It was the morning of September 12th and I was sipping my hot tea in my Pink Plush bath robe with matching slippers and enjoying my daily dose of “The View,” when one of the hosts let loose a comment that initially caught me so off-guard that I almost spilled my hot Chamomile all over my embroidered morning-wear. Ok, so I wasn’t watching the view and I don’t have an embroidered pink plush bath robe with matching slippers, though it sounds very comfortable, but I did read this quote from one of the hosts of “The View”: "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.”
As I wrote above, my initial reaction to this comment was a bit of shock and defensiveness, after all this is MY religion that she is talking about here right! Right! It is MY religion, this is what I have created and not what was intended by Christ. This view of what Radical Christianity is, is a misconception that, unfortunately, WE have propagated about our faith. You see Christians rarely exemplify radical Christ-following. Instead, we take Christ’s name slap it on the back of our “Lord’s-Gym” t-shirts and do whatever we want all along shouting that we do it in the name of Christ. This results in radical Christianity being associated with heretical churches standing outside a gay soldier’s funeral with signs saying “God Hates Gays!” It also results in hoards of people standing outside abortion clinics screaming hateful obscenities and hurling derogatory comments at 16 year-old girls as they woundedly promenade to their infant’s deathbed.
This is the image of radical Christianity that most have. Christ did not come teaching rules and regulations so that we can have ammunition to create a religion which hurts and wounds further the already hurt and wounded. Instead, he became hurt and wounded so that we are able to show love and mercy and give hope to those who need it most. Radical Christianity, as it has been shown to the world, is not AS threatening as radical Islam, it is MORE threatening. This radical Christianity is misappropriated and antithetical to its paradigm. True radical Christ-following would invoke scores of praise for God and the people of God as they exemplify radical love, radical mercy and radical hope. Hope for new life in the here and now, hope for the replacement of joy where there is mourning, hope that the Kingdom of God is breaking through, not as a get out of hell free ticket but as abundant life in the present.
If this type of love were to be shown and this type of hope given we would be much closer to the early church as they were praised for their ability to show the love of the Lord to the most destitute of people. In A.D. 362 whilst Christians were still a persecuted people Emperor Julian who was anti-Christianity encouraged the Jews and Romans to be more like the Christians because of their care for other people: “For it is disgraceful that, when now Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of the sort.” Wouldn’t it be great to hear this report about Christians today!
It is true, radical Christianity as it is known is part of the problem, but the anti-religious alternative; true radical Christ-following is the solution to that problem. So let us be challenged by the call of our Creator and the example of our forefathers. Let us show others what radical Christ-following is about. Go out of your way today to love someone in a BIG radical way!
Quote from: The works of the Emperor Julian, LCL, vol. 3, pp. 67-71.
