"Today's Churches are Evil"
I remember the day I decided to become a defender of the Christian faith. It was in August of 2015. I was attending classes at a college in downtown Denver. It was about mid-morning. I was in between classes when I met this guy.
Look how big that sign is! This guy believed the best way he could spend his morning was yelling at college kids (at a very secular school) about how evil churches were (which they agreed with, because they are secular) to find Jesus by themselves.
"Today’s churches are evil" is quite the claim. If it's true (and it could be!) I have a few follow up questions:
Why are you telling college students who do not care about the Church? Shouldn't you be talking with the leaders of the Church? Can you define evil? What parameters are we using to define evil? Was there a time in history that churches were not evil? How do you know?
The next line on the sign read, "Find the living Jesus by yourself in the New Testament". I have some more follow up questions:
If Jesus' Church is evil, why would I want to find Jesus? Much less by myself. How do I know you are not evil? How do I know the authors of the New Testament are not evil? In the New Testament it says we should unified in love; does that not apply anymore?
The man with the sign reminded me of something I read once. "I thank thee Lord I am not like other men, especially these Christians over here."
I did not know much about the Bible, christian history, or anything pertaining to the faith. I was attending a non-denominational church at the time that I loved. The people were awesome, the preaching was accessible to my low-knowledge self, it had cool music and pretty girls - everything a 23 year old is looking for in a church.
But I would not describe the church I was attending as evil. If it was, I was too naive to know. I was curious as to what he meant and why he needed a sail of a sign. I was not curious enough to approach him so I took a picture to show a friend I was about to meet. As I was walking to meet him, there was another person with the exact same sign! It was a woman, yelling much louder than the other guy. By this time my friend was was with me. He was much more bold than I was so he decided we should approach her. You'll never guess what happened.
The lady splattered us against the wall. She did not give us time to ask her questions, did not give us time to respond to her accusations, nothing. She had a message, she had to get it out. She knew the Bible way better than I did and she was throwing out verse after verse. If she wasn't so angry at me for being a weak Christian it might have been impressive. She asked me if I had any scripture memorized. I did! I had one verse memorized. It was John 3:16 (thanks Tebow!) but she wasn't impressed by that.
She said one thing as we were leaving. "I don't know what to tell you man, memorize the Bible then come talk to me."
Done. Challenge accepted.
Another story.
As I was leaving church one morning, a guy stopped me to share about an exciting trip he was going on with his wife. They were going to Barcelona. I LOVE Barcelona. I asked if he was going to see the world famous Sagrada Familia cathedral. It is an architectural wonder and a testament to what man can create as he imagines heaven.
He had watched a documentary about the architect and the cathedral. He was sharing things that were interesting to me about this beautiful building, and I was enjoying every minute of it. Then right out of this guys mouth came the next sentence. "It’s too bad the Catholic Church is a cult with mother Mary."
Oh good. You chose to insult Jesus' literal mother, chosen by God, to bring him into the world and to raise him.
It is never, ever a good idea to insult a man's mother, much less the man you call savior.
Churches are evil and cults. And hip churches gladly assert, “we are not like those Christians.”
Way to turn on your brothers and sisters of a common salvation.