Christians In Glass Houses Still Throw Stones

Persecution of religious minorities, beheadings, ‘heretics’ being burned alive, repeated incidents of mutilation and torture: not the despicable actions of IS/ISIS but the stock in trade of the Christian Church in its various guises down through the centuries.

Of course the Church has also done many positive things, notably in the fields of health and education. That track-record is besmirched, however, by the existence of too many heartless institutions dominated by callous, even sadistic, individuals.  If the Church were to be given an ‘end of year’ report it might suggest that, historically, it has done quite well in the areas of health and education, inconsistently in the area of social welfare and appallingly in the field of individual liberty.

Those of us who are Christians cannot divorce ourselves from the unsavoury history of Christendom and its ongoing legacy.  There is no ‘statute of limitations’ for the horrors committed, falsely, in the name of Christ. Those who are not Christians are quite right not to let us off the hook, as if an apology or two could wipe out the misery inflicted upon countless people over centuries.

It is true that very few Christians today would wish to see the Church return to its violent and repressive ways, but our ‘enlightened’ approach owes much to the freedoms won through the progress of liberal thinking born out of the eighteenth century movement known as ‘The Enlightenment’. Initially opposed by many Christians and still bemoaned by some, it has been this largely (though not exclusively) secular movement that taught the Church to rediscover some of the attitudes that ought always to have lain at its heart. The truth is that the Church has too frequently opposed social reform, only to accept it hesitantly, eventually, and somewhat paradoxically, becoming a champion of the new status quo. Often a not-so-subtle rewriting of history is required to cover the tracks of this volte-face.

It is, therefore, with some degree of annoyance that I read and listen to statements from Christians, condemning the violent tactics of IS/ISIS, AL Qaeda and the Taliban.

Of course, what these groups have done, and continue to do, is appalling and has no place within any society.  Of course, their influence and development ought to be opposed.  What Christians have no right to do, however, is to leap on their moral high horses, claiming the ethical high ground as if the tactics of IS/ISIS and others are strangers to their own religious history and culture.

We must, by all means, oppose the horrors that are unfolding daily, but it behoves us to do so with an attitude of repentance for our own history. Truly, ‘there, but for the grace of God….’