Rivers State Television Channel 22

King: An assessment of being a Christian at Christmas

The time when much of the world commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is once more upon us. With it come the inevitable. No Christmas season would be complete without some litigation over a manger scene on some public property or the debate over whether it is politically incorrect to wish someone "Merry Christmas." Then there is the great irony of extravagant, conspicuous consumption to mark the birth of one who once advised a wealthy young man to give away everything he owned.

But what strikes me this year about my faith is how, much like our national political life, it is becoming increasingly polarized on the extremes with a large number of us in the middle feeling like we have no spiritual home. Today, it seems that on the surface, at least, Christianity is dominated by two groups.

Members of the first group are a bit embarrassed to say they are Christians for fear any expression of their faith will be seen as politically and/or socially incorrect. They have watered down what they believe so far that their faith has no moment.

At the other extreme are those Christians who seem determined to do whatever they can to insult and alienate anyone who is not a Christian. They are determined that everyone else adopt their exact belief system, even if that means legislating their beliefs into law.

It seems to me that neither is very Christlike. Jesus certainly did not apologize for his faith. He spoke openly and directly about mankind's spiritual nature and its physical reality. Both were highlighted when, asked what the most important thing was, he said simply, "Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself."

But he also adamantly refused to start a political movement. He famously tossed the Pharisees' Roman coins back at them, telling them to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." He declared before Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. He did not form any political action committees or hold any political prayer rallies. He did not foment revolution or cozy up to officialdom. He did not lobby lawmakers to legislate the people's morality. Instead he appealed directly to our better nature, seeking to change hearts, not laws.

So like many Americans who look at both political parties and find that they can identify with neither, so many of us who are Christians look at the extremes of our faith and feel the same way.

And there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that extremists in the Christian faith are eroding the public's view of the church. Church membership has been stagnant or declining for years and most polling shows a general decline in the public's favorable rating of Christianity as a religion.

Some of the most startling work in this area has been done by a young market researcher named David Kinnaman. Kinnaman is an evangelical Christian who has focused his market research skills on the public's perception of Christianity. His first book, Unchristian, was published in 2007. What he found was that many Americans, and most younger Americans, view Christianity negatively. Several reasons are cited but the two most frequently mentioned were that Christians were too political and too judgmental. It is indeed an irony that a faith whose founder eschewed politics and taught to "judge not, lest you be judged" is now known for the opposite of his principles.

The reality is that there are millions of Christians in this country, and throughout the world, who go about quietly practicing their faith without using it for some political agenda or condemning those who do not see the world as they do. Research has consistently shown that church-going Christians are responsible for the vast majority of contributions to charity, in terms of both time and money. And in just about any visit to any church on a Sunday morning, you will find a group of people who genuinely care for each other.

But as with most aspects of our public life, moderation is not news. Extremes sell media. So there will always be rows of cable news cameras for someone claiming to be a Christian minister who wants to burn the Quran, even if his church only has a couple of dozen members. But there is rarely any coverage of thousands upon thousands of refugees who are welcomed to this country by Christian organizations each year, regardless of the refugees' faiths.

So my thoughts and prayers this Christmas season are with those Christians in the great middle, inspired by their faith to quietly go about the business of feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, ministering to the sick and visiting those in prison. They much more faithfully represent the true spirit of Christmas than the politically motivated religious grandstanders to whom we are all too often subjected.