On CNN’s home page, Jay Bakker and Marc Brown ask an interesting question: What the hell happened to Christianity?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/13/bakker.brown.commentary/index.html
Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church. Marc Brown is a Revolution staff member. They wonder about the fact that Christianity (especially in the U.S.) has became increasingly identified with right-wing political agendas. This leads to a serious threat to Christianity itself.
”While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual to some, most see through the judgment and hypocrisy that has permeated the church for so long. People witness this and say to themselves, "Why would I want to be a part of that?" They are turned off by Christians and eventually, to Christianity altogether. We can't even count the number of times someone has given us a weird stare or completely brushed us off when they discover we work for a church.”
The young men are right, of course. The one thing standing between most people and Christ are the Christians. We Christians have failed miserably in living what we preach: love, forgiveness, peace, and grace. Since we too often live out (and sometimes preach) hatred, condemnation, and violence, good people everywhere disassociate themselves from us - alas, with good reason.
I can only humbly ask those that I have hurt to forgive me, and to ask them not to judge Christ by those claiming to be his followers!
Jerry Maneker has some comments. http://christianlgbtrights.blogspot.com/2006/12/what-hell-happened-to-christianity.html
