Hypocrisy: A Result of Persecution, or a Cause?
I've noticed a trend lately in published and social media, as violence in the Middle East has ramped back up again. As the atrocities committed by extremists who kill under the banner of an Islamic caliphate come to light, and are met with shock and horror, what seems to happen is that some people lump all Muslims into one category and declare that Islam is a religion of violence and needs to be combated. Others rush to the defense of those being slandered as murderers (because that's honestly what these gross generalities are) and seek to prove that Islam is a religion of peace, that the extremists are not mainline Muslims. What I find troubling about these contradictory messages, apart from their role in confusing people further, is that a few of the slanderers are people who claim to be Christians (though some are also those who rush to defend). My "beef" with this is that it's not only rude and inaccurate, but it's almost hilariously hypocritical. Let me explain...
For years I've conducted ministry in public places, talking to random folks about their views on life, God, and Christianity, and I'm often frustrated (and not alone in feeling so) when people say things like, "All Christians are hypocrites, because they expect you to be perfect but they're not", or "Well what about the crusades? Doesn't that prove that Christianity is a violent religion?", or "I don't like Christianity because there are lots of denominations that don't agree, and therefore it doesn't seem like the Bible can be completely accurate or trustworthy". These are approximations of things that I've heard from people, not actual quotes, but hopefully the general message is clear: people have conceptions of Christianity that cause them to distrust it, and they lump large groups (or the entirety) of Christians into a pool that they make critical or even violent statements against. This is frustrating because I believe that these misconceptions are the result of a few Christians who've made mistakes and did not follow the Bible (or mis-taught it), and are not representative of true Christianity, or even of the majority of Christians. Sometimes people also quote the Bible very specifically, referencing verses on homosexual relationships, war, or even the love of God, and they claim that these verses are either contradictory to another one, or that they are opposed to a religion that supposedly espouses this body of scripture. I'm frustrated when this happens because I think that these people fail to take the scripture they're reading into context, and they don't understand how all the pieces of the Bible fit together and what the purpose of each section is.
So back to hypocrisy. I need to connect that bridge I started building. Do you see the similarity between what some people state about Muslims and what is said about Christians? It's the same kind of inaccuracy and generalization. There's at least two types of misunderstanding and slander (it's a harsh word, I know, but it's accurate) that I can think of at work here: 1. Wrongful generalization of people (reaching conclusions about a large group based on the actions of a non-representative population) and 2. Wrongful generalization of scripture/other writings (reaching conclusions about a group's scripture/guiding literature based on limited reading and understanding of it. For both Muslims and Christians, these two types of misunderstandings are daily causing them to be slandered and attacked verbally and emotionally. What's most frustrating to me is that I see some (not most, but enough to be more than slightly concerned) Christians engaging in the same behavior that they fight against and complain about (rightfully, I might add) regularly. This is ridiculous! If, as Christians, we want to see the slander of our faith and our scripture end, we can't respond in kind by generically assuming that "all Muslims have the goal of taking over the world" or that because someone identifies as a Muslim they necessarily and definitively "believe in killing those who don't convert to Islam" (again, these aren't quotes, they're just approximations of things I've seen written or said). We have to be unassuming and loving, like Jesus was with the nonbelievers He interacted with.
I want to take the last section of this post to defend against a potential counterargument. I imagine that there are some people who might claim to have an understanding of Islam and the Quran, and who would assert that, based on their study of its history and doctrine, that fundamental Islam is a religion founded upon the principles of jihad and an Islamic caliphate (essentially a theocracy of Islam). I can make no statements for or against this assertion's accuracy, since I've never studied this topic myself, but what I can say is that this argument makes a faulty assumption - that all Muslims are fundamentally devout and adhere to all of the principles and guidelines in the Quran. Unless, that is, Islam has a body of followers who are remarkably more obedient that Christianity does, which seems unlikely (I tend to think that the two religions probably have similar percentages of highly devout persons and those who are either relaxed or simply culturally religious). Let me pose a few questions to the Christian who argues this: how many people who claim to be Christians would affirm the doctrine of hell, of eternal damnation? How many Christians tithe? I don't have accurate numbers, but it you're a committed Christian, you probably have some understanding that the percentages here aren't great. For the first question, you might get between 60 and 90 percent, depending on the region. For the second one, I've heard numbers around 50 percent, lower in some cases. For other even more controversial topics in the Bible, the percentage of people who claim to be Christians who actually believe that piece of scripture could be below 10 percent.
Therefore, if we can assume that Christianity and Islam have levels of "devoutness" that are similar (which is reasonable, I think), then we can't assume that "all Muslims are jihadists" or something else, even if that actually is in the Quran and is a fundamental doctrine of Islam (and I have no idea if it is or not). The question when we're making judgments of people isn't whether or not a religion they identify with is fundamentally "this" or "that", it's whether or not the people who identify with that religion actually believe it. And the reality is that many don't (and that's a separate issue for Christians to deal with). Thus, we need to stop lumping people into broad categories, slandering them and hurting them in the process. And for the Christians reading this, we can't expect the inaccuracies and misconceptions that we fight against to end unless we set the standard by forgiving those who misrepresent us and attack us wrongly, and begin to treat those different than us as Jesus did, without presumption and with compassion and love.
