"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
While this quote is probably misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi, in my experience, the last line is unquestionably accurate.
While there is no data to prove it, it seems like the people that talk loudest about being Christian are the ones most likely to stab you in the back. In any business dealings, the one that goes out of his way to insert into a conversation "I am a deacon in the church" is the one you have to look out for.
The women that are most active in church are the most likely to smile to your face and talk behind your back, a vile and cowardly act. They don't see it as the clear violation of a commandment or that is is a disgusting, twisted form of entertainment.
The Lutheran church, with its Germanic tendency for organization, is divided into synods. I know of a family that is estranged from each other not because they are of different religions, which would be repugnant enough. They haven't talked in years because they are in different synods of the Lutheran church.
When I was coaching men's basketball at a Christian school, I couldn't bear to sit in the stands when my daughter was playing. Her coach was personally going through a tough time and admittedly, she was doing a horrible job. Still, I couldn't listen to the "Christians" spit venom at this troubled woman, so I stood at the baseline to watch my daughter play before I returned to the calm of the bench.
It is my theory that it is the faux Christian, or Christian-in-name-only, is becoming more and more prevalent. This is why church attendance has been heading steadily down. When I was a kid, the ladies of the church, and especially the reverend's wife, would never gossip.
There was no discernable power struggle. Church was a nice place. Afterwards we would stay in the parking lot, talking and playing for what seemed like hours. These days when church service is over it is like the old Le Mans start, where the drivers run to their cars and speed away.
The only way to reverse the decline of religion is for "your Christians to try to be more like your Christ."
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