It is both eye-opening and jarring to read the many statements, such as the one above, made by Mahatma Gandhi regarding Christians. He states his admiration of Jesus, but not so much for Christians.
There are numerous quotes from him on the subject, all alluding to how un-Christian Christian’s are. Here is one more:
“It is a first class human tragedy that people of the earth who claim to believe in the message of Jesus, whom they describe as the Prince of Peace, show little of that belief in actual practice.”
The book “Do Something Beautiful for God” was given to me a few years ago by the principal of the Catholic school where I worked. It is a daily reflection of quotes/teachings of Mother Theresa. Each night before I go to bed, I read the reflection for the next day. Ironically, here is the quote from last night:
“Let us pray for peace, joy, and love. We are reminded that Jesus came to bring the good news: ‘My peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.’ He came not to give the peace of the world which is only that we do not harm each other. He came to give the peace of heart which comes from loving-from doing good to others.”
I am born and raised Catholic. I fully admit, I am not the greatest Catholic. I don’t go to church. With the exception of most of what Pope Francis preaches, I don’t believe in many of the teachings of the church leaders.
I consider myself a better Christian than Catholic. Not perfect by any stretch. I am human. But, I try to understand the message of Jesus, take it to heart and practice it in my daily life.
I was young, though I’m not sure how old, when I came to see the hypocrisy in what Catholics/Christians teaches and what Catholics/Christians actually do.
Recently, representatives of the Helen and Joe Farkas Center gave a presentation to our 7th grade class. A central part of the presentation is a video of a Holocaust survivor, Paul Schwarzbart, describing his harrowing experience as a Jew during this time. (https://www.farkascenter.org/survivors/paul-schwarzbart)
I very rarely watch or read stories anymore about the Holocaust. The degree of inhumanity that human beings so utterly and completely treated other human beings is just too . . . too . . .
heartbreaking, horrendous, cruel? None of these words come close to the tragedy of it all.
So, as I started to watch this video, I felt my heart sink.
Fortunately, I knew he obviously survived. But, what about his family, friends?
At the age of 10, Mr. Schwarzbart’s mother, fearing he would be sent to a concentration camp and killed, sent him to hide away in a Catholic boarding school. There he would pretend to be a Catholic. He would hide every part of his Jewish heritage and completely assimilate into Catholicism. It wasn’t that the sisters were trying to convert him. They were trying to save him. If he was discovered a Jew, he would surely be killed. The sisters, as well as Emile and Marie Taquet, the school’s founders, could have easily suffered the same fate.
They all put their lives on the line for him . . . and, it turns out, for many other Jewish children, too.
It wasn’t until decades later that Mr. Schwarzbart learned he was not, as he thought, the only Jewish child at the school. There were many of them, none knowing there were other Jewish children there, too. Again, this was a strategy to keep the children safe.
Catholics and Jews. Two religions with very different ideologies. Still, those ideologies meant nothing when it came to right vs. wrong.
Compare that life-threatening bravery in the name of humanity to the Christians of today who relish the hate being dished out, the abandonment of our moral responsibility to others by our government.
In the 1990’s, when I was living in Texas, it became faddish to wear “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD) bracelets. I thought it was a new trend, but apparently the idea was popular in the early 1900’s after the publication in 1896 of the Charles Sheldon novel, “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?”
I wasn’t into the trend. I had no desire to wear a WWJD bracelet. But I think about that now.
What would Jesus do?
What would Jesus want us to do about children of the world who don’t have food to eat, clothes to wear, roofs over their heads?
Think about the exchange between Mr. Potter and Peter Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life:”
Potter: They’re not my children.
Bailey: But they’re somebody’s children.
Then, think about Matthew 25:43-45:
43 “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’” 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
What about “sinners?” What would Jesus do?
I guess you could consider people sinners who enter the country illegally so they can feed, clothe, house their families. (We’ll save the argument that our economy would collapse without them for another time.) What would Jesus ask us to do about them? Send them away? Separate them from their children at the border?
And, what about transgender individuals? This is a bit thornier, only because of who we might debate as sinners. I will say unequivocally, they are not sinners as we are all (not just some based on skin color, sex, gender, sexual orientation) made in God’s image. Still, others will argue I am wrong.
It doesn’t matter. Jesus did not condemn sinners, nor did he ever turn them away. He offered love and forgiveness. He even chastised us: Thou who is without sin, cast the first stone.
If you call yourself a Christian, what do you think Jesus would say to those of us who live in one of the richest countries in the world, who have plenty of food to eat, closets of clothes, sturdy roofs over our heads, who couldn’t care less about the children of the world who don’t?
If you call yourself a Christian, what would Jesus say to those of us who choose hate, to discriminate against people who aren’t like us, people who have done us no wrong except to be different than us, who present us no harm except to offend our sensibilities.
I’ll end with one final quote from Gandhi:
“The Christians above all others are seeking after wealth. Their aim is to be rich at the expense of their neighbors. They come among aliens to exploit them for their own good and cheat them to do so. Their prosperity is far more essential to them than the life, liberty, and happiness of others.”