What is being communicated?

Jason Porterfield wrote the book, “Fight like Jesus.” The subtitle is “How Jesus waged peace throughout Holy Week.” I’m currently reading the book. It’s wonderful.

I want to take one quote from the book for discussion:

“When religion legitimizes injustice, it communicates to the world that God wills such evil. It makes God appear wicked.” — pg. 59

This is a pretty simple post actually. What are we communicating about God when we turn a blind eye to injustice, when we ignore wrongs, when we make excuses for abuse, when we decide who God loves and who God hates, when we make excuses for the use of violence, when we see ourselves as sinless while we judge those who are sinful but in different ways than ourselves, when we refuse to deal with racism and white supremacy, when we equate the flag or a political party or a politician with God, when we refuse to talk about uncomfortable topics and issues that people are dealing with, when we find ways to solely blame the poor and homeless for their plight, when we find ways to not welcome the stranger, when we find ways to dehumanize people for who they are, when we refuse to steward God’s creation, when we see value in people based on their financial situation, when we try to go back to some mythical time in the past and claim that it was the best, when we think we are so very righteous while others are unrighteous, when we believe that God owes us because we have been good our whole lives, when claim to follow Jesus but support and live the opposite of everything he stood for?

When we do these things, we are communicating that Christianity is the exact opposite of what it actually is. When we do these things, we are communicating that Jesus is something that he is not. When we do these things, we are taking the name of Christianity, shaping it in our own image, and using it for our own purposes and goals and power.

Originally published at https://pastormatthewbest.com on March 22, 2022.