Why Christianity should be defended
Why do I believe that Christianity needs to be defended? Isn’t it the terrible religion that oppressed the world for so long? Well, yes and no. Certainly there were a lot of people who did bad things in the name of Christianity, just as there are people who have misused other religions such as Islam and Buddhism.
Christianity needs to be defended because it is the original religion where the individual matters. Before Jesus, religions focused on the subjugation of the individual to the collective. The Jews believed that they had to serve God, no matter how nasty and capricious he was (see the Book of Job). One could argue that the Buddhists focus on the individual, but in fact Buddhism focuses on the annihilation of the individual. The Roman state religion was used to reinforce the positions of the powerful. Even Plato and Socrates – bastions of democracy – promulgated the notion of sacrificing the individual to the State.
Of the major-league religious figures, Jesus was the first to say “you matter.” This is why Christianity is fastest growing in places in the world which are under repressive regimes.
Christianity and Christians need to be respected and defended.
That being said, it's important to note that there are spiritual insights to be found in many other religious and philosophic traditions in addition to Christianity, which is why I changed the title of this blog to Mysticism2020 from the original Christianity2020. The Bible, while clearly divinely inspired, is not the only collection of words that contain insight.
More soon...