Saturday, March 08, 2008

Ten Things I Hate About You: #6 - Say The Magic Words...

Christianity, like other great religions, is a religion of language. Words almost seem to have just as much meaning as the concepts they're intended to convey, if not more so. What we have as a result is a panoply of beliefs, ideas, dogma, and institutions, all centered around the dissection and interpretation of the language upon which the Church has been founded. Naturally, human institutions being what they are, they all haven't been very good at getting along with one another.

I say this because, as I've spent time coming out of my little Catholic comfort zone and into the wide, wonderful world of Protestant Christianity it's really hammered home to me just how powerful words can be in Christianity (ironic, since I come from a denomination which is steeped in linguistic and semiotic meaning) and no, I'm not talking about The Word, but rather, the everyday language that people employ when they talk about their faith.

Like take for example, this question:
"Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"

This (and all of its permutations) is a common canard we've all heard at one point in time, if not in church, and if not from people we meet, then perhaps, in web forums, blog comments, or in the popular media.

But what does this actually mean? It almost comes across as a blatantly loaded question, as if the person asking you this question, or making a factual claim with this concept truly understands what that means or implies. The idea of a "personal savior" seems to lead to the idea that the relationship between Christ and the believer is direct and singular. This is a powerful concept, as it implies that, as Paul said, that there is nothing which comes between you and Jesus - everything else then is a distraction, powerless and irrelevant at its very least, or a dangerous obstacle to be fought and defeated at its very worst.

But of course, isn't this what all Christians believe in? Surely, one of the prime tenets of Christian belief is that Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness of sins of each and every individual person, an act borne out of the love that God has for each and every person. Sounds personal enough to me. Then, why do such statements seem to apparently be made along denominational lines?

Moreover, this implies that Jesus can almost be thought of as a possession over which a person or groups of people can claim exclusivity: they alone know God, and they alone know Jesus - and you can too, if you join our church/renounce your own church and follow only us/send me a self addressed stamped envelope and your banking information to...

Additionally, it implies that Everything's Going To Be Okay once you chant the holy incantation; go to the front of the church - and boom - you're a Christian, with nothing to worry about at all. All of the horrible, worldly burdens weighing you down...you don't need to worry about those anymore. Why should you? You said the magic words! Of course, then those same people wake up one morning and they realize that the boogeymen haven't really gone away, the burdens they've been carrying around with them are still there, and they're all still waiting to be dealt with - it's even worse when they're growing impatient.

The problem with the idea of banking in phrases and concepts like that is that while there is a great deal of meaning attached to those words, you can easily run the risk of losing the message and the meaning of those words and narrowing your focus on the words themselves: you end up with Christians who say they're Christians, but actually haven't asked themselves the hard and important questions which all Christians should ask themselves but are of especially high importance to people who are new to Christianity - like, the question of evil and suffering and the omnipotency of God, of absolute truth claims, and the relationship between science and Christianity. And then of course, questions pertinent to our time, like how we are to approach other religions or sexual orientations. These are perilously hard questions to probe, but they aren't even necessarily demanding immediate answers - what's important is that Christians are asking them in the first place. You simply can't capture that in a 15 second soundbite asking a spiritually loaded question to which the person asking likely already knows the answer (hint: nine times out of ten, your answer will probably be wrong in their eyes). You certainly can't capture that in a creed or a testimony, or the many other things that people do to verbally present their beliefs. Christianity is a religion of faith, not of empty incantations, and while the creeds and testimonies are important, they shouldn't be made the front-and-centre focus of peoples' spiritual lives.

When the medium starts to supersede the message, then there is nothing spiritually sound to place a firm foundation on when people are consistently challenged in their faith (for better and/or for worse) by the observations they make in the world which run contrary to what their church leaders or spiritual advisors tell them. It is there, in that world, where Christians make themselves known (again, for better or for worse), and in that world, in this world, saying the magic words simply isn't going to cut the mustard.


- Thanks to Susan and Robbie for the impetus behind this post.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Christianity is a religion of faith"

What do you mean by that? In particular, how does it not contradict your claim that Christians should ask questions "of evil and suffering and the omnipotency of God, of absolute truth claims, and the relationship between science and Christianity"?

Ctenuchid said...

I didn't like how that sounded, come to think of it - what I meant by that was that Christianity depends on faith, as opposed to just reciting verses or prayers or what have you - sure, they're important, but it's much more than that.

And I completely believe that faith has with it at least some level of doubt.

Anonymous said...

Sure, but what does faith mean? It seems like an overly religious word that I don't understand.