Not Covering up our History

Beginning with the writings of Paul, the history of the church is replete with problems which challenge the faith it is meant to proclaim. The divisions and arguments described in the churches at Corinth, Philippi, Colossae and the major division which led to the Jerusalem conference between Paul and those who objected to the way he was conducting his mission to the Gentiles are just a prologue to the history of the sinfulness of the church.

One’s heart sickens as we read about the Crusades which justified bloodshed in the name of Christ or the equally violent results of the missionaries accompanying the imperialistic expansion of the European countries. In this country we are shocked at the church’s participation in the Salem Witch Trials, the justification of the massacres of Native Americans, the enslavement of African-Americans and the oppression of women.

The fact of, and the church’s response to, the Holocaust makes one cry out in disbelief. The German society, which was producing the elite of Christian scholarship, succumbed to the enticement of Nazism. In addition the majority of the universal church at best turned a blind eye to the killing of the people of God’s original covenant. A similarly sad history follows the church’s response to the intellectual discoveries of humanity. The experience of Galileo and Darwin and their followers are just two prominent examples. And, sadly, locally we can easily lift up personal examples of how petty, self-serving and narrow-minded the church can be. Mark quotes Jesus as saying, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;…'” (Mark 7:6) It would appear that he might as well have been speaking about the contemporary church.