Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed and the Disillusioned

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It’s not hard to see how this kind of vicious rhetoric, smoldering deep in the German Christian psyche, caught fire in the Nazi death camps, gas chambers, and mass graves four centuries later. One of the things my Christian faith has taught me is to try to be honest, and if I’m honest about Christian history, I have to say the ugliness of the ways that our faith has been used to harm people – it’s not insignificant. My Christian faith has also taught me to try to look at the boards in my own eye before I look at the splinters in the eyes of others.” Brian McLaren offers 10 solid reasons to abandon Christianity: A review of Do I Stay Christian? | The Christian Century The problem is, white evangelicals haven’t gotten the message. Their Faustian deal with Donald Trump gave them enormous political power, as well as a willing strongman to enforce their white fundamentalism on the wider culture. Worse, their compromised Supreme Court is now handing down theocratic rulings that will have an impact on American public and private life for decades to come. The current evangelical attempt to bring heaven down to earth has resulted in unleashing a veritable hell. And though they are declining in numbers, their power over culture is increasing, providing uncomfortable similarities between the United States in 2022 and South Africa in the dying days of white rule. Driven by militant Christianity, America is drifting toward an apartheid system, leaving many of us to wonder if America’s future is South Africa’s past. Is it any wonder then, why millions of us want nothing to do with this corrupted form of faith? McLaren also encourages readers to stay Christian because of our love for Jesus—and because all religions (like all humans) are imperfect. While he believes that traditional theism (“that old Big White Guy on a Throne in the Sky”) has to go, he is convinced that Christianity can evolve into something far more beautiful. If we stay, he says, we can participate in that evolutionary movement toward a more enlightened faith. He offers several other reasons to stay Christian, and even more could have been included—such as the deeply felt human need for the friendship, support, and belonging of Christian community.

Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Dis… Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Dis…

After laying out reasons to leave and stay, Brian shifts to the third and final section of his book. He begins by asking, “Will we stay Christian? and Will Christianity survive? are less important questions than In McLaren's somewhat irrational theology, he claims that there is something bigger than God – the Creator of all things.I explained all this not as an excuse but as part of my apology, because I now see how some aspects of my parenting were insensitive, unwise, and hurtful. I’ve told all my children, “I sincerely did my very best for you as a father, but you deserved so much better.” If only I knew when they were born what I know now! In some ways, my Christian commitment probably helped me be a better parent than I would have been otherwise, but in others, I think it made me worse. The situation recalls a time Jesus spoke of religious people traveling over land and sea to make converts, only to make them “twice the sons of hell” they were before (Matthew 23:15).

Do I Stay Christian Book Review of Brian McLaren’s Do I Stay Christian

McLaren adds, "Christians like very much to call Jesus the Son of God. Jesus much preferred to call himself the Son of Man (or son of humanity). There are many layers of meaning to the term. But the simplest and most obvious is this: a son of humanity is a human being." McLaren's] earnest, conversational tone sounds as though he's speaking directly to each individual listener." - AudioFile on Do I Stay Christian? In part one, McLaren lays out ten reasons for abandoning Christianity. Arguments include historic (and current) antisemitism; the church’s habit of crushing dissenters; a history of “Christian colonialism” including support of slavery, white supremacy and white Christian nationalism; toxic institutionalism; financial greed; white patriarchy, rigid theology; the inability of Christianity to transform lives; an anti-intellectual streak that rejects science and encourages poisonous politics; and an aging demographic that trends toward regressive views. Other arguments could be added, including traditional theistic theology which no longer rings true for a growing number of people in the twenty-first century. Tripp Fuller and I have designed this four-week course to help you engage with the book in community with other participants. There will be a recorded presentation that we encourage you to watch before each Live Session. Your questions will frame the Live Sessions. You'll also have the opportunity to engage with other students on the Facebook group for this course. All the materials will be available online for at least a year, so if you miss a session, you can catch up asynchronously. We came away seeing the ugly underbelly of Christian Zionism and “philosemitism.” We saw with heartbreaking clarity how Christian Zionism hurts Palestinians, whether they’re Christian or Muslim. We also saw how Christian Zionism has become a fundraising tool for extreme right-wing political alliances that many Jews find morally horrifying. We saw how Christian Zionism perpetuates a simple but terribly dangerous theological idea, an idea that Christian missiologist Lesslie Newbigin called “the greatest heresy in the history of monotheism,” the idea that God chooses some people for exclusive privilege, leaving everyone else in a disfavored (or we might say “dis-graced”) status.14 They are the other. They don’t belong here. They are in the way. Their rights don’t count.

In part two, McLaren lays out ten reasons for remaining Christian. For example, he argues that leaving hurts the people who are trying to transform Christianity into something better, and they need our help, not our abandonment. And if we stay, we can fight for a better faith from the inside, providing critique and energy for reformation. Also, rather than going it alone, we need the help of a global network of like-minded people to make the world better. He also notes that Christianity is still young, historically speaking, and needs more time to mature and improve. Jesus never tortured or killed or ruined the life of anyone, but the same cannot be said for the religion that claims to follow him," McLaren continues.

Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Dis…

He continues, "When Mohammed testified in 613 that he had received a revelation from the God of Adam, Abraham, Mary and Jesus ... the same God worshipped by Christians, Christians could have welcomed him as a brother, or at least entered into respectful dialogue." Frankly, I am among them. Some days, I think the “brand” of Christianity is unsalvageable, and I suspect that the religion’s ugliest, most dangerous days are ahead of us, so it’s best to get out now. Other days, I think things may finally be getting bad enough that more Christians will be ready to face and embrace the changes we need, so I should stay in the struggle as an insider. Those who follow the Bible's teaching about marriage and sexuality are apparently part of the patriarchy who need to be resisted in the name of the Christ who taught them. He assures us that science has shown the Bible's teaching on sex and sexuality to be wrong. McLaren begins by laying out ten solid reasons for abandoning Christianity. These include historic (and current) antisemitism; the church’s habit of crushing dissenters; a history of “Christian colonialism” that includes support of slavery, White supremacy, and White Christian nationalism; toxic institutionalism; financial greed; White patriarchy; rigid theology; the failure of Christianity to transform lives; an anti-intellectual streak that rejects science and encourages poisonous politics; and an aging demographic in the church that trends toward regressive views.

The Bible is read through the lens of McLaren's ideology and so, given that he does not accept that the Bible is the word of God, he feels free to ignore what he doesn't like, or to change the text to suit his own faith. In short, I was taught my religion’s historical upsides and few of its downsides, and I was taught about other religions’ historical downsides and few of their upsides. Regarding Pope Francis, McLaren, says: “Of course, he isn’t saying and doing everything some of us wish he would. He knows he has to bring his people along at a pace that won’t blow up the whole Catholic Church, and I can only imagine the threats and resistance he faces behind the scenes. But when you read his letter to the world, Laudato si, don’t you feel how incredibly blessed we are to have him at a time of ecological and economic collapse? And when you read its sequel, Fratelli tutti, don’t you see it as a call to exactly the kind of solidarity we dreamed of in the previous chapter? In light of these remarkable breakthroughs, how could we give up now?”