R&D: The Thing About Religion

I’ve been reading a lot about different beliefs within the Protestant movement. I’m not sure how this happens, but I end up reading like four books in a row that showcase the varieties of strange ideas that tend to pop up within the Reformation-revived overarching belief system.

Quiverfull by Kathnryn Joyce, In the Beginning, A New Interpretation of Genesis by Karen Armstrong, Eve by Elissa Eliott, Christianity in Crisis 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff, and The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008 by Philip Zaleski (which veers in and out of Protestantism depending on the piece you’re reading).

The thing I noted with alarming alacrity is that Protestantism (which founded itself on the GRACE of GOD) has forgotten all about grace. Instead, talking heads and leadership have replaced the grace with Pharisaical laws and prosperity preachings. Nowhere has grace been more forgotten than in religion. And this is a shame.

The bottom line of our existence, according to Martin Luther, is our choice to accept salvation or not. We are not born automatically saved, no matter how many blessings or family patriarchies our great-great-great grandfathers planned out for us. Every person born must make a choice on their own.

However, we are not cursed to die without hope either. Everyone has hope, no matter what they’ve done or experienced. No one qualifies as second-class or tainted goods in a belief system that includes grace. Yet, no one can “think” their way out of poverty or illness or death. No one can simply extend a hand out and become a god.

It is through grace, the grace offered freely to us through Jesus Christ, that we have a chance. I’m not trying to cram it down throats today, but I do want to make one thing startingly clear: Do not think that Protestant Christianity is all about think and grow rich because Jesus was wealthy while on earth and wore designer clothes (a tactic of the Faith movement or what I call the Prosperity Gospel movement) or that Protestant Christianity will beat you over the head because as a woman you dare to read a Bible verse aloud in church or don’t have as many children as you possibly can (a tactic of the patriarchy movement, or what I call the modern-day Pharisees).

Please think of Protestant Christianity as a belief that offers unlimited grace to all. That we believe that Jesus Christ came to earth specifically to die for our wrong choices, our wrong actions, our wrong behaviors, and that because of his sacrifice, his horrible death on a cross on a hill, we are free. This is what I believe, and what I tell all my friends who don’t share my beliefs when they ask me questions about what I do believe.

But I do ask everyone who reads this, especially those who are partial to these other belief systems, if you were hurt, injured beyond repair, disgraced, abandoned, or guilty, wouldn’t you want a God of grace?

And for fellow Protestants who have forgotten, what is with the lack of grace these days?

Tagged as: belief, grace, protestant, R&D, religion