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March
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"The Prodigal God" on pages 66-67 discusses how many people have abandoned religious faith because they see that religions are full of elder brothers. Consequently, they have come to the conclusion that religion is one of the greatest sources of misery and strife in the world.
ReplyDeleteIt goes on to say,
"And guess what? Jesus says through this parable they are right. The anger and superiority of elder brothers, all growing out of insecurity, fear and inner emptiness, can create a huge body of guilt-ridden, fear-driven, spiritually blind people, which is one of the greatest sources of social injustice, war and violence.
It is typical for people who have turned their backs on religion to believe that Christianity is no different."
On page 68 of "The Prodigal God", Rev. Keller shares his experiences with his own church in New York City in the 1960's.
ReplyDeleteAfter a year of ministry, he was asked, "Who is coming to your church"
He answered "I answered that it was about one-third non-believers, one-third believers, and one-third "recovering" believers - younger brothers."
Many of these younger brothers had been so hurt and offended by elder brothers that "neither they nor I were sure whether they still believed in the Christian faith or not."
An example he gave was students from more conservative parts of the U.S. who came to New York City to go to graduate school. In New York, they met the kind of person they had been warned about for years, those with liberal views on sex, politics and culture, but found them to be kind, reasonable and open-hearted. When these students had a change in their views, they found that many people back home, especially in the churches, responded in a hostile and bigoted way. Soon they had rejected their former views along with their faith. The elder brothers had turned them into younger brothers.
On page 69, Dr. Keller continues to say that these students were willing to "come to our church because we made a clear distinction between the Gospel and religious moralism, and that provided an opportunity in which they could explore Christianity from a new perspective."
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is natural for younger brothers to equate elder brothers and Christianity, Jesus says they are not the same.
In his parable, Jesus deconstructs the religiosity that is one of the main problems of this word. He says to us, "Would you please be open to the possibility that the gospel, real Christianity, is something different from religion?" This gives many people hope that there is a way to know God that does not lead to the pathologies of moralism and religiosity.