Who Follows in the Light of Christ?

Many Born-again Evangelical Christians have an acute ability to articulate a first-rate game. Their dogma displayed ubiquitously on their sleeve. Incessantly, they impose their ideology upon those around them. Persistently they proselytize their canon, “I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior”. For these modern day crusaders, the first rule of Christianity is “Always talk about Christianity”.

There are those claiming to be Compassionate Conservative Christians who rarely, if ever, practice the teachings their Savior preached. They believe following Jesus is merely bearing witness, repeating prayers and converting the heathen. Christianity means more than spouting platitudes. Christianity means more than simply shouting, “Jesus is Great” from the rooftops.

Why are the actions of many Conservative Christians contradictory to the words of Scripture? Are the ethical lessons of Jesus lost duet to literalism? Do they deliberately discount those parts of Scripture that diverge from their insular worldview?

Reborn Christians cite John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” as the singular necessity for salvation. Yet they pay no heed to the remainder of the lesson, which occurs only six verses later: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do.” The meaning of the entire passage is that one demonstrates to God their acceptance of Jesus as Savior by doing deeds similar to those of Jesus.

In Mark 12:30, Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Unfortunately, those with sound bite attention spans gloss over the remainder of this message: “…and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33) Jesus cannot be more explicit. Actions toward others will determine access to salvation, not external displays of piety.

Members of the Religious Right should (re)read Mark 25:34-46 and give special attention to verse 40: “... whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me”. The lesson to be gained from this passage is that we all are children of God so we all are brothers and sisters of Christ and, as such, we must treat each other as such if we expect to receive redemption. Many philosophers, both religious and secular, have said the same thing, many times and in many different ways.

How hypocritical that the self-proclaimed Moral Majority labels those who endeavor to improve the condition of the least of our brethren as Godless Liberals while they worship at the purse of the moneychangers who have turned the health care industry into a den of thieves. For the Family Values crowd, the Golden Rule has become the rule of gold. They are oblivious to the precept that God will know who has followed in the Light of Christ, not by the quantity of their prayers, but by the quality of their acts.