Deadly Faith

A young man, only nineteen years of age, was beaten to death.

He was not the victim of a robbery.  He was not mugged.  He was not attacked by street thugs.  He was not in the wrong place at the wrong time in the face of gang-bangers or a drug crime.

He was in church.  Lucas Leonard was beaten to death by people of faith, members of his own church, which also included his own parents.  Why did they beat him?

Lucas died as the result of religious fervor, or what might be called righteous indignation.  He was being punished.  Lucas was expected to confess his sins and ask for forgiveness.  And he wasn’t alone.  Christopher, Lucas’s seventeen year-old younger brother, was also beaten.  Christopher survived his beating, Lucas did not.

These beatings were done in the name of God, in the name of faith and righteousness.  The beaters were trying to elicit a confession from these brothers so that they’d receive forgiveness for their sins.  Meanwhile, those who were doing the beating were oblivious to their own perpetrated sin as they beat these two brothers, the one unto death.

What a twisted application of faith!

It is these kinds of acts in the name of God that turn people off toward religion.

God, however, is not the problem.  People are the problem.  In the same way that it is not money that is evil but what people do with money that makes it good or bad, so it is not faith in God that is the problem, it is how people define and/or practice their faith in God. 

Read the words of Jesus carefully.  There can be no justification for beatings of this kind.  It is impossible to claim that Jesus would have approved of such beatings, especially as a way of extracting a confession for the sake of providing forgiveness to the confessor.  Yet such actions have been perpetrated by religious types in the name of Christ over the centuries.  Remember the Inquisition of the middle ages?  It is the same dynamic, dark and twisted, perverted misapplied and ill-practiced religious fervor.

Jesus did not hesitate to denounce the abuse of faith and religion.  In his day it was the Pharisees and Sadducees and the religious Scribes that he denounced because of their high-minded, self-righteous, holier-than-thou oppressive, judgmental, and mean-spirited attitude toward those whom they thought were condemned by God; which was just about anyone whom they felt did not conform to their own particular religious standards, practices, and expectations.

Here’s the thing: all religious teachers and preachers and practitioners (including myself, a pastor) have the potential and are in danger of becoming Pharisaical in the worse sense of the term.  Indeed, all passionate devotees in religious faith also have the same potential to become Pharisaical—that is, it is not just found among religious leaders.  (Pharisaical: to be holier-than-thou, self-righteously high and mighty and therefore extremely judgmental, critical, and condemning of others, showing no mercy and having no love or grace for the lost and forsaken.)

According to Jesus, a true heart for God is demonstrated by having compassion for the down-and-out, showing mercy to the lost and forlorn, and offering love and grace to the guilt-ridden shamed sinner. 

So, no, don’t blame religion or faith in God or Christianity, as the cause of such terrible abuses, as in the beating of a young man to death in the name of saving him from sin.  Indeed, it is the lack of Jesus that is the real problem.  It is the lack of knowing and understanding what Jesus is really about, the lack of truly embracing His way, His truth, and His example.

Before you quickly judge Christianity or faith in general, I challenge you to read Jesus for yourself.  Truly listen to what Jesus Himself says and teaches and see how he Himself lived, what He did and why He did it.  And you will see that the problem is not with Jesus whom we call the Christ; the problem is with humanity, human nature, and our own need of grace and mercy.