, the whole thing is a farce. “American Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century,” Barna concludes, “because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus.”6 This scandalous behavior mocks Christ, undermines evangelism, and destroys Christian credibility.

If only they would have known: Since the mid 80’s the church associated with mine, the Johannesburg Church of Christ, has been a racially diverse congregation. Blacks and whites, even under apartheid, worshiped together, in numbers proportionate to the population. Why is this the exception rather than the rule? And why, in the racially sensitive USA, is a church of mixed races so rare?
He goes on to decry our standards in giving & materialism (more on that later), in lifestyle, in sexuality and in marriage. The bottom line is that the only difference between most “Christians” and others is the name that they attach to themselves. This pretty much summed it up:

No biblical passage speaks as powerfully to our situation as the message to the church at Laodicea. Like the American church today, the Laodicean church was rich, self-confident—and lukewarm.
The city of Laodicea (in Asia Minor, now Turkey) was famous in the first century. It was a major banking center and proud of its wealth. The city was especially famous for its wool exports and a highly regarded eye salve.35 Apparently the Laodicean church shared their fellow citizens’ sense of wealthy self-confidence. But knowing they were half-hearted, lukewarm Christians, the Lord said to them,

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. —Revelation 3:14-20

This passage could just as well have been written to contemporary American evangelicals. Enormously wealthy, and proud of it, we think that most things are going well in spite of our blatant disobedience. But our Lord’s word to us is simple: Repent!
Evangelicals have used the image of Christ knocking at the heart’s door as a symbol of our vigorous evangelistic programs. But in truth, it is we, by our behavior, who have excluded him from our hearts and lives. He stands at the doors of our hearts, begging us to welcome his total Lordship.
Weeping and repentance are the only faithful responses to the sweeping, scandalous disobedience in the evangelical world today. We have defied the Lord we claim to worship. We have disgraced his holy name by our unholy lives.

Unfortunately, in my view, after that appropriate call to repentance, he misses the point. The latter part of the article is spent trying to show that things aren’t as bad as they sound. He divides and slices western Christianity up until he finds a segment that is noticeably different than the general population. See, he says, it can work. But he fails to acknowledge the elephant in the room. That is that the overwhelming majority of Christians and churches do not understand what Christianity is. People are being taught at best a thought process or a vocabulary. They are not being taught discipleship or lordship. They are not being transformed into something new. They are not being shown a powerful and loving God, the god of the cross of reconciliation. They are told an empty prayer with a smile and sent on their way, another checkmark on the membership roles.
What he misses is that the bulk of “Christianity” in the US is not Christianity at all. It’s a social club, a self help group or an appeasement of conscience, but it is not Jesus as Lord. Our Lord made it very clear what it takes to follow him, and what is called Christianity here is far removed from that. I have begun to realize that I have stopped expecting such a difference in my friends and in my own church. I have blurred the lines of what real Christianity is for the sake of tolerance. Now hear my right here, I am not advocating determining salvation based on church membership or anything like it. Nor do I want to have a holier than thou, in or out, we know who is God’s kind of ministry. Been there, done that. But God has laid out through the teachings of his son what it means to follow him. How dare I or anyone else lower the standard for any reason, no matter how noble it may sound. It’s a false kind of love to just let ‘each to his own’ when God has made clear that his people are to be different and that we are to help each other be different. How can I face God with a clear conscience one day if I do not do all I can to help those around be stay true to him? God, I was too busy … it would have been awkward to ask him about that … I’m not sure he wanted to hear it … The fact is, Christianity that produces no results, no fruit, is not Christianity and we must call a spade a spade.
For all its warts and faults (and there are plenty), my family of churches, to its credit, has historically taken a dim view of such token Christianity. Becoming a Christian was not to be entered into lightly and it was not simply a name or a place to go on Sunday. Giving was expected, divorce was condemned (in fact marriages were expected to be happy not just long lasting), sexual purity was the standard and evangelism was a given. You confessed you sins and even your temptations to sin. It was a life style, a transformation, a mission and a purpose. Aside from the mistakes made in getting there, I think our Lord would have it no other way.

