Why has the Church Caused so Much Harm?

This past week our life group started off with the question of why have so many atrocities been committed in the name of Christianity? This is a very valid question as we can all think of many evils perpetrated by the Church throughout history such as the inquisition, the crusades, and the witch trials. I'm sure that there are many others, too many to name here. This problem can be a tough stumbling block for many people to get past because the Church is supposed to represent God, right? Shouldn't Christians always act in a blameless manner if they claim to be God's people? Does the harm caused by the church invalidate the Christian faith? Or should we look at this a little closer...

Our first point that we made at our life group was that not everyone who calls them self a Christian is really a true follower of Jesus. We can call ourselves whatever we want to, but our true beliefs and motives can be seen by our actions. Even Jesus himself taught that your faith is shown by your actions (Matt 7:16-18). He also said that not everyone who calls Him their lord is a true believer in Matthew 7:21. Thus, we should be able to draw a distinction between those who use the name of Christ to advance their own selfish desires and those who truly are Christians by their actions. Augustine once said that you should not judge a worldview by its abuses. We should therefore, as Ravi Zacharias says, judge a worldview by the teachings and life of it's founder.

However, there probably have been some evils committed across history by "real" Christians. To this we responded that Christians are not perfect people and neither do we claim to be perfect. We still have to wrestle with temptations and sometimes we make the wrong choices. This is a clear teaching throughout the Bible, some examples being Romans 3:23 and 7:7-25. Therefore, on behalf of all Christians, may I ask for the forgiveness of the people who have been wronged by sins that we Christians have committed. We have sinned, we have been hypocritical and prideful and ungracious. I pray that we may change our ways and right the wrongs that we have committed.

Since we Christians are not perfect, we should be looking to Jesus instead. What did he teach? How did he live? Did he commit any evils? Is God really good and loving as he claims to be? God does not control his people, he has given us all free will, so we must all be held responsible for our own actions. We can't blame every sin committed by humanity on God and his sovereignty. To find out if he is worthy to be worshiped we must look to His character and His promises, and what Jesus did while he was on earth. (We will talk more about all this later).

In closing, let us look at how atheism as contributed to evils of history. Many atheistic dictators, such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao have killed millions more than anyone operating under the banner of Christianity. The fundamental difference between these two cases however, is that when "Christians" commit evils in the name of their religion it is contrary to what their teacher actually taught. But when atheists kill in the name of evolution or ethnic cleansing, it is the logical outworking of their beliefs.