Peace be with you,
Ron Campbell
For years I've conducted ministry in public places, talking to random folks about their views on life, God, and Christianity, and I'm often frustrated (and not alone in feeling so) when people say things like, "All Christians are hypocrites, because they expect you to be perfect but they're not", or "Well what about the crusades? Doesn't that prove that Christianity is a violent religion?", or "I don't like Christianity because there are lots of denominations that don't agree, and therefore it doesn't seem like the Bible can be completely accurate or trustworthy". These are approximations of things that I've heard from people, not actual quotes, but hopefully the general message is clear: people have conceptions of Christianity that cause them to distrust it, and they lump large groups (or the entirety) of Christians into a pool that they make critical or even violent statements against. This is frustrating because I believe that these misconceptions are the result of a few Christians who've made mistakes and did not follow the Bible (or mis-taught it), and are not representative of true Christianity, or even of the majority of Christians. Sometimes people also quote the Bible very specifically, referencing verses on homosexual relationships, war, or even the love of God, and they claim that these verses are either contradictory to another one, or that they are opposed to a religion that supposedly espouses this body of scripture. I'm frustrated when this happens because I think that these people fail to take the scripture they're reading into context, and they don't understand how all the pieces of the Bible fit together and what the purpose of each section is.
So back to hypocrisy. I need to connect that bridge I started building. Do you see the similarity between what some people state about Muslims and what is said about Christians? It's the same kind of inaccuracy and generalization. There's at least two types of misunderstanding and slander (it's a harsh word, I know, but it's accurate) that I can think of at work here: 1. Wrongful generalization of people (reaching conclusions about a large group based on the actions of a non-representative population) and 2. Wrongful generalization of scripture/other writings (reaching conclusions about a group's scripture/guiding literature based on limited reading and understanding of it. For both Muslims and Christians, these two types of misunderstandings are daily causing them to be slandered and attacked verbally and emotionally. What's most frustrating to me is that I see some (not most, but enough to be more than slightly concerned) Christians engaging in the same behavior that they fight against and complain about (rightfully, I might add) regularly. This is ridiculous! If, as Christians, we want to see the slander of our faith and our scripture end, we can't respond in kind by generically assuming that "all Muslims have the goal of taking over the world" or that because someone identifies as a Muslim they necessarily and definitively "believe in killing those who don't convert to Islam" (again, these aren't quotes, they're just approximations of things I've seen written or said). We have to be unassuming and loving, like Jesus was with the nonbelievers He interacted with.
I want to take the last section of this post to defend against a potential counterargument. I imagine that there are some people who might claim to have an understanding of Islam and the Quran, and who would assert that, based on their study of its history and doctrine, that fundamental Islam is a religion founded upon the principles of jihad and an Islamic caliphate (essentially a theocracy of Islam). I can make no statements for or against this assertion's accuracy, since I've never studied this topic myself, but what I can say is that this argument makes a faulty assumption - that all Muslims are fundamentally devout and adhere to all of the principles and guidelines in the Quran. Unless, that is, Islam has a body of followers who are remarkably more obedient that Christianity does, which seems unlikely (I tend to think that the two religions probably have similar percentages of highly devout persons and those who are either relaxed or simply culturally religious). Let me pose a few questions to the Christian who argues this: how many people who claim to be Christians would affirm the doctrine of hell, of eternal damnation? How many Christians tithe? I don't have accurate numbers, but it you're a committed Christian, you probably have some understanding that the percentages here aren't great. For the first question, you might get between 60 and 90 percent, depending on the region. For the second one, I've heard numbers around 50 percent, lower in some cases. For other even more controversial topics in the Bible, the percentage of people who claim to be Christians who actually believe that piece of scripture could be below 10 percent.
Therefore, if we can assume that Christianity and Islam have levels of "devoutness" that are similar (which is reasonable, I think), then we can't assume that "all Muslims are jihadists" or something else, even if that actually is in the Quran and is a fundamental doctrine of Islam (and I have no idea if it is or not). The question when we're making judgments of people isn't whether or not a religion they identify with is fundamentally "this" or "that", it's whether or not the people who identify with that religion actually believe it. And the reality is that many don't (and that's a separate issue for Christians to deal with). Thus, we need to stop lumping people into broad categories, slandering them and hurting them in the process. And for the Christians reading this, we can't expect the inaccuracies and misconceptions that we fight against to end unless we set the standard by forgiving those who misrepresent us and attack us wrongly, and begin to treat those different than us as Jesus did, without presumption and with compassion and love.
Peace be with you,
Ron Campbell
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