Garth George: Christians take the blame for the actions of churches

Since I wrote last week my inadequate dissertation on Pope John Paul II and his life of Christian love in humility, I have been surprised by the muted reaction.

Usually when I write of Christian matters, the reaction in emails and letters is instant and comprehensive. It falls into three categories: those lovely people who write to agree with me and to express appreciation of my words; those who say they are Christians and who want to argue with me over some, usually trivial, theological point; and those who seem to be deeply offended, even infuriated, by any reference to things Christian.

It is this third category who reflect the extensive antipathy to Christianity which seems to have been growing among New Zealanders, Pakeha in particular, for several decades now and which reaches a crescendo at times when moral issues are to the fore.

I have pondered often this quirk in character of so many Pakeha (it is rarely, if ever, evident among Maori, Islander, Middle Eastern or Asian New Zealanders) and have come to the conclusion that the trite answers with which I have sometimes satisfied myself up to now just don't explain it.

It is easy for us Christians merely to remind ourselves of some pertinent passages of scripture quoting Jesus, such as John 3:19, "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil", and John 15:18, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you".

But that is far too trite. I am persuaded, rather, that the antipathy to things Christian is more the fault of the churches than it is of those things which they blame, such as 1960s hedonism, new age spiritualism, materialism, liberal secular humanism, legitimised immorality and so on.

It seems to me that the churches by their actions and inactions and pronouncements and lack of them in the latter part of the last century contributed much to the contempt in which Christians are held today.

And perhaps what is worse, as their disenchanted congregations voted with their feet and walked out in droves, their ready acceptance of anyone into their fellowships who came along and pronounced themselves Christian.

Alongside that, of course, came the spectacular rise of the "Bless me" churches, the so-called Pentecostal movement, with their beguiling invitation to come to Jesus and be healthy, happy and wealthy.

In both cases churches filled up with men, women and children who were conned into believing they had become Christians simply because they professed to believe in Jesus Christ.

Absent in most cases was any requirement for repentance, that guilt-ridden, gut-wrenching, tear-filled time of life-changing self-realisation which gives a whole new understanding of the words of Genesis 6:5, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually".

The result has been that the churches have become infested with people who were soon able to talk the talk but with very little, if any, idea of how to walk the walk.

Along the way, the mainstream, or so-called evangelical, churches began to move away from preaching the increasingly unpopular message of the gospel of salvation because they didn't want to frighten any more people away.

For the same reason they began to compromise on what were once unquestioningly accepted moral stances - on marriage, divorce, abortion and homosexuality, for instance - and to look for ways to excuse such things and to adapt their dogma to make them acceptable.

And to fill the gap and to try to appear still relevant, the churches increased their interest in social and political issues to such an extent that many have become social service agencies, far more concerned with improving people's circumstances than saving their souls.

Then there have been the almost continuous disclosures of the worst sort of immorality - paedophilia and child abuse - in far too many denominations, not to mention a string of church pastors thrown out for adultery, and others whose greed costs their parishioners dear.

Is it any wonder, then, that there is such a widespread antipathy towards all things Christian? No. The average Kiwi (if there is such a creature) is no fool. He or she can spot a fraud a kilometre away and won't have a bar of it.

Which brings me back to the late Pope and the surprisingly muted reaction on the part of the "opposition" to the eulogies heaped upon him. John Paul was a real Christian. Thus he appealed as much to the non-believer as to the believer, a man universally admired for this humble faith and lifetime commitment to it.

Fortunately for this nation, we have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of real Christians in all walks of our life. We all know at least one - that quiet, unassuming, gentle, unselfish, utterly trustworthy man or woman who radiates something tremendously attractive.

The sort of person of whom we say "they're the salt of the Earth". And they are. What a rotten place the world would be without them.