One of the main reasons Caroline was so disgusted by religion in general was because of the use of power, force, and violence in the name of religion. I agree with her. Who can get away from the Crusades, the murdering and deception of Native Americans, the African Slave Trade? You can't. Even the current conflict in Iraq has religious undertones on both sides with the religious right sanctifying this as a holy war, hunting down the terrorists until we kill them all (kind of sounds like the mantra of the Taliban and Muslim fighters too, doesn't it...the only difference is we think ours is the RIGHT side).
Therein lies my conflict, and increasingly so as I continue reading Greg Boyd's book, The Myth of a Christian Nation. Both sides in the current conflict claim their own sense of righteousness, but I don't believe either side is correct. Neither have to do with the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is NOT, let me repeat, NOT perpetuated by violence and the use of force (I'm very much identifying myself with my Anabaptist roots here). It is to be perpetuated by SERVICE and LOVE. Any other way of thinking you're spreading the Kingdom of God is contrary to the example of Jesus.
I resonate with Caroline at the disgusting use of force and violence throughout Christian history, even into the present. What would happen if we as the church would be leaders by example, serving and loving those opposed to us: the pro-choicers, the gay rights leaders, or anyone else who holds a less than conservative political view? In my opinion I don't think viloent opposition works. I don't think slander works. I think Jesus works. I think love works. I think treating people as though they were made by God, just like us...I think that works.
But we want results, and results most of the time come from forcing an opinion or way of thinking or way of doing things upon others. We live in that type of imperialistic culture, and it's not only our government...it's the corporations, and it's even the church. Believe now or go to hell! Kind of sounds like the cry of the Crusaders who gave their opponent a moment to choose God or else they would be killed.
See, Jesus, in every sense of the way we understand victory these days...he lost. He was killed. His followers were on the run. But it was through death and sacrifice people witnessed love. There is a story of the Black Plague where it was the Christians who went back into evacuated villages to care for those with the plague. They all died, but they died with those in need. In part, how did the Roman empire fall? A fire caused by Nero was blamed on the Christians. The Christians were therefore persecuted to great lengths...too much so. Nero's persecution of the Christians was what led to his downfall, because it was so extreme. Kind of poetic though, isn't it? The Pharisees wanted the fall of the Roman empire, and it came at the hands of Christians dying.
All this to say I believe the way we 'win the world', or perhaps in better terms...the way the Kingdom comes...is not by us forcing ourselves on others, but by us loving and serving (and sometimes dying) for them. It's subversive. It's Christlike.
