TRFG: Chapters Three and Four

Two weeks ago, we covered Chapters Three and Four of The Reason For God.

Chapter 3 is titled, "Christianity is a Straightjacket", and it talks about the view that Christians aren't free/able to think for themselves and are conceited to think that they have the only truth-claim.

On freedom, Keller writes: "Christianity is supposedly a limit to personal growth and potential because it constrains our freedom to choose our own beliefs and practices... In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints -- why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth?" As a fish is restricted to the sea in order to be "free", we are too restricted to certain spiritual constraints in order to fulfill our potential, and to do so freely.

On the exclusivity of Christianity, Keller points out that a claim that all truth-claims are wrong is a truth-claim in itself (as is the claim that all truth-claims are power plays). Also, he notes that every community is defined by specific beliefs and practices, and is therefore exclusive to those who do not conform to those ideas (which includes groups that are commonly categorized as "inclusive" and "open minded"). "Any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity and would not really be a community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members."

When speaking about the lack of cultural rigidness of Christianity, Keller notes that Christianity does not require people to give up their cultural heritage. Unlike Muslims, Christians aren't required to dress a certain way. Christians in Africa, Latin America, and Asia can all become believers without having to replace their own heritage with "European-ness".

Chapter 4, "The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice", speaks to the - sometimes founded - claim that religion causes violence. In some instances, this is very true, even of Christianity. Christians have been responsible for the death and destruction of many people in history. But, to say that the church is the most responsible is illogical. Just take Nazi Germany, Communist China, Cambodia, and Russia - these nations imposed a strict absence of religion and were responsible for some of the most brutal (and mass) murders and tortures of recent history.

Although Christian nations were highly involved in the implementation of the African Slave trade, they were also responsible for its abolition. Keller writes, "Even though slavery in some form was virtually universal in every human culture over the centuries [the notion that slavery is morally wrong is a very recent one], it was Christians who first came to the conclusion that it was wrong... Christians began to work for abolition not because of some general understanding of human rights, but because they saw it as violating the will of God."

On fanatics (you know - the overbearing, insensitive, harsh, obnoxious, self-righteous Pharasaic-types incessantly voicing their displeasure and acting in-your-face holier-than-thou), Keller writes, "What if... the essence of Christianity is salvation by grace, salvation not because of what we do but because of what Christ has done for us? Belief that you are accepted by God by sheer grace is profound and humbling. The people who are fanatics, then, are not so because they are too committed to the gospel, but because they're not committed to it enough."

I like this. It can pretty much sum up all of Christianity's shortcomings and injustice. Accepting that "the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints" is the first step. We're still imperfect - working towards perfecting Christ's behavior in the example he set before us.