Ok, so I wasn’t planning on blogging about this, but we visited some old church friends over Christmas and the gave me a book that they said I should read. It’s by Steve Johnson, the one time lead evangelist of the NYC Church of Christ. It’s called I Wanna Hear Him Say ‘Well Done’, Instead of Going to Hell and Gettin’ Burned Well Done. We were talking about our church and where we came from and how we got there. This book is supposed to have a lot of history of the ICoC (I haven’t got to that yet) which my church is a part of, which is why they thought I should read it. I had a few minutes tonight before putting the kids to bed, so I thought I’d start it. It’s a short book, 138 pages from the title page to the publisher’s ad in the back, and the pages are small and the type is large. I’m only on page 21 and I’ve come across some great stuff that I thought I’d share.
I briefly though about putting it down after the dedication and the forward by Sam Laing. You see, Steve, Sam, Russ Ewell (whom the book is dedicated too) and Kip McKean (whom the book is almost dedicated to) were all big-wig leaders in the ICOC when this was published 5 years ago. In the past few years it has become fashionable not to trust, respect or hold in any high regard such men. A lot of stupid, sinful things were discovered that lead to such conclusions. I remembered what I had learned over the past 2 years and I wondered if there could be anything of value here in this book by a Leader, written before The Revelation. But reading the intro, the glowing praise for Steve by Sam and by Steve of these men, and I remember what it was like to have men, leaders, to look up to. That seems to be lost and I felt sad that it was gone and realized that I missed it. It’s gone for me party because I’ve seen the failings – rather substantial failings – of men I thought were holy and now my spiritual innocence is lost. But it’s also partly because I won’t let myself see my leaders with such idealism any more. They must be up to something, there is something that they don’t get. They’re part of The System, they don’t understand. You know what, that’s a lonely, cold kind of existence and I’m a little tired of it. I cannot go back to the idealistic trust of the past, but I can’t stay cynical either. I must find the balance between complete and unquestioning trust and constant, tireless questioning and doubt.
Anyway, that’s not what inspired my to pull the laptop out and start writing, that was just the intro! No, the reason I felt compelled to blog is Steve’s unique, matter of fact writing and the points it drives home. Take this:

What does God want? Lots of “don’ts” come to mind. Don’t smoke, don’t cuss, don’t get pregnant if you’re not married and don’t get married to a boy … if you’re a boy. But the Bible reveals that if you really want to understand, God is a loving father who doesn’t want us to get hurt.The devil is an evil child abductor, and God is the fretting dad who doesn’t want his kids to end up on a milk carton for all eternity. He grieves when we run away from home. He is absolutely sick with anxiety when we’re stolen by evil. He mourns when we prefer the company of hoodlums over his presence and the thrill of cheap shenanigans over his agenda for our lives. And just like any of us with our own kids, he wants to be able to say, “Well done, good and faithful son, daughter, beloved of mine” more than we could ever comprehend.

That really hit me because in the place I’ve been I was struggling a bit with the title of the book, the implication that it’s all about making the grade and getting to heaven. It seems a bit selfish, and frankly it also seemed a bit demanding and even ungodly that God would have an expected level of performance for me. But I too long to be able to tell my daughters, “Well done.” Not to see them perform, jump through hoops or meet my expectations or even to please me, but because I want the absolute best for them. Like God, I just don’t want them to get hurt. There’s really no selfishness there, but wisdom of years of life that I want them to apply to their life. I know things that can help them, that are crucial to their happiness or even safety – eternal safety, and seeing them follow them gives me joy because I know the pain that they’ve avoided by doing so. God isn’t trying to control me, he just loves me. Typing that now seems so foolish – Duh, I knew that! – but at the moment it seemed so profound.