While many seem to believe that this is due to the fact that Christians simply fail to live up to the teachings of Jesus, the problem runs much deeper than that. Ultimately the problem is foundational. Christianity is built upon an unsound foundation.
Fairly recently I was talking to a Buddhist who was telling me that he had started going to a Christian church which surprised me. So I asked him if he was aware of core beliefs such as:
No one can make themselves righteous
Jesus paid for all their sins past, present and future
For all intents and purposes, God grants them forgiveness for the asking
Ultimately their sins are not their fault - it is because of the fallen nature of man.
His response? “Sounds like the makings for psychopaths”. Which there is no reasonably denying.
Not that all or even many necessarily become psychopaths, but the makings are there all the same. That said, this does beget a strong tendency toward selfishness/self-centeredness, narcissism, dishonesty, hypocrisy, etc. Likely this is why so many of them are prone to demagoguery, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, believing in conspiracy theories, etc. They build secondary beliefs upon an unsound foundation.
It’s important to understand that all of the above core beliefs listed above are completely alien to the gospel preached by Jesus. This cannot be emphasized enough. Ultimately, Christians are so unlike their Christ, because Christianity is not built upon His teachings. Christianity is built upon the teachings of those other than Jesus. Built upon the teachings of the false prophets that Jesus warned about.
So, I am condemned because of something, someone
did thousands of years ago…and I am full of ‘‘SIN’’ because
of an act, also thousands of years ago… and I need to
be ‘‘SAVED’’, not because of what I did, but because of
what someone else did, ummm also, thousands of years ago…
and there is no rational way to justify this, so we have to
have ‘‘FAITH’’ for any of this to work…recall, that only
those with ‘‘FAITH’’ can see/witness god…and if it makes
you feel any better, I can knock other religions also,
Buddhism, Islam and Judaism are other examples of religions
that make no sense either…so, don’t feel bad about it…
I think you should look at it more like somebody opened Pandora’s box, it changed everything in a way that cannot be reversed, and now you are dealing with the aftermath. Every child is born into a world with those unreversible patterns “nurtured” into them before they even reach the age of consent. You literally gotta be God to be immune, and (since that never happens to anyone but God) it’s gonna take an act of God to reverse and heal, once you get the point he’s drawing your attention to (his unconditional love will not violate your required consent-respecting consent)… and share it with others.
