Jesus is Not a Weapon

Yesterday I stopped by the hospital to spend some time with my dad. When I got to his room, my dad wasn't there. A few minutes later, he came rolling in on his bed, chatting away with his nurse about everything under the sun, including politics and the economy. (Fortunately, while my dad's body is in pretty bad shape right now, his mind is still sharp!) The male nurse--about my dad's age--was clearly a liberal, and my dad being the staunch conservative that he is, it made for an amusing conversation, to say the least. After the nurse (somewhat jokingly) rebuked my dad for being a Rush Limbaugh listener, my dad changed the topic and said, "Let's talk about religion." Much to my surprise, the previously jovial countenance of the nurse turned rigid, and he blurted out, "The way I see it, believe in whatever makes you a better person, but if you're going to use religion as a weapon against me, I don't have time for it."

Wow...

I was shocked on multiple levels. First of all, during the discussion on politics, it had come out that this man was a devout Catholic. Now, here he was saying that people should simply believe whatever makes them a better person. In light of the postmodern world in which we live, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to hear yet another universal claim about the relativity of "truth," but seriously I still find it absolutely mind-blowing that people who claim to follow Jesus Christ refuse to acknowledge that he is the only Truth. I mean, did he cut John 14:6 out of his Bible or something? I don't understand...

Upon further discussion, the nurse actually gave his definition of the Gospel: social justice. (Take that Glenn Beck!) This devout Catholic man did volunteer work with the homeless and with drug addicts over at Hope Ministries in South Bend. To him, THAT was the Gospel. And, given passages like Matthew 25:31-46 (the sheep and the goats) and James 1:27 (true religion = caring for widows and orphans), it's somewhat hard to argue against the "social gospel." However, this version of the Gospel is incomplete, and when it leads to universalism, it's VERY incomplete. I felt sorry for this man and his misunderstanding of the Gospel.

Finally, the imagery of using religion as a weapon left a deep impression on me. No matter the religious affiliation, people of religion can be downright nasty sometimes...and often times Christians are the worst. We walk around hitting people over their heads with our Bibles and preaching condemnation and eternal damnation, all the while proudly steeped in our own self-righeousness. We loathe the "pagan" much like the New Testament Jews despised the Gentiles (ie. Acts 22). Somehow, we believe that we can hate people to Jesus. (Have we cut Matthew 5:43-48 out of our Bibles?) We're so messed up...

Lord, may it never be said of me that I used You as a weapon to hurt other people...