“WHAT’S in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” said Shakespeare. True, but still it would need a name to distinguish it from other flowers. Names are important. Without them we could not properly identify specific persons, places or things. A name, according to Webster, is “a word . . . by which an individual or class of individuals (persons or things) is regularly known or designated. . . . A distinct and specific designation.” Among some very primitive peoples individuals are not given specific names but merely identified by some physical peculiarity as to height, size and suchlike. But what happens when two or more persons greatly resemble one another? To try to do without names does present difficulties.
Christendom is made up of nations that are supposed to be Christian. But according to the Holy Bible, has any political nation of this world the Scriptural right to call itself Christian?
In the "Victoria Times of Canada" under date of January 11, 1960, newspaper columnist B. A. Tobin said under “What’s in a Name?” this: ". . . our religions, our reason for being on the earth at all — the labels which we have always conveniently pasted on these things are being looked at pretty critically to see if they describe the contents accurately. Some uncomfortable thoughts are being produced as a result. People are asking, for instance, if we should call a country a “Christian country” if only a small fraction of its inhabitants really believe the doctrines of that religion."
H. L. Mencken [an American author, critic and editor of the magazine American Mercury] once wrote that “Christendom is that part of the world in which, if a man stand up and say he is a Christian, all his auditors will laugh.”
That was fifty years ago. Today, they aren’t even interested enough to laugh.
Headlines in newspapers have given us cause to wonder what's in the name of "Christianity." Some examples of this follow:
RENO'S CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Casino gambling is legal in the U.S. state of Nevada, including its second-largest city, Reno. What is the view of that city’s churches toward gambling? Says an article in Christian Century regarding its “enlightened” churches: “Few of them are willing to rock the economic boat. After all, they profit from tithes paid by casino employees, and their budgets and building programs are enhanced by the depression-proof stability of the gaming industry. One might say that many Reno churches suffer from a type of moral schizophrenia, a separation between belief and action.”
COHABITING CHRISTIANS
A French study points to “the decline of religion” as a reason for the change in people’s lives and values, whichever faith is considered, says the magazine, "Population & Sociétés." For example, some 88 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 in France claim to be Catholic christians, but 80 percent of these never go to church other than for weddings, baptisms, or funerals. The weakening of traditional values is reflected in family life. Forty years ago, 1 couple in 10 lived together before marriage. Today, the figure is 9 out of 10. “Among the most regular Catholic churchgoers, 75 percent lived together before their marriage,” the study revealed.
THE HOLOCAUST
As the years passed, Holocaust survivors began speaking up. Books, magazines, and film presentations brought the world face-to-face with the terrors of the concentration camp. The State of Israel’s fight for survival likewise focused the world’s attention on Jewry. As a result, Christendom has increasingly come under fire. As G. Peter Fleck wrote in The Christian Century: “There is something terribly wrong with . . . a religion and a civilization that could bring forth and tolerate such an abomination [as the Holocaust]. And there must be something wrong with a church that observed near total silence and inaction during the horror.” Jewish leaders agree.
CALCULATING THE HELL-BOUND
The Southern Baptists of Alabama, U.S.A., came under fire recently when they published an official estimate suggesting that 46.1 percent of the state’s population may go to the Baptist hell. Their report,published in The Birmingham News, gave a county-by-county breakdown of the state, listing by percentage how many in each were “unsaved.” According to the Associated Press, the Baptists simply subtracted church membership figures from the population of each county, then applied “a secret formula” to determine the number of people from other religions that they deemed likely to go to heaven as well. Their report met with harsh criticism from readers of The Birmingham News. Wrote one: “It is the pinnacle of presumptuousness to construct a formula for quantifying the unsaved.”
CORRUPTION AND CONFESSION
Two Italian writers, pretending to be politicians or businessmen, asked dozens of Catholic priests for
absolution from sins of corruption. They then published what the priests had to say to them in the confessional.
Reports the newspaper La Repubblica: “The church considers that 'the writers' have committed a sacrilege, and they have already been attacked and probably excommunicated for it.” But the paper adds that these phony confessions “demonstrate the real confusion, inadequacy, and indulgence of a good part of the 36,000 Italian priests, who often seem more interested in sexual rather than social sins.” Pino Nicotri, one of the writers, found that of the 49 priests to whom he “confessed,” only one refused him absolution and told him to report his crime to the authorities.
Commented La Repubblica: “As far as the others are concerned, either bribes are not a sin, or else it is
useless to go to a judge, since what counts is pardon from God.”
CHRISTIANS IN RUSSIA
The interest of so many in the Bible created a different kind of religious problem in the former Soviet Union. The Guardian newspaper of London, England, observed: “The ‘war on God’ may have ended, but not long after the humiliating defeat of the world’s first avowedly atheist state, a new religious cold war in Russia may only be beginning.” What is this so-called religious cold war that the newspaper refers to?
The Russian Orthodox Church worked hand in glove with Soviet leaders in order to survive and receive privileges. The Guardian describes the continuation of such a relationship, explaining: “The last 10 years have also seen the church form an uncomfortably close relationship with the largely unreformed state that once suppressed it, regularly supporting the Russian government (the Patriarch’s endorsement of the war in Chechnya) and wielding in return considerable political influence.”
The Los Angeles Times of February 10, 1999, drew attention to the exercise of the church’s political influence when commenting on the Law of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations. The Los Angeles Times said that this law, signed by then President Boris Yeltsin in September 1997, was “promoted by the Russian Orthodox Church.” The law gave the church preferred status as a “traditional” religion, along with Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Among other things, the law required that religious organizations in Russia reregister.
The New York Times of February 11, 1999, reported that after this law was passed, “the Orthodox Church kept pressures on its rivals.” The Times added: “Last August, Aleksei II, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, called for a ban on proselytizing faiths, particularly those that try to lure people away from the ‘religions of their ancestors.’” Since then, efforts to ban the so-called proselytizing faiths have continued, resulting in what has been characterized as a “religious cold war.” Is this the act of true christianity?
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY?
The Bible speaks of “pure religion,” or “worship that is clean and undefiled.” (James 1:27)
In the first century, the chief priests and other religious leaders persecuted Jesus’ followers. (John 19:15; Acts 5:27-33) As a result, it was said of Christianity: “Truly as regards this sect it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.” (Acts 28:22) It should not be surprising, therefore, that true Christians today would also be maligned.
Yet, after examining evidence against early Christians, Gamaliel, the famous Pharisee and teacher of the Law, advised: “Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; (because, if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.”—Acts 5:38, 39.
In the name of TRUE christianity I say, it is not dead. I have complete confidence in the Bible’s promise: “The world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:17.
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Contributor's Note
I have been a student of the Bible since I learned how to read. Mum told me that even when I was very young I used to line my dolls in a row and pretend that I was reading the Bible to them. Yes, I do believe what it has to tell us.
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