**Unnecessary Disclaimer** This post is directed at a Christian audience, but all are welcome and encouraged to read and respond with their own genuine responses rooted in whatever belief, unbelief, semi-belief or unfettered skepticism that you subscribe to.
What would you do, Christian folk, if you were an atheist, agnostic, deist, etc. who began to see a thread of what might be divine presence in our world?
What if you even thought that maybe Christianity could be somewhat plausible?
Where do you go from there?
I'm not here to say that there is not a right answer, and I'm definitely not saying it's beyond possibility to find that answer and to have that answer be the correct one. I do believe that it's possible to find the Truth (capital T) and I do truly believe that the responsibility for each human individual to find Truth ultimately falls to himself or herself. I'm not saying that that responsibility is in any way limited to the individual, just that it's the responsibility of every person to be an honest seeker of the truth.
That being said, how the hell are people supposed to know where to start looking if they see Christianity as a viable, realistic devotion?
Say Wikipedia is accurate (in an approximate sense, of course). There are somewhere around 41,000 denominations of Christianity. Now add the ridiculous amount of "non-denominational" Christian denominations who differ in doctrine. We've all been in situations that we felt were win-lose, win-lose-lose, or maybe even lose-lose-lose-win, but have you ever gone into a win or ("lose") x (41+who knows how many)] x 10100 situation? It's doubtful. It's also doubtful that I wrote out that scientific notation correctly. For those, who struggle with algebra, I can surely sympathize so let's simplify: that's a really freaking big number. Discouraging is nothing less than an unbelievable failure of an adjective for that seemingly hopeless situation.
Was Jesus human and divine? Was He two separate persons with two natures (divine and human) or one person with two natures? Did He actually die on the cross or was it an illusion? Salvation by "faith alone" or by "faith and works" or by "works alone, guided by faith" or (this is a new one) by "diversity"? Is Mary the mother of God or just the mother of the human part of Jesus? Was she a virgin before Jesus was born? How about during His birth? What about for the rest of her life? What about the Pope or Augustine of Hippo or Martin Luther or Matt Slick or Joel Osteen or Thomas Aquinas or Jonathan Edwards or Gustavo Guttierez or Al Sharpton or Duns Scotus or Stephen Furtick and on and on and so forth. What about the Trinity? How does that work?
There are thousands upon thousands of questions and disputes to bring up here, and that's a problem. I'd be the last one to say that these things aren't important. They are, but our disputes and divisions over these doctrines are human in origin. It's our fallen humanity that leads us to segregate ourselves from each other and this contributes to the reasons why people are becoming less pious in devotion to prayer and Sunday worship. Anyone who says that these things don't matter and that we are already "one" is either hopefully oblivious to or willfully ignorant of reality. We, who profess that we're called to join Christ's unified body, in remaining a broken people, join the persecution of the Church or at least permit the tearing apart of Christ's members; we participate in the scourging of that body at the pillar of our own stubbornness.
At this point you're probably thinking, "What a drama queen! Soooooo negative. What is this Jacob guy's deal today?"
So what's my point? If you think it's turning out to be a kind of depressing one, you're right. All of us Christians should care more than I feel like we do though, so I'm trying for that.
We have failed non-Christians in giving them a giant stumbling block to faith. We have failed to be one body. We've decided erroneously that Christ's body isn't a human body but a ficus as Christians go about "planting" separated "churches" carelessly as seeds, when really we're planting ourselves, the limbs of Christ that we've hacked off His holy Body. We do this with not a thought to Christ Himself, with blindness to its effect on non-Christians who desire to to become believers and ignorant indifference to Christians who want to know the one Truth. What part of "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism" (Ephesians 4:5) do we not comprehend?
No amount of good intentions, holy people and some limited results in evangelization are no reason to ignore this embarrassing reality of increased separation. Sure, it's all nice people trying to follow Christ, but we forgot one thing Christ and the apostles told us to do: follow Him together. (cf. John 17:11, 20-23, Ephesians 4:1-3 and other places in Scripture)
If I was an atheist, I wouldn't know where to start. I'd be turned off when I read scathing comments on articles in my quest for Truth (wait, that already happens).
Evangelization, though God somehow works through our brokenness, is severely hindered in our continued disunity. We have to passionately desire unity and pray in relentless hope for for God's intervention in this self inflicted handicapping of the Church by amputation that has reached it's darkest low-point in modern western Christianity.
John 17:11, 20-25 makes it clear:
Disunity fails evangelization; a people who are one in the Father and Son is the reason people will believe and have faith that the Father did truly sent Jesus.
Disunity fails and makes a certain lie of the oneness we profess. We profess Christ in our word, yet we are not one.
Disunity fails our personal relationship with God. Unity with God means unity with each other in Him. Personally, we're estranged from a more perfect relationship by our disunity with other Christians
Disunity fails the Father, as His children estrange ourselves from each other and therefore His will, which is for the world to know Him in Christ, yet we selfishly reject unity with our brothers and sisters.
Disunity fails the Son, Who came so that we might be one. Our sins tore His flesh once, physically, and now continually for 1500 years. Christ loves so that the world can know Him. Love is total self gift. How can Christ love through us if we reject parts of Him? We damage Christ's ability to love through us by our disunity.
I promise, I set out to be brief. I'll try harder next time. Here's the home stretch.
I say all of this is not to wine in despair, but to convict myself and any Christians who read this. Also, to let you Christians who are struggling to choose from the many who should be united that this isn't how it should be, but to know that those who fight for Christian unity in Truth fight for the true Church. That's an essential box to check.
Also, this is to let any non-Christians, whether or not they see a shred of truth in the current divided Christianity, that our division is our fault; it's not God's. We believe that we are sinners. We know we suck, or those of us who believe Jesus believe that we're broken. Many of us understand where you are and why it's an overwhelming task to try and find faith in something in such disrepair. We get it, and you will never hear someone with love in their heart tell you that you're less valuable or less of a good, caring human being for not being a Christian. We do think having Jesus in your life will be of unparalleled benefit to you, but we also know that we've made it difficult for anyone to see loving unity among our divided groups. We are sorry. You deserve better from many (if not most) Christians.
Union will be found in Truth, since there is only one. Subjective truth is an oxymoron. If Christians, non-Christians and non-believers strive with genuine hearts and minds to search for the one Truth, we will surely meet each other there.
I ask you again, Christians, what if you were an atheist? Would you look past the wrecked relationships of brothers and sisters and ask to be adopted into their family? If you said yes, you're lying. If you said no, treat people who are unsure with the understanding we owe them. I'll try if you do. Cool? Cool.
Peace,
Jacob
Prayer for Christian Unity
Lord Jesus,
at the last Supper You prayed that all should be one.
Send Your Holy Spirit
upon all who bear Your name and seek to serve You.
Strengthen our Faith in You and
lead us to love one another in humility.
May we who have been reborn in one baptism
be united in one faith under one Shepherd.
Amen
(From Bl. John Paul II's encyclical "Ut unum sint")
