Part Five: Are Critics Right When They Claim the Christian Church Has Done More Harm than Good throughout the World?
As pointed out in last week’s blog, critics claim the dark pages of Church history make the Christian faith hypocritical. There are two apologetic responses to this. Last week, Part Four, I explained the first response. Below is the second response: Of all the religions or political systems in the world, none has had the far-reaching and positive influence Christianity has had across the globe.
When critics point out the unChrist-like behaviors of some Christians, they conveniently overlook the incredible benefits Christianity has contributed to the human race. A simple survey of the influence of Christianity around the globe reveals the profound positive impact the Church has had on the world.
More than any other religion or philosophy, Christianity has contributed the most to human welfare and social reform. Many hospitals and colleges, as well as orphanages and charity organizations, were begun and operated by Christians. The Christian Church promoted child welfare programs until they became government policy. Christian started humane societies for the protection of farm animals. Christian ethics eventually undermined the structure of slavery. Before Jesus, women were often the chattel of men. Jesus set the stage for women’s emancipation. Many of the brutal practices in the Roman world, such as contests between gladiators and infanticide, were abolished after Christianity became the dominant religion. Today, hundreds of Christain relief agencies exist worldwide, and Christians are among the first to respond to disasters and famines wherever they occur. The political concept of checks and balances, so important to democratic government, is based on the biblical principle of wisdom being found in a “multitude of counselors” (e.g., Prov. 11:14; 15:22).
By contrast, one can look far and wide and fail to find comparable achievements growing out of any other religion in the world. Human misery under the umbrella of historic Hinduism, for example, is well known. Rather than concerning themselves with esoteric matters, the Christian Church ministries to people. And let me add this. If one were to take a “body count” of destroyed lives as a result of misguided Christians, it would come nowhere close to the extermination resulting from other philosophical and political systems. The torture and murder that occurred in the twentieth century under the atheistic political systems of Nazi Germany and Soviet Marxism are many millions more than the number of people wrongly killed in the name of Christianity throughout the entire history of the Christian Church. As Dr. Robert Morey reports, “over one hundred and fifty million people . . . have been killed by atheistic governments.” (The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom)
Next week I’ll end this series with what Jesus and the authors of the New Testament have to say about the problem of hypocrisy among Christians. ©
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