21 September 2012

Things Christians Should Know

Not everything this guy says is on target, but we would all do well to remember that Christianity is what happened when the ailing Roman Empire tried to lengthen its life by transplanting the Jesus movement into itself. There was a graft-vs-host reaction, and the graft won. The Roman Empire is long gone. But Christianity absorbed some of its ideas about hierarchy and the need for orthodoxy from its time as Rome's official government-sanctioned religion. This has affected all subsequent Christianity, East and West, even the Latter Day Saints. That is to say, the Church on earth is a human manifestation of God's Will, and therefore incorporates human failings along with human virtues. We need to keep that always in mind as we strive to be the People of God, to encourage each other in faith, and to do the works that God has given us. A tame Christianity that reflexively affirms the values of its surrounding culture or liberal or conservative subcultures, has surely strayed from the path illuminated by the One who was once crucified and is now resurrected.

Thanks to ET for sending me this one!

1 comment:

Scooper said...

The now largely defunct anti-Semitism of the Church also comes from the Roman period.