Christianity confuses me!
Feb. 7th, 2004 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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rysmiel asked me to go into detail about what it is about Christianity that I find so off-putting. I've been thinking about this in the intervening months, and I think I'm about at the stage where I can try to write it up.
I am aware that there are a number of Christians (of various flavours) reading this. This isn't a disclaimer, as such; if you want to take offence at this little essay, you're probably entitled to. To a very large extent, I'm shelving all I have learnt in over a decade of serious commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue, and reverting to my eight-year-old self who got into trouble for complaining to my form teacher, But your religion makes no sense! I do want to point out, though, that I don't mean this in any way as a personal slight against any Christian individual. I am also very well aware that Christianity isn't monolithic, and I do already realize that you could almost certainly point to a Christian who doesn't do or believe any one of the items on the list.
A parable that I rather like: To-what-may-this-be-compared? A traveller comes to a foreign country. He peeks in through the windows of a building, and sees people moving about in a bizarre way. These foreigners are right weird, he concludes, as he goes on his way. Later, a second traveller arrives at the same building. Instead of peeking through the windows, he knocks on the door. The foreigners welcome him in and he finds himself in a dance hall. At the moment I'm being the first traveller; Christianity looks weird to me because I don't hear the music.
rysmiel asked me to go into detail about what it is about Christianity that I find so off-putting. I've been thinking about this in the intervening months, and I think I'm about at the stage where I can try to write it up. I am aware that there are a number of Christians (of various flavours) reading this. This isn't a disclaimer, as such; if you want to take offence at this little essay, you're probably entitled to. To a very large extent, I'm shelving all I have learnt in over a decade of serious commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue, and reverting to my eight-year-old self who got into trouble for complaining to my form teacher, But your religion makes no sense! I do want to point out, though, that I don't mean this in any way as a personal slight against any Christian individual. I am also very well aware that Christianity isn't monolithic, and I do already realize that you could almost certainly point to a Christian who doesn't do or believe any one of the items on the list.
A parable that I rather like: To-what-may-this-be-compared? A traveller comes to a foreign country. He peeks in through the windows of a building, and sees people moving about in a bizarre way. These foreigners are right weird, he concludes, as he goes on his way. Later, a second traveller arrives at the same building. Instead of peeking through the windows, he knocks on the door. The foreigners welcome him in and he finds himself in a dance hall. At the moment I'm being the first traveller; Christianity looks weird to me because I don't hear the music.
- Translated texts. OK, some Christians don't take the Bible seriously, which is fine. But those who do think that Scripture has authority really confuse me when they don't bother to learn the original languages. I don't get how anyone is prepared to take someone else's word for what a sacred text actually says.
- Vows. Christians seem to be positively encouraged to make vows, and religious vows at that, all over the place. Vows that are not time-limited, vows that they have no way of being sure that they will be able to keep, vows that are too general so it's not clear what one is vowing. And there seems to be almost an expectation that vows will be broken. The kinds of Christians who accept divorce still make marriage vows, for example. Christians even make vows on behalf of others, which I find a seriously unpleasant concept.
I know several people who prefer to publicly name themselves oathbreaker rather than live in a way that would be untrue to themselves. I have nothing but admiration for people who are brave enough to make that decision, but it seems to me a very bad thing for a religion to create the kind of situation where this is likely to be a frequent outcome. There are even, apparently, formal religious structures for abjuring / renouncing / annulling vows, which does suggest that the system is geared for vows not to be kept. And as for encouraging children to make vows they are too young to understand, that's simply obscene. - Original Sin. Yeah, this is a pretty obvious one. Stereotypically, the Jewish / OT view of God is perceived as being too focussed on Justice (as opposed to Mercy). So maybe I'm living up to the stereotype a bit here, but I'm inclined to ask, Will not the Judge of all the earth do justice?; how can one follow a God who would be so utterly unfair as to blame the whole of humanity for something Adam and Eve did?
- Faith. Following on a bit from the previous one, I find it offensive that someone can live a completely blameless, even a saintly life, making the world a better place, and yet be condemned because they have wrong ideas about some extremely complicated matters of theology. I have no problem in principle that I don't understand how something like the Trinity is supposed to work, but I do have a problem if this means I'm going to Hell, however wonderful a person I may be. The converse, that someone who is absolutely horrible and vile, but manages all the mental gymnastics to understand and believe all the ins and outs of Christian teaching, can be forgiven, is less problematic; forgiveness is on the whole a good thing. It does seem a bit odd that it's predicated on having exactly the right views about such things as the nature of God, though, especially since I'm kind of inclined to think that anything that can reasonably be called God is probably beyond ordinary human understanding.
