Discouragement

I heard possibly the single most discouraging comment about Christianity I have ever heard in my Anthropology class yesterday. We are on the topic of religion this week, and the prof was talking about how some people have no problem with combining various religions into one - to suit their tastes. To illustrate, he was giving a story from Korea where, formerly a Buddhist nation, individuals are converting to many different religions. He went on to say that most of the rich and wealthy in Korea are "becoming Christians". "Do you know why they are becoming Christians?", he asked. "Because Christianity is a religion that accepts and welcomes capitalists who oppress and take advantage of others economically in order to get rich. Buddhism does not."

I was simply stunned when I heard this - so stunned that I didn't speak up. And I was deeply saddened. This is what people actually believe about Christianity. The saddest is part is that the prof was right - people do believe this and are doing it. They are using Christianity to support their wealthy lifestyle.

What has happened? How have the ideals of Jesus and the Kingdom of God (those of taking care of the poor, the widow, the weak, the downtrodden) been twisted to serve the economically wealthy? How did this become the picture of Christianity?! The very Gospel of Jesus was good news for the poor and oppressed, and bad news for the rich and oppressors.

What saddens me most is that this statement by my prof, while wrong in terms of the Gospel, is true in terms of what is generally meant to be a "Christian". Do we need to leave that word behind and find something new? Because I can assure you that Jesus has no part in this brand of "Christianity".