How Did Christianity Get to Be Such a Mess?

Churchgoers don’t seem to care 

Evidence of the Mess: One

When American Christians head off for church on Sunday morning, how many church buildings of other Christian brands do they pass on the way to their own denomination? Baptists would be horrified at the thought of worshipping at a Catholic church instead. And Catholics would be baffled at the style of worship at a Methodist or Presbyterian church. This is the essence of Mess One: there are, in fact, thousands of different Christian brands, i.e. denominations, divisions, sects, and cults. There has been rampant splintering for hundreds of years because the devout cannot agree on basics about god and how he wants to be worshipped.
 
 
There is something terribly wrong with this: it makes no sense whatever. Church folks willingly accept the version of their faith preached by their own clergy. Does this mean that the clergy of so many other brands are guilty of misunderstanding—have it all wrong? It’s a mystery that the laity aren’t alarmed: maybe our denomination is the one that misunderstands? But there is far greater reason for alarm: why have Christians disagreed so profoundly? The disagreements in the early Christian movement are on display in the Bible itself—and we’ll get to that issue later.   
 
Evidence of the Mess: Two
 
A few years ago, I asked a prominent Italian journalist his opinion on this: “Is it really possible that the clergy at the Vatican actually believe all of the goofy Catholic dogma?” His response: “Oh, maybe half of them do. But don’t forget, it’s a business.” That’s a big part of the mess: church has become business. For example, the holdings of the Vatican and the Mormon church are estimated to be billions of dollars. What is the purpose of holding on to such wealth when there are so much horrible suffering in the world? 
 
A major part of church business is show business. That applies especially to the guys at the Vatican: what a costume budget! But all churches put on a show at their worship services: the décor, the ritual, ceremony, liturgy, music, costumes. It’s all meant to enhance emotions, encourage the feeling that the holy spirit is taking part. The clergy earn their salaries—putting on the best possible show—as part of this business. You’ll search in vain for a command of Jesus, “Build as many churches as possible!” But historically, that’s what has happened.
 
The worst part of this mess is televangelism, the ultimate in putting on a show—and raking in the dollars. I recently came across a list of about twenty televangelists who are multi-millionaires. It’s hard to imagine that they give a damn about Jesus, but they posture successfully. What do they do with these texts, “Sell what you have and give to the poor” and “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”?  One televangelist was quoted as saying that “Jesus hasn’t come back because donations haven’t been high enough.” What a disgrace. There should be an association, Christians Opposed to Televangelism to confront and shut down this part of the mess. 
 
Evidence of the Mess: Three
 
Why isn’t membership in the Catholic Church down to zero by now? The last figure I saw—the amount this church has paid out in court settlements for priests abusing/raping children—is 3.1 billion dollars. What does it say about Christian theology that the most devout followers of Jesus rape children? What a mess. And it’s so alarming that Catholics don’t boycott their church en masse—what are they thinking?
 
Why would anyone still show up at these churches? A major part of this scandal has been that the embarrassed church has tried to cover up the abuse (e.g., quietly transferring guilty priests to other parishes), has fought to squash attempts to extend the reach of the law timewise, in the persecution of child rapists. Confronting this scandal head-on, publicly, could have done a lot to restore confidence in the church. What a relief it would have been for the Pope to hold a weekly news conference, to announce: this is how many priests have been handed over to the police; this is how many priests have been dis-ordained for their crimes. And, of course: these are the measure we have adopted to carefully screen candidates for the priesthood, and to get at the root of the problem. Why are the clergy so vulnerable to committing these sins?
 
