For a religion that supposedly aims to bring peace and harmony to the world, Christianity does a lousy job. Christians have been at each other’s throats for 2,000 years - Arians vs Athanasians, Trinitarians vs Unitarians, Calvinists vs Arminians, Catholics vs Protestants, the list goes on and on. Today’s battle is essentially between conservatives (fundamentalists, Pentecostals and the like) and liberals, but if they ever manage to patch this one up there’s bound to be something else.

The meaning of just about every verse in the Bible has been ferociously disputed by various Christian factions, often with lethal results for some of the contestants and many innocent bystanders who just happened to get in the way. Think Inquisition, witch-burnings, civil wars and the decimation of native populations in the name of ’spreading true Christianity’. There’s a strong argument - I think an overwhelming one - that Christianity cannot possibly be ‘the one true religion’ as its teachings and central principles are so contradictory and utterly imprecise. Christians cannot even decide what the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ actually means. If you don’t believe this, just ask a conservative Christian and a liberal Christian and then compare their answers.

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Filed in: Biblical criticism, Evangelicals

Dr Kerrie Allen, research officer for the Australian Family Association, has a rather warped view of recent Australian history. According to her recent News Weekly feature article ‘Whatever has gone wrong with sex?’ (4 Feb. 2006):

‘Sex’ has been redefined almost out of recognition during the past 20 years.

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Filed in: Evangelicals, Family Values, People, Sexuality

Evangelical Christians are supposed to think and act in certain prescribed ways, based on a particular understanding of the Bible. This supposed predictability has given rise to the concept of evangelical Christendom as a sort of monolithic bloc, or as a tribe of near-automatons, blindly following their authoritarian leaders. This idea is false.

Respected American pollster George Barna has been studying the beliefs and attitudes of evangelicals for years. In 1997, his research disclosed that 55% of those who had made ‘a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important [to them] in life today’ (i.e. ‘born-again’ Christians) did not believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit. In case you need reminding, the Holy Spirit constitutes one-third of the Christian God - although St Athanasius might object to my wording - and if you don’t believe in the Spirit, you don’t really count as a true evangelical.

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Filed in: Christian Right, Evangelicals

A few months ago I pointed out that many evangelical pastors and numerous members of their flocks often succumb to the lure of internet pornography [Pastors and porn, 30 Apr. 2005]. Newspapers still carry regular reports of child sexual abuse by priests and ministers, crimes which often date back decades. ‘Christian schools’ are supposed to be safe havens from these perils, but just a few weeks ago a male teacher at a Victorian Christian school was banned from teaching after inappropriately touching female students and manipulating them into sexually explicit conversations (Chee Chee Leung, ‘Teacher banned over sexual remarks’, Melbourne Age, 20 Aug. 2005).

For many years, Rev. Graham Capill of New Zealand’s Christian Heritage Party was an honoured visitor at Australian Religious Right conferences. Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party (CDP) was particularly eager to welcome Capill as a speaker at its functions. In 2002, for example, he headed a star-studded list of ‘leading pro-family and pro-life activists’ at the CDP’s International Christian Political Action Convention in Sydney. He shared the limelight with personalities like Babette Francis (Endeavour Forum), Gail Instance (NSW Right to Life), Bill Muehlenberg (Australian Family Association) and Peter and Jenny Stokes (Salt Shakers) (CDP media release, ‘Successful International Convention’, 9 Oct. 2002).

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Filed in: Evangelicals, People, Politics

What do you think about people who tell young children that all non-Christians will go to hell? And what do you think about telling young kids that they themselves are bound for hell unless they accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour?

The Child Evangelism Fellowship of Australia (CEFA) does just that:

Can you imagine what it will be like when Jesus is king? He is going to make a new earth. There will be no death, no tears and no pain. What a wonderful place it will be!

All of those who have trusted the Lord Jesus as Saviour will be with Him forever! Those who haven’t will be separated from God in a terrible place of punishment. (CEFA Tough questions from kids: ‘What will Jesus do in the future?’, New Life, 8 Sept. 2005)

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Filed in: Evangelicals

You may have heard of Pastor Danny Nalliah from Catch the Fire (CTF) Ministries in Melbourne. He and his mate Pastor Daniel Scot recently ran afoul of Victoria’s controversial anti-vilification laws, but this didn’t stop Nalliah from contesting the Senate for the Family First Party. He was unsuccessful, but his running-mate Steve Fielding made the grade.

Danny Nalliah is a truly remarkable character and I thought you might like to know some more about him. For example, did you know he can heal the blind? - well, when he’s visiting Sri Lanka, anyway. Here’s the story, straight from the horse’s mouth:

At our first meeting in Colombo, a man totally blind for 17 years was brought up for prayer. Well, Glory to God, I placed my thumbs on his eyes and rebuked the blind spirit and claimed healing in the Name of Jesus. I finished praying and took my hands off. Instantly the man’s eyes opened up and he started shouting, ‘I can see, I can see!’ He then grabbed my tie and started telling me all the different colours on my tie. This really sent waves of rejoicing throughout the meeting. (CTF Ministries Inc., Newsletter, Sept. 2002, 2)

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Filed in: Evangelicals, People

Don’t think for a second that evangelical pastors and their flocks are immune from the temptations of internet pornography. Items about such ’sexual addiction’ regularly appear in conservative Christian publications, so that I genuinely wonder whether evangelical porn fans are over-represented in the general population. The Australian Christian weekly New Life (20 Jan. 2005) reports that:

A ‘Christianity Today’ survey said 37% of pastors say cyberporn is a current struggle for them and 63% of men at a [presumably Christian] marriage seminar admitted to struggling with porn in the past year.

These sorts of figures are backed up by leading American evangelist Charles Swindoll who writes of:

… a severe disease that is eating away at our congregations … Men and women, from adolescents to senior citizens, from all walks of life, have succumbed or are at risk, and more are becoming infected every single day.

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Filed in: Evangelicals, Sexuality