Christianity's Greatest Error

Last night I went to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting to celebrate my friend’s full year without drugs party. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. There were no handshakes in this room, just hugs often followed by tears. The love and support they shared and showed to one another was unbelievable. New comers were immediately accosted by caring individuals hugging them, giving them books, and telling them “hey man, I did this. I did this. I’ve been clean for four months now bro, and if I can do it, then I am going to make f---ing sure you do too.” If there was a member missing, everyone took a moment of silence to pray for that person, than the phone calls and texts would follow urging that person to fight to stay straight. “Hey… we are all in this together.” One of the men told a story about one particular night where he was in bad shape. The guys in his group figured it out, literally kicked his bedroom door in, and spent the entire night sitting with him on his floor crying and trying to outwait the urge to use together. These men attend meetings six, sometimes seven, times a week. They carpool from New York City to Delaware, Connecticut, anywhere they can find the comfort and love that these NA meetings provide. They have this saying, “all you gotta do is show up. Just keep showing up man… one day at a time.”

That is when it struck me; these men could never find this kind of love and support from a church body. For some, NA becomes as addicting as the drug habit they fought. (Not physically obviously, but most definitely mentally.) “The group” becomes a deity in the sense that it offers salvation, protection, acceptance, and love to anyone that walks or stumbles into whatever four walls are hosting them. Churches have adopted the attitude that non-confrontational Christianity is the easiest way to fill pews, and it probably is. Where does that attitude get us?

Please; think about this for a moment.

The Mormon Church is the number one most giving religion in America. Nobody ministers to the poor and homeless as much as they do.

Jehovah Witnesses focus on evangelism more than any religion in the world. As Christians, we believe that everyone else will spend an eternity in torment, burning in hell, yet it is the Jehovah Witness that spends his spiritual life taking his message door to door.

Jewish children grow up learning Hebrew so they can read the Torah in its original translation. How many Christians can read Hebrew and Greek?

Islamic followers strap bombs to themselves literally dedicating their lives to their faith. How many of us Christians would give up our jobs, money, or cars? Forget that… how many of us are willing to give up a full hour a night to read our Bibles and pray?

Drug addicts can offer a loving and unconditionally accepting community that America’s modern Church cannot rival.

What the hell are we doing? Really. Forget denominations or disagreements about the role of tongues today. We believe the same principle message. We believe that Jesus came to earth to die for our abominable sins, opening the only doorway to heaven. We claim to have “the one true faith.” Why is it that we cannot act out one aspect of that better then the religions we consider to be cults, or just plain lost?