The Power of Christianity

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     The impact of Christianity upon the world is greatly underestimated and seriously misjudged by the age in which we exist. Most of us suffer from such limited vision, smug conceit, and restricted experience, that we cannot conceive of the dynamic force unleashed upon an alien world by the cross. We are hindered, too, by our confusion of Christianity with creedalism, and our equally reprehensible error of identifying the universal Kingdom of the Messiah with narrow partisan prejudice.

     Christianity is a world-shaking revolutionary force. It has not failed, and it is not failing, to achieve its objectives. The fact that it marshals no mighty armies, and employs no thundering armament, is no indication that it is ineffective. That it has been advanced by the poor of this world, rich in faith, is but proof of the inherent power of principle to triumph over the externals such as wealth and wisdom. The proof of its conquests lies all about us. Every social gain that has been made has been won as a tribute to it. The provision for care of the aged and infirm, the interest in the welfare of the handicapped and retarded, the elimination of sweat shops and improved status of the working classes, the council tables at which representatives of belligerent nations sit down to forge the links of peace--these are the trophies which Christianity has won in its battle against selfishness and greed. The gains would have been inestimably greater except for the fact that most professed Christians view their religion as static rather than dynamic.

     The monastic idea which teaches men to withdraw from social contact in order to preserve what they have, is diametrically opposed to the spirit of Jesus. It is this attitude which makes the church appear as an exclusive club, and causes the poor and humble to conclude that it is not for them. Even the administration of charity is done as an irksome duty, and with a patronizing air, which robs the recipient of dignity and self-respect, while filling his belly or clothing his body. Every scriptural example of application of power is upon the basis of personal contact. We are the salt of the earth. As long as salt remains in the shaker it is useless to purify, preserve or perpetuate. It must come in contact with the substance it is to affect. The revolutionary force of leaven can never be seen until it is placed in contact with the dough. The apostles were told to go into the world, the modern disciples retire into a church building. And the salt has lost its strength!

     Jesus was not a social reformer, in the sense in which the world uses that term. He did not grapple directly with the social, political or industrial problems of the time, while he was upon earth. He

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accepted government as it was, whether Roman or Jewish. He did not give specific laws and statutes to regulate economic conditions. The sheriff, the tax collector, the magistrate, the emperor, the master, the slave--all were accepted as integral units of an existing order. To Jesus they were not vicious and divergent types, but each was merely a human soul. And it is in this concept that Christianity found its strength. It came with no organized program advertised as a panacea to reform the world with a united effort or corporate action. But the individual was awakened to love his neighbor as himself, and by the reformation of the individual from within, this reformation of self, the purpose of heaven was accomplished.

     Jesus did not inveigh long and loudly about the spectator sports of his day, although some of them were brutal spectacles. He did not condone men going, or recommend that they refrain from going. He did not mention them. But from the moment that the ferment of Christianity began to work, gladiatorial combat in the Roman arena was doomed. It would have been so, even if the Christian, Telemachus, had not jumped into the arena to thrust himself between the two gladiators, and remonstrate with them saying, "Why seek to kill one another, seeing ye are brethren?" And it was not the death of the aged Christian, cut down by the angered gladiators, which eventually caused such to be outlawed. It was the death of Christ on the cross, with all of its implications of unselfish love.

     It has long been a puzzle to sociologists as to why Jesus did not lead a crusade against the human slavery which was such a blight upon the world of his day. The mistake is in thinking that because the methods of the Nazarene do not coincide with the modern theories of reform that he did nothing effectively. We live in an age of organization. Men can see no way of achieving an objective except by first creating an organization. Are there those in society who libel others? We form an Anti-Defamation League! Do some drink to excess and become a menace to society? We form a Temperance Society! Do some poison their bodies and weaken their offspring by the constant inhalation of nicotine fumes? We form an Anti-Cigarette Union! And what happens? The Anti-Defamation League meets to combat radical hate propaganda and many of its members fog the room with cigarette smoke, and some may get drunk.

     Jesus created no organization, as such, to reform the world. This does not mean that he had no intention of reforming it. But the mistaken idea that this is the purpose of the church of God, as an organization, has been the greatest hindrance and the most serious obstacle to effecting the divine purpose. The success achieved by Christianity, has been in spite of, and not because of, this alien philosophy. So long as it prevails, the church will try to save the world by organized campaigns, crusades and conventions. It will seek to bring the dough to the leaven, and the meat to the salt. It will practice the super-speed injection method of the ten day inoculation, and it will fail. It will fill its buildings to overflowing with those whose spirits are deformed, instead of with those whose lives are reformed. And real reformers will be subjected to brutality, and driven out, as they have always been. In every age, those who are chiefly concerned with maintaining things as they are, have looked upon real Christianity, not as pure and peaceful, but as dangerous and subversive. Every reformer whom we now fulsomely praise was regarded as a divisive heretic by his contemporaries! The monuments we erect to the reformers are made up of the stones hurled at them by their brethren!

     The churches of God in Christ Jesus, did not organize to combat slavery in the days of the apostles. Instead, they were often composed of masters and slaves. But where is slavery today? It has virtually been banished from the civilized earth. The traffic in human chattels is repugnant to the enlightened social conscience. And although, in our own na-

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tion, men felt so deeply about the matter, that they met upon battlefields in civil strife, there is not one state in the union today which would dare to secede and set up a pattern of human slavery, even if it were legally possible. This is a victory for Christianity.

     And Christianity is not a dead or dying force. Its revolutionizing power is still working quietly, but in undeniable fashion. It is affecting areas and avenues of human relationships of which we have not dreamed. It is for this reason social inequality and racial discrimination is doomed. Segregation in the public schools is a lost cause. I say this without fear of the repercussions it will raise. Integration of all of our citizenry at the fount of public learning will come. It will not be the result of court decisions or human legislation, although the Judge of all the earth can make use of those to His glory. But you cannot legislate goodness into hearts. That day will come because of the power of Christianity, for the same influence which can make the wolf and the lamb dwell together, and the leopard and kid lie down together, can make white and colored children sit together in the same classroom. And then we may say, "This is the Lord's work, and it is marvelous in our eyes."