Every day, people leave Christianity because they have been taught that the religion…
- requires one to reject the reigning theory of origins in biology
- or that it requires one to accept that women should submit to men
- or that ‘wicked’ people should and will writhe in torment in a lake of fire
- or that you need to pray a sinner’s prayer in order to avoid the fiery furnace
- or that gay people should not be allowed to marry
- or that Jews have been ‘grafted out’ of God’s plan
- or that God has a special plan for the Jewish nation, a plan that justifies steamrolling the rights of Palestinians
- or that serious disciples of Jesus abstain from alcohol
- or that real Christians don’t swear or watch ‘R’ rated movies
- or that Jesus died only for his special elect people
- or that God will destroy the earth in the immediate future and thus that we don’t need to be concerned about environmental issues
- or that God commanded the slaughter of ancient societies
- or that God’s perfect law required particular offenders to be pelted to death with rocks
And on and on and on it goes.
Christians disagree in good conscience on all of these topics. None of them is part of the basic Euangelion or “Good News”. Despite that fact, each one of these claims (and many more) has been taught as if it were part and parcel of real, genuine, mere Christianity. Each one constitutes a significant stumbling block, an obstacle to faith, a reason to reject it altogether. And thus, including such disputed claims as part of the basic presentation of mere Christianity has wrought untold harm in alienating people unnecessarily from the faith.
The lesson: think hard about what the essence of Christianity is. Be very careful not to add unnecessary claims to the basic package lest you fall under the indictment of Matthew 23:4: “They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