This seems to be a problem for other denominations as well, e.g., Baptists, Mormons, the Church of England. Religions want to set themselves above others—especially atheists—because their devotion to god(s) gives them superior morality. But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
 
Evidence of the Mess: Four
 
A few days ago we saw this headline: “261 Georgia congregations leave the United Methodist Church over a divide on LGBTQ issues.” This reflects yet another mess: Christians are deeply divided on important social issues, including the rights of gay people and women—especially regarding abortion. Misogyny is arrogantly, aggressively championed by the Catholic church: No, women will never be ordained priests. It’s been a long painful struggle to achieve equal treatment under the law for gay people, women, and racial minorities. And by no means is the struggle over. Those who are most firmly opposed are still attached to Bible verses that reflect ancient superstitions and biases, e.g., regarding same-sex relations, women, and slavery. 

How many of the folks in those 261 Methodist congregations took the time to study what we now know about homosexuality? The research has been exhaustive. How many took the time to study/reflect on the opposing views of other Christians who welcome—and even ordain—gay people? It was delightfully welcome news just a few days ago that Pope Francis has reprimanded the virulently anti-gay Cardinal Raymond Burke—by taking way the cardinal’s residence and salary.   

Another aspect of this mess: the enthusiastic evangelical embrace of Donald Trump, who fails by any standard imaginable of being a Christian. There has finally been pushback on this, as Trump’s evil, erratic nature has become more obvious. Maybe the multiple indictments have something to do with it!

Evidence of the Mess: Five
 
There are a couple of largely unnoticed messes. Number Five is…the Bible. Largely unread by the laity—certainly not read carefully, critically—it is, in fact, the source of so much division in Christianity. The four gospel authors had different ideas about Jesus—the differences between Mark and John being extreme. Matthew and Luke copied most of Mark’s gospel, and made changes as they saw fit. 
 
I recently came across an article by Tim Zeak, Is Christianity Nonsensical and Painfully Undefinable? and he makes the point that it’s pretty easy—if the reader is paying attention—to see how the New Testament authors differed on such basic issues as how to win salvation. How do we reconcile the apostle Paul’s assurance that salvation is guaranteed if you say—and believe in your heart—that Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9), with the gospel of John’s Jesus-script that drinking Jesus’ blood and eating his flesh would do the trick (John 6:53-57)? 
 
Zeak includes quite a list of the contradictions, then comments:
 
“Given the enormous number of contradictions and disputes about basic doctrinal issues, no one can believe that their denomination or belief system is the right one. Could a perfect and good God who intended to communicate a message to His creatures, possibly fail in that attempt by having it so flawed and convoluted to such a degree that it actually inspired wars, murders, racism, woman abuse, ‘witch burnings,’ slavery, and among other atrocities, genital mutilation?
 
“Could it be possible that Christianity is just as wrong as the other hundreds of religions there are on earth and it’s God, just as fictitious as the thousands of other Gods that have been worshipped and served for the whole of all history?”
 
Theology is guesswork, speculation, wishful thinking—so it’s no wonder that the imaginations of the New Testament authors wandered off in so many directions.
 
 
Evidence of the Mess: Six
 
This mess, we can say with confidence, is beyond the horizon of awareness of almost all the laity: the Jesus mess. The clergy—no matter the Christian brand—have huge vested interests in promoting an idealized version of their holy hero. Many, if not most of them, are not aware themselves of the turmoil in Jesus studies for a long time now. Once serious scholars began examining the gospels as trained historian do, the problem became obvious: the gospel writers do not name their sources. Writing their accounts decades after Jesus, no one knows where/how they got their information. The gospels overflow with fantasy, miracle folklore, and magical thinking. Devout scholars have come up with so many different versions of who Jesus was, because each scholar has his/her own private hunches as to which gospel verses can be trusted as history. But can any of them be trusted? Yes, it’s a mess, especially since many scholars have become skeptical that there was a real Jesus hidden below all the layers of theology. And the clergy hope that the laity don’t somehow become tuned in to what’s been happening in serious New Testament scholarship. 
 
They want to keep all the messes hidden. Funny how the clergy have become masters of deceit.
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of two books, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes, the first of which is Guessing About God (2023) and Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also now available. 
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.