sorry I have very little time to sit down and write anything new so I am going to post a paper that I wrote for a sociology class I had last semester…
We as an American society view the Christian religion as something of the every day occurrence, and rightly so, for 76.5 percent of Americans claim to be Christian (Composite). We hear of it daily. We have “Christian” churches on every other street corner and around 40 percent of people claim to attend church regularly. We view Christianity as the norm of the norms. This is something that most of us just say we are; something that is far from being deviant. This is because we as a society have lost what Christianity was meant to be. We view it as a religion when it is far from that. Even though our society is thought of as a Christian nation, it still looks upon Christianity in an interesting way. Our society views a Christian as patriarchic, ritualistic, homophobic, fundamentalist. Patriarchic, because it seems to point towards male dominancy. In the book, “Sociology”, by John J. Macionis, it points out the passage Ephesians 5: 22-24 where it says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church… As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.” Then ritualistic, because of the repetitive prayer, confession, church going, lent, and other “holidays”. Homophobic, because of the signs some hold up saying that homosexuals are condemned to hell. Lastly fundamentalist, because of how they stand for what they believe in. Even though there are some inevitable failures because we are dealing with humanity, we will hopefully see how Christianity, according to its roots found in the Bible, is completely deviant.
First, lets look at some of the inevitable failures which “Christians” have had. The Crusades, which was an effort to rid Jerusalem or the “holy land” from Muslim rule, lead to the death of a lot of Christians and Muslims for an unjust cause. Another failure was around the 1500’s, when Pope Leo X raised money by selling indulgences. Indulgences were used as a way to pay for the sins one had committed. So, in essence, you could pay to get your sins forgiven. One of the worst things happening now is that Christians replace the hate for sin, which is biblical, for the hate of the actual person. This becomes evident in our present changing culture where sexuality is becoming more open. We see “Christians” holding up signs that say, “Homosexuals go to hell”. We have also seen priests molesting little kids and extreme religious activists who kill and murder. The list goes on. It would be futile to say Christians have an ability to be flawless, for they are human. It will never get to the point where we can not point out flaws. However, we are not here to judge the person, but what the person should be following, and that is the Bible and Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ, the God of the Christian faith, is the perfect example of deviance. There are several instances in the Bible where Christ was almost unlawful in the eyes of the Pharisees or Teachers of the Law. One of the best examples is in Mark 2: 15-17, “
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?’ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” As we see in this passage Christ is doing something that the Pharisees see as uncharacteristic. In the age of Christ the Pharisees would be considered upper class because of their knowledge of the Torah orLaw. It was not unusual for a Pharisee to have all of the Torah memorized, and the prestige that comes along with that. Tax collectors would be the lower class. They were known for taking advantage of their job and charging more tax then what should have been. Even though this was how they made there living, they where still considered outcasts. Therefore, it is easy to see why in the Pharisee’s eyes this behavior was not acceptable. In Mark 2: 23-24, “
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’” This happens consistently through out Jesus’ life.Christianity deviates itself from other religions by the concept of grace. Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism all focus around the idea that you can work your way to heaven or some other form of afterlife. Islam or Muslims believe that the highest human good is to follow the path outlined in the law or the Shari’ah (p 241 Ludwig). Judaism is similar but instead they follow the Law of the Torah or the Mosaic Law. Hinduism strains for a moral and prosperous life according to the Vedas, in the hope that their next reincarnated life will be better then the previous. Buddhism also believes in reincarnation. They live their life for morality, mental development, and enlightenment. Christianity says that no matter how righteously you live your life, no matter how good of a person, no matter how closely you follow the Law, you can not get into Heaven. This is because you are a sinner (Romans 3: 23) and therefore never going to be worthy of a perfect God. In Ephesians 2: 8-9 it says, “
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.” The only way in which you can receive eternal life in Heaven is by faith, faith in Jesus Christ. Even though we are imperfect, Christ is our mask, so that when we have faith and a belief in Him, God then no longer sees our sin, but Christ’s perfection (Romans 5).
True Christianity according to the Bible covers one basic concept. This concept applies to the before mentioned thoughts on Christianity. That one thing is ‘love”. I know it sounds cliché, but wait and see how it applies to each area. The key verse that will be used is 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…” Patriarchy, as we saw before in Ephesians 5: 22-24, sounds as if the male has complete dominion over the wife as the sociology book points out to us. He can tell her to do something and by the Bible she should do it. But the book left off the last few verses that are very important…, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church”. A husband is supposed to sacrifice himself for his wife. A man is supposed to complement his wife’s goal to be like Christ. It says, “Make her holy…through the word”. Some may say that it is important that men be the breadwinner in the family, but this idea is of little value. It is more important for the man to provide the “bread of life” for his wife then economic prosperity (Piper). It calls men to love their wives, and if love “is not self seeking”, like it says in 1 Corinthians 13, then how can they be seen as dominant. Finally, we have to recognize one of two things; either we are created by God, male and female, or we are just animals equivalent to mere apes. Since we are dealing with Christianity, the choice is obvious. We are created by God as male and female, who are equivalent but have different strengths; strengths that Christianity is not afraid to point out and utilize. Utilized for one purpose and that is to glorify God.
Ritualism is simply not in the teachings of Christ or the New Testament. Since we are looking at the doctrine and not the follower of Christianity, then we can’t judge that. However it can be explained. It is something purely human made habitual. Quite frankly just doing something because it has and was always done is another one of the flaws of the person. Christ actually spoke against this in Mathew 23: 27-28, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” The Pharisees were doing all the correct actions, but they were merely actions. They did not have the correct motives behind what they where doing. One might think, “Then why do we have the scripture if it is not to follow”. It should be followed, but only if the correct feeling is behind it and that feeling is love, love for God. It says “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Just like a man wants to please the one he loves, he should want to try and please his God; and we please God by following his commands with a true heart of “love”. Therefore, ritualism can be understood and, in fact, is only worth something if we have “love”. Homosexuality, as mentioned before, sadly, “Christians” have a hate for the homosexual people shown through signs and an assortment of hate crime. The signs are true. Homosexuals are deserving of hell, but so are heterosexuals, and everyone else, because all of us are sinners. Romans 3: 23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, and therefore not worthy of a perfect God, we are condemned to hell. Homosexuality is a sin. Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable…” Also in the New testament, Romans 1: 26-27, it is just like any other sin. It is still a sin and therefore can not be and should not be encouraged by someone of the Christian faith. However this does not dismiss the hate shown to the homosexuals, that is wrong. We should still have love for them like we do anyone else. As we can see, Christians are called to be deviant because they are called to love God and love one another… to love each other as 1 Corinthians 13 says. Sadly, this is something that we don’t see played out in our society today. Personally, I think if our society turned to the faith of Christianity and followed it as it is taught in the Bible, then we would not have the problems that face us today.
Bibliography
“Composite of U.S Demographics” accessed 11/13/07 <http://www.adherents.com/ad h_
dem.html>.
Ludwig, Ludwig M. “The Sacred Paths of the West” New Jersey: Pearson Education,
2006.
Macionis, John J. “Sociology” New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2007.
Piper, John. “What’s the Difference?” Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1990.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002.
