Why Are Christians So Bad?
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If Christianity is so good?
Mark Coppenger, PhD
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Why Are Christians So Bad, If Christianity is So Good?
It’s only fair that we evaluate a worldview or religion by the love and life of its adherents, and to that end, we would naturally seek the broadest cross-section of examples. But when it comes to Christianity, the discussion is often limited to the most egregious individuals and most scandalous events.
Does atheism always have to answer for Stalin or Hitler or Mao? It doesn’t seem so. So, why then are Christians always put on the defensive, asked to explain away any and all instances of hypocrisy and bad faith, real or imagined?
In this essay, Dr. Mark Coppenger takes up the challenge, “If Christianity is so good, why are Christians so bad?” and gives honest answers as well as an honest appraisal of the question and the presuppositions that lie behind it.
Several years ago, I fielded the challenge, “If Christianity is so good, why are Christians so bad?” Of course, this is a loaded question; it assumes that Christians are “so bad,” and buys into the spirit of the late Christopher Hitchens, who penned a best-seller, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
About that time, I was reading Eric Idle’s “sortabiography,” Idle being a member of the British comedy troupe, Monty Python. In his memoirs, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, he devotes a chapter to the film, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, wherein he recounts, We agreed early on, you couldn’t knock Christ.
How can you attack a man who professes peace to all people, speaks out for the meek, heals the poor, and cures the sick? You can’t. Comedy’s business is some kind of search for truth. Clearly this was a very great man, leaving aside for a minute his potential divinity.
