Am I a Christan? Q & A Part 1

I was asked by a friend whether I rejected Christianity, or rejected specific Christians after my post http://tamethemonkeymind.blogspot.com/2008/04/am-i-christian.html.

It was the feeling that Christianity has been hijacked by people who, in my opinion, are less then wise. Their bigoted, homophobic view of the gay community, the rejection of science and all other ways of being other then their own started me thinking. I recognize that there are narrow minded, bigoted zealots in every faith. I recognize that all ways of knowing can be misused. Evolution as an explanation for the origin of species is not diminished because it was misused as Social Darwinism. E=MC^2 is not any less an explanation of the unity of matter and energy simply because it gives us the knowledge to make nuclear weapons.

So the fact that there are small, ignorant or sinful people of any given faith does not, by itself, give one reason to reject all that is good in that faith. It does, however, give one pause.

However, the Bible is diminished as metaphor or allegory –as a religious truth - because it also condones practices that are manifestly sinful. Several Old Testament books contains rules for the buying and selling of slaves (e.g. Exodus 21:1-4, Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Indeed, Leviticus 25:44-46 seems to allow me to buy and sell Canadians, but not, say the French. Saint Paul and Saint Peter both direct slaves to obey their masters, even if they are cruel (1 Peter 2:18, Ephesians 6:5-8).

It is clear that our sense of what is moral, right and just must evolve as our understanding evolves. “Give me that Old Time Religion” can never work as theology. You end up, to quote Joseph Campbell, with:

Give me mighty Aphrodite!
Give me mighty Aphrodite!
She only wore a nighty,
but she’s good enough for me!

We must always think. We must always re-consider established truths. If we accept that God does not suspend the laws of physics, then we know it was impossible for, say, Joshua to stop the rotation of the sun to stop moving – more precisely to stop the rotation of the earth – so he could win a battle.

None of this means that the Bible does not serve as valid metaphor. Most faiths have what those outside those faiths would consider tall tales, used as metaphor for explaining the unexplainable or for making the infinite comprehensible to human minds.

However it is one central teaching of Christianity that I began to question and ultimately rejected – Jesus died and came back to life is an absolute, incontrovertible fact. To apply my own personal experience and the observations of countless others, inanimate matter – as in dead bodies – does not come back to life. So, to be a Christian, I must accept that God suspended the laws of nature. I find this to be impossible.
I also have noted that I increasingly find Christianity too small. A second central teaching of Christianity is that God sent his only son here, to earth, to save humans. If there are other sentient beings in the universe, as there surely are, they are either damned or have no soul. I can not accept this anthropomorphic view. Moreover some, but not all Christians believe that only those who believe in Jesus as Christ or who are born again can be saved. Aside from the logical conclusion that those who lived before Jesus are by definition damned, including Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Amos, Elijah, Joshua, etc…, we are again forced to damn anyone who does not agree with a narrow view of the world. I can not accept this.

So, I am clearly no longer a Christian.