As a pastor in the Christian tradition, I am regularly saddened, sometimes baffled, and at times horrified by the words and actions of some people who call themselves Christians.
The Arizona Daily Star recently covered a story about “Christians Against Dinosaurs” who oppose our local Tyrannosaurus rex that brings cheer to many passers-by adjacent to a fast-food outlet. In a world crying out for justice, full of hatred and divisiveness, war and addiction, I am baffled by a group that imagines Jesus would want them to give so much energy to dismantling dinosaur replicas.
More concerning are the many people who self-identify as Christian, but support statements, actions and systems that are misogynist, racist, ableist, violent, white supremacist and just plain old cruel. I think about the line from author Anne Lamott, “You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
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I certainly honor and respect that there are a variety of interpretations in any religious and spiritual tradition, including my own. However, when people who claim my faith tradition live so diametrically opposed to the way taught and lived by our primary teacher, I am deeply concerned.
Matthew Paul Turner, author of “Our Great Big American God,” curated a website called “Jesus Needs New PR” that shared church signs, bulletins and merchandise that would likely make Jesus cringe. This was his playful way of pointing out the hypocrisy and contradictions too-often at work among people who call themselves Christians.
But I believe he raised an important question with his site: what kind of public relations do the followers of Jesus create for God/Jesus?
I believe similar questions can be relevant to anyone who claims a spiritual or religious path: are we living out the deepest-held values that we profess? Are we honoring our greatest teachers who showed us ways of compassion, inclusion, justice and love lived in service of others?
If you are not part of a religious or spiritual tradition, I apologize for the ways we who claim such traditions, in our fear and confusion, have misrepresented the Divine. I also lift up that there are people and communities who are doing their best to reclaim and live into our best selves and God’s dream for a better world, seeking to receive and share in the power of the Spirit steadfast love, tender mercy, abundant life, healing, hope and ways of justice.
And if we claim a religious or spiritual tradition, I encourage us to dive in more deeply, to engage the work and practices that help us offer integrity, healing, peace, truth, wholeness, and forgiveness.
We are all living in a world of hurt — from pandemic to dirty politics, racial injustice to rage-fueled assaults, science-denying to ecological destruction. The ways of hypocrisy, violence, control, fear and so much of what we consider “normal” have been showing themselves to be failed ways.
We need better ways. We can live better ways. And when we do, we give Jesus, God, Spirit (or however you might address the Divine) good PR, and in this we encourage more people to get in on the good that God wants to birth daily in the world.
Michael T. Bush
