Michael Coren - The Rebel Christ

The Rebel Christ

The Rebel Christ

Michael Coren

Copyright Michael Coren, 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Publisher and acquiring editor: Scott Fraser | Editor: Laurie Miller

Cover designer: Laura Boyle | Interior designer: Karen Alexiou

Printer: Marquis Book Printing Inc.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: The rebel Christ / Michael Coren.

Names: Coren, Michael, author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210239042 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210239107 | ISBN 9781459748514 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459748521 (PDF) | ISBN 9781459748538 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus ChristPerson and offices.

Classification: LCC BT203 .C68 2021 | DDC 232dc23

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.

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To Oliver and Claudia

L et me say immediately that while I am ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada and have great love and respect for my church, what follows are my own words, and I write and speak only for myself and not in any way for my parish, diocese, bishop, or church. There are, however, so many people within that church who have helped me so much, so often, to understand what it means to be a true follower of the rebel Christ. To those saints, to those friends, to those colleagues, I shall be forever grateful. There are also a number of people who have helped to form and shape me as a Christian, especially in the past eight years since I had something of a conversion, and they come from all denominations and backgrounds. They also come from outside of any church, and some of them arent Christians at all we should learn from all people, including those who steadfastly reject organized belief. I can say with confidence that intelligent and generous atheists have often revealed to me what truth and kindness genuinely mean. For all of these people, I shall be forever in your debt, not only because you changed me but also because you enabled me to reach the point where a book such as this was possible. But, of course, none of them are responsible for any faults or failings in what I have written all of those are down to me alone.

T he starting point for this book is a question, based on a claim. Why is it that the purest, most supremely liberating philosophy and theology in all of history is now seen by so many people around the world as an intolerant, legalistic, and even irrelevant religion embraced only by the gullible, the foolish, and the judgmental? If that shocks you, so be it. Thats a good and not a bad thing, and the truth is often shocking. As a Christian, as someone whose faith informs his entire life and meaning, I pose this question with no relish and with a great deal of remorse, but I pose it nevertheless because its real and its proven, and unless Christians admit the problem and struggle to remedy it, matters will only deteriorate. For Christians and for non-Christians alike, for the sake of public discourse, for the sake of the church, and for the sake of generations to come, we have to set matters right.

An authentic relationship with God is a dialogue, and one that involves questions, arguments, and even doubt. Were made and if were Christians we believe were made by God to be thinking individuals who want answers, and not robotic creatures who simply obey. A mature belief in Scripture necessitates an understanding that the Bible is not divine dictation but an inspired history of Gods relationship with humanity, which is a wonderful guide to life but doesnt solve every modern problem and hourly challenge. It can be complex; its often nuanced; some would argue, although I disagree, that its even contradictory; but at heart its about absolute love. And that love culminates in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, who says not a word about, for example, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, pornography, or the so-called traditional family, but demands justice, forgiveness, equality, care for the poor and for the marginalized and for strangers, and compassion even for enemies; who insists on peace, and on the abandonment of materialism; and who constantly speaks of the blistering risks of wealth and prestige.

He turns the world upside down, he challenges the comfortable and the complacent, sides with the outcast and the prisoner, and has no regard for earthly power and worldly ambition. Love and hope. Christianity isnt safe and was never supposed to be. Christianity is dangerous. Yet, truth be told, we have often transformed a faith that should revel in saying yes into a religion that cries no. Its founder died so that we would change the world but many of his followers fight to defend the establishment, they try to link Jesus to nationalism and military force, and they dismiss those who campaign for social change as being radical and even godless.

Of course, this is only a culture within Christianity, and not Christianity itself, but ask most people what they think of when they consider the public face of the Christian faith and they speak of American conservative politicians, anti-abortion activists, or campaigners against sex education or equal marriage. Worse than this, many Christians themselves especially in North America have retreated into a bunker mentality, seeing persecution around every corner and retreating into literalism and small-mindedness. They have built an alternative culture, not one thats anchored in the simplicity and altruism of the early church, but thats hinged on nationalism and insularity.

This is all nostalgia rather than the Jesus movement, and as much as change can be frightening to all of us, the Son of God told us that fear and anxiety are unfounded. If we worry about the evolving world, were just not listening to the words of Christ that we claim to revere. Its as though the cosmetics of the Gospels, the veneer of the message, have become more important than its core and its central meaning. Jesus spoke less about the end times than the time to end injustice, less about whom we should love than about how we should love everyone. If we miss that, were missing the whole thing. The great C.S. Lewis, one of the finest communicators of the faith in modern times, once wrote that Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. Let Christians not be moderate in their vocation as radicals of invincible and, yes, revolutionary love.