The Christian Paradox

I was handed a copy of an article yesterday by a church member. The church member had copied the article, "The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong", by Bill McKibben, from the pages of the current issue of Harper's magazine. Getting online, I typed out the words 'The Christian Paradox' into my Google search engine and found 23,400 results. It seems Mr. McKibben has struck a nerve; both for those who are listening and to those who are offended.

The article explains, in a very well written manner, how the author believes that many American Christians have misappropriated Jesus- making him be all about what they are all about. Here is a sample of what he has said. After the article, you can read the whole story by following the link.

***
The power of the Christian right rests largely in the fact that they boldly claim religious authority, and by their very boldness convince the rest of us that they must know what they're talking about. They're like the guy who gives you directions with such loud confidence that you drive on even though the road appears to be turning into a faint, rutted track. But their theology is appealing for another reason too: it coincides with what we want to believe. How nice it would be if Jesus had declared that our income was ours to keep, instead of insisting that we had to share. How satisfying it would be if we were supposed to hate our enemies. Religious conservatives will always have a comparatively easy sell. But straight is the path and narrow is the way. The gospel is too radical for any culture larger than the Amish to ever come close to realizing; in demanding a departure from selfishness it conflicts with all our current desires.

Even the first time around, judging by the reaction, the Gospels were pretty unwelcome news to an awful lot of people. There is not going to be a modern-day return to the church of the early believers, holding all things in common - that's not what I'm talking about. Taking seriously the actual message of Jesus, though, should serve at least to moderate the greed and violence that mark this culture. It's hard to imagine a con much more audacious than making Christ the front man for a program of tax cuts for the rich or war in Iraq.

Read the entire story here.