{"id":247,"date":"2005-01-10T00:20:25","date_gmt":"2005-01-10T00:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:52","slug":"the_truth_about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Western Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please, go read this article<\/a> at Christianity Today. (Thanks to Daniel at Alien Soil<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.
\nThe 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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This story from South Africa is simply disgusting.<\/p>\n

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.
\nGraham 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\u2014,” the youth angrily retorted. Within a month he left the country to join the armed struggle against apartheid\u2014and eventually giving his life for his beliefs.
\nThe 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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?
\nHe 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:<\/p>\n

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\u2014and lukewarm.
\nThe 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,<\/p>\n

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\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I 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.
\nThose 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. \u2014Revelation 3:14-20<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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!
\nEvangelicals 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.
\nWeeping 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. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.
\nWhat 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.
\nFor 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<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 anRead More The Truth About Western Christianity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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 anRead More The Truth About Western Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-01-10T00:20:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-29T02:46:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doug Schaefer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@salguod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Schaefer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml\",\"name\":\"The Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-01-10T00:20:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-29T02:46:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Truth About Western Christianity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"salguod.net\",\"description\":\"Stuff I Think Up\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f\",\"name\":\"Doug Schaefer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Doug Schaefer\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/salguod.net\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/salguod\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/author\/salguod\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net","og_description":"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 anRead More The Truth About Western Christianity","og_url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml","og_site_name":"salguod.net","article_published_time":"2005-01-10T00:20:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-29T02:46:52+00:00","author":"Doug Schaefer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@salguod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Doug Schaefer","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml","url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml","name":"The Truth About Western Christianity - salguod.net","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-01-10T00:20:25+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-29T02:46:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/the_truth_about.shtml#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Truth About Western Christianity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/","name":"salguod.net","description":"Stuff I Think Up","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f","name":"Doug Schaefer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Doug Schaefer"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/salguod.net","https:\/\/twitter.com\/salguod"],"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/author\/salguod"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":628,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/03\/no_difference.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":0},"title":"No Difference?","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From Crunchy Con Ron Dreher: Is it just me, or did it strike anyone else that James Cameron announces the premiere of a documentary film that claims to prove that the central claim of Christianity ... is utter garbage ... and Christians worldwide fail to burn embassies, call for Cameron's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News & Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"News & Current Events","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/news-current-events"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":198,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/09\/missing_the_poi.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":1},"title":"Missing the Point","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've mentioned before, the church I'm a part of is an offshoot of the Churches of Christ. One of the things that attracted me to this church was it's passion for thestandards and misson of God and for the restoration of first century Christianity. They were determined to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/04\/relationships.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":2},"title":"Relationships","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"April 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Bird at the Thinklings had a great post about the importance of relationships the other day. It really hit home for me for reasons I'll make clear in a post that's brewing. More on that later, but I wanted to comment a bit on the importance of relationships. I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/04\/crash_helmet_ch.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":3},"title":"Crash Helmet Christianity","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"April 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Why do I feel as though I just stepped into a bunch of quicksand? Another post that got me thinking about the idea of fundamentals was this one by didymus I 'met' didymus at Infellowship. He also came from the ICoC, but no longer worships with an ICoC church. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1056,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2010\/10\/have_gospel_will_travel.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":4},"title":"Have Gospel, Will Travel","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"October 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Jared Wilson points out a fundamental difference between Christianity and other religions: There are no compulsory pilgrimages in Christianity, no far-flung hoops to jump through. The pilgrimage has been made; God incarnated in man. He comes to us in Spirit. Every religion beside the true one bids travel for power.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BlogWalking"","block_context":{"text":"BlogWalking","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/blogwalking"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1033,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2010\/05\/morality_is_not_the_baseline.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":5},"title":"Morality Is Not The Baseline","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Jared Wilson once again skewers the idea that the aim of Christianity is to produce good people, or better people. The bottom line is lots of folks do good stuff and are 'good' by any worldly standard and do so with no help at all from any church or from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BlogWalking"","block_context":{"text":"BlogWalking","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/blogwalking"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2025,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/2025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}