- Proselytizing. This is the big one, for me. However many aspects of Christianity I don't understand, (and there are lots I haven't listed here, because I'm focussing on the ones that really make my skin crawl), in general my attitude would be, well, that's because I'm ignorant, and trying to understand the Divine is so complicated that it's reasonable that different religions are going to come up with different approaches to spirituality. But proselytizing goes completely against that pluralism which is far more fundamental to who I am than any particular position I happen to take on any topic. I don't like proselytizing in general, but religious proselytizing is the very worst kind, it's an attack on something which, for those who are religious, is the very foundation of their life and identity.
I suppose this does follow from the previous bullet-point; if one believes that theology is all-important, then it makes sense to want to bring as many people as possible to the 'correct' beliefs and thus to salvation. But it's so appallingly, sickeningly arrogant. (I'm not talking about the fact that certain evangelists use really crass methods of trying to get converts, I'm talking about the principle of holding that as an aim at all.) It's really, really hard for me to respect a belief system that is based on such a total lack of respect for not only my beliefs, but for those of anyone who thinks differently from the believer.
Please feel absolutely free to argue with me, or tell me that I've got the wrong impression of how Christianity actually works, or whatever. Discussion is good.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-09 09:48 pm (UTC)If I wanted to be really snide, I could draw a comparison with how Christians were treating non-Christians at the equivalent point in history. But that would derail the discussion from what I'm actually trying to talk about; it's far too easy to point to examples of representatives of any given religion behaving despicably, and so what?
Seriously, maybe I'm just weird, but here I am, I'm neither Christian nor Muslim. And somehow, the idea of Muslims saying to me, you're not one of us, extra tax, offends me much much less than the idea of Christians saying to me (however kindly), you're not one of us, I feel so sorry for you because your life is completely meaningless and you haven't understood the fundamental truth.
According to the Koran
I don't really want to get into the game of matching up scriptural quotations. It would only take me a little digging to provide a list of liberal-sounding quotes from the Koran and compare them to the most exclusive, illiberal soundbites from the Bible. I don't think that would be productive though, especially as I have only a passing familiarity with the NT (and no solid idea of how Christians generally read it), and an absolutely minimal knowledge of the Koran. To the extent that I don't even know where I can find a reliable translation.
it also a capital offence to become an apostate or to seek to convert Muslims to another faith.
It's true, Islam's emphasis on physical justice is one of the things that can make it unpalatable to western liberals. I personally am against the death penalty, and have serious issues with any kind of corporal punishment, particularly when it's excessive as the mutilation prescribed by Sharia. But really, most cultures have practiced capital and corporal punishment at some point during their history, so this isn't a fundamental problem for me. And I can't help feeling some sympathy for the concept of severe punishment for people who try to convert others!
It's hard to put my finger on why Islam seems perfectly reasonable and sensible to me, while I have such a strong reaction against (certain aspects of) Christianity. Neither is my tradition, after all. I can perfectly well make a case against Islam, if I want to (I can even more easily make a case against Judaism, of course!) but it's a purely intellectual exercise, I don't feel a gut reaction against it.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-09 10:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-10 09:39 pm (UTC)I don't think it's better or worse than Christianity either, which is why I find it strange that Islam provokes a 'different, but interesting' reaction, whereas Christianity makes me feel, 'woah, weird, I don't get that at all'. I'm not claiming my reaction in either case is entirely rational.
I do believe that they both believe in proseletising (sp?)
I'm not confident of how to spell it either! It's true that some Muslims proselytize some of the time, and I'm not mad on this, because I don't like proselytizing in general. But I find it more palatable than Christian evangelism, I think mainly because of the underlying views of the standing of non-Muslim religions.
It's easier for me to live up to my standards of tolerance when it comes to Islam; it doesn't emotionally appeal to me, but I accept it as part of desirable religious diversity. I know I should take a similar attitude to Christianity, but I struggle. That's more something wrong with me than something wrong with Christianity, I'm well aware of this!
in different times and different places have displayed considerable intolerance
Well, sure, all religions have intolerant people and sometimes the intolerant approach is in the ascendant. There are even a few historical examples of Jews proselytizing aggressively and even violently, and a few fringe Jewish sects who effectively proselytize nowadays, and I disapprove of them too, even though they're theoretically part of the same religion as me. But somehow, even tolerant, fluffy, liberal Christians seem to be expressing coming from a viewpoint that I find very difficult to accept on an emotional level.