The Christian Paradox

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The Christian Paradox

“The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong” by Bill McKibben and “What Would Jesus Do?”,by Garry Wills remains controversial articles in terms of Christianity. The modern Christianity paradox is evident in both articles in that biblical scholarship growth and believers fervor in the scripture has done little to have on majority of biblical illiterates who seem to proclaim their convictions on various Christianity aspects.

In “The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong” by Bill McKibben he states that the year, 2004 saw a statistic provided by McKibben showing America ranked second last in government provision of foreign aid in terms of economic earnings, while private charities tended to increase the amount by a negligible percentage. At the same time, Aid to given to American citizens was not any different. America trails in almost every category, for example, in helping the needy, almost eighteen percent of children in American live below the poverty line in comparison to Sweden, which is a secular nation and stands eight percent. Conversely, the numbers seems not be improving, as according to the American Department of Agriculture, which McKibben cites, homes that were experiencing food insecurity were on the rise compared to twenty six percent in 1999 to 2003. In spite of the biblical teaching on loving one’s neighbor’, that is not the case in a tremendously Christian America.

McKibben argues that Christianity in America presently seems to forgo the foundation of Christian teachings in the Bible, and replaces them with the latest interpretations complete with fabrications that seem to support a new, egotistic form of Christianity. At the same time, only around 40 percent of Americans are comfortable naming and interpreting four or even less than four of the Ten Commandments, with only scant half being able to cite the Gospels’ four authors. The failure to be in a position to recall certain specifics Christian heritage is evidence of the country’s educational decline. However, it is true that this does not matter in terms of political or spiritual matter. It is obvious that as a Christian nation, adherence to the bible has to mean something as individuals who attend church absorb the lessons learnt there and make logical decisions in relation to the lessons. The lessons often inform their politics, as one poll showed that 11 percent of churchgoers in America were encouraged by their clergy to vote for one particular political block.

George Bush often states that Jesus Christ happens to be one of his favorite philosophers. Although he might not or be sincere, Bush seems to reflect the genuine beliefs of the most Americans. There lies a paradox as America remains the most professedly Christian in relation to developed nations, but has the least Christian behavior in terms of most citizens actions. It is true that around 75 percent of Americans claim to pray to God daily, but only a 33 percent state they manage to attend church weekly. Still, although 85 percent overemphasize actual practice, this clearly symbolizes aspiration and that nothing else tends to unite over four fifths of America. This is because other statistics that a person can cite on American behavior are essentially measures of the professed Christians behavior. The country is a place saturated in terms of Christian identity, which begs the question on whether it is truly a Christian nation. Christ was specific on what He wanted for His followers. Maybe the simple criterion is giving help to the poorest people being a sensible substitute for Christian behavior.

In the days prior to crucifixion, Jesus summarized his message to his disciples and the separation of the righteous from the immoral ensued through determining their actions. This involved welcoming the stranger, feeding hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the prisoner. Ironically, the country was ranked second last in the year 2004, after Italy, in developed countries category that in give out government foreign help. This means each citizen offers fifteen cents daily in official development aid to underprivileged countries. On the other hand, they are not giving private charities in relief work as a substitute. This funding tends to increase the country’s average daily donation to twenty cents. At the same time, around 18 percent of children in America live in abject poverty. In fact, preschool access, childhood nutrition, and infant mortality the country rank almost last among the affluent nations with a wide margin. It is evident that that the American country trails badly in Christian teachings, which Jesus seemed to pay attention.

In ,What Would Jesus Do?” by Garry Wills, he states that doing the same thing remains the goal of many real Christians. This begs the main question on whether Christians can aspire to act exactly like Jesus. A controversy about Jesus actions include praising a twelve-year-old who runs away from home in a big city and at the same time being left behind without parental consent. Any parent’s reaction would be similar to the way Jesus parents reacted, which was to ask him the reason for such behavior. At the same time, if a relative tries to seek Christian access , should one say that he has no relatives, except for his followers, which seems illogical. Conversely, if Christians were to try to change water to wine and use six big water vats, mostly used for purification functions, and fill them with almost a hundred gallons of wine, which is more than could be drunk in any party comes the aspect of controversy. Jesus cast out devils and send them to a heard of pigs, which is similar to destroying the animals. It is obvious that some Christians tend to place a high value on their property rights and Jesus actions can be termed as invasion of a person’s property as well as livelihood.

On the other hand, some Christians lay immense weight on family values, which seems contrary to Jesus forbidding a person to attend their father’s funeral or even tell others to detest their parents. Jesus actions of visiting the temple and whipping people who were selling the merchandise there would be compared to going to a rich church in an American suburb and whipping the people with collection plates. This is not right and as much that Christian are supposed to imitate.

The actions described showed Jesus acts from the gospel, which depicts that he is not just like any other human being and has higher rights He also has powers, which he has power as subjective as God’s similar to the Book of Job. Jesus is a divine mystery who walks among men and the person can imitate him directly is acting as if one is a god, yet he forbids that in the bible. In the first article, it is evident that the American Christian nation seems to make individual contrary to political, choices that the Bible would be viewed to oppose. In spite of the Sixth Commandment, the nation remains overwhelmingly rich in the world with the rate of murders ranking fourth compared to that of its European peers. The population in prisons is six times greater in comparison to other rich nations, which allows plenty of opportunity in terms of Christians going for prisons visits. America is the only Western democracy still executing its people, generally in the states where Christianity remains in theory strongest. In spite of Jesus’ strict declarations on divorce, marriages tend to break up at a speedy rate and compares poorly with the average of countries found in the European Union. The U.S tops the charts in terms of teenage pregnancy, obesity, credit purchase, which definitely prove that Americans are hypocrites. These shows the similarity between the two articles, which seems to questions so many aspects in the Christian world, which seems controversial.

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