How Can I Say This Nicely?
Why Christian Churches are Bad for Society
By James Aames ~
It’s considered bad form to condemn all versions of Christianity, so most leading voices in religious journalism will only speak negatively of “high-control” religions or simply “cults.” However, the subtle implication of those terms is that “low-control religions” or “non-cults” are not harmful. This has always caused me to stop in my tracks. It’s wrong. Even though Christianity is a continuum of beliefs, all versions of Christianity are indeed harmful.
For the purpose of this article, I need to define the word “Christian”? Any version of “Christianity” that does not believe in the redemption from original sin through the crucifixion of Christ is probably misnamed. Based on this definition, every Christian, in spite of all the good things they might do, are still partly responsible for America’s toppling into the chasm of a police state. They are all responsible for making parishioners chronically insecure and susceptible to strong-man leadership. They are all responsible for enabling Christian Nationalism and the myriad of abuses done at the hands of terrible church leaders.
So as much as I’d like to say this nicely, all Christians are bad for our society. Let me explain why.
Ailment 1: The Requirement to Believe Without Evidence
My friend Robb Smith has a saying:
“When it comes to Conspiracy Theories, all roads lead to Auschwitz.”
This sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not. I’ve been saying something similar for years: any belief system that requires you to believe without evidence WILL, eventually, be taken over by sociopaths who will ask its followers to commit atrocities.
We’re about to see a very clear example of this happening in the US.
Every religion (not just Christianity) has this self-condemning prerequisite: you must believe something without ample evidence. If a group does not do this, I would argue that group is not a religion.
Belief in Christianity requires a leap of faith. You have to jump across a chasm of ignorance, believing without evidence that there is an imaginary island on the other side.
This non-evidentiary path to “truth” is inextricably bound to every conceivable version of evidence. This has created a fatal flaw in the Christian American mentality and even the best of Christians not only possess it, but are responsible for it.
Christian tenets of faith (which change year over year) do not come from the Bible, they come from people. Usually men, and usually white men. This has set the stage for a certain type of creepy, smarmy authoritative voice to evolve over the decades. That voice has become an emotionally coded language for evangelical Christians. When they hear that code, it’s as if they fall under hypnosis and believe whatever is spoken.
This condition is a cancer on our society. It has allowed Right-Wing Extremists to hack into 30 - 40% of our population simply by issuing a few dog whistles and mimicking that sickening code. Not all Christians have been hacked, but 80% of White Evangelicals have. This embrace of “faith,” as if it were a virtue, is the line of source code that has left all Christians susceptible to being hacked. If you’re not a White Evangelical, you might fall prey to the next scam.
All of Christianity is guilty because they all adhere to tenets of faith that cannot be proven with evidence, and that is where the fatal flaw begins.
Ailment #2: Christianity’s Toxic Doctrine
Millions of Americans have been taught that they have “original sin” and are evil by nature. This idea resonates with normal human insecurities, so many follow the prescription and surrender to God in order to receive forgiveness. For a person to believe they have a “sin nature” is wrong and profoundly unhealthy. Sin is an imaginary construct, but natural human behaviors are not. By asserting that a person is ugly to their core robs them of a much more beautiful version of their life that they might have lived had they never met a Christian.
Additionally, implying that someone is doomed to sin creates a tendency to make unethical choices when they might not have without this condemnation put upon them. If you believe you are bad, you will do bad things.
Religions indoctrinate people with this toxic idea, year after year, to millions of people who were born innocent. For that reason, I say all Christian churches are part of the problem. Its doctrine is toxic.
Ailment #3: The Ambiguity of Your Scripture Allows All Manner of Evil to Lie Dormant
Violent extremism is on the rise for a number of reasons, and Christianity is apparently helpless to defend against it happening within its own ranks. I believe this is because of the ambiguity of its scripture, and for this reason, all versions of Christianity will always be a danger to society.
There might be a few splinters of Christianity who do not imbue any version of The Bible with any magical powers. Those splinters are extremely scant, so I apply this condemnation to all Christians. They adhere to a religion that is based on an amorphous scripture. The Bible can be used to justify loving one’s neighbor, or stoning a fornicator. On one page God desires mercy, and on another page he wants his chosen people to commit genocide.
This ambiguity allows religious people to dine on their faith cafeteria-style. Most often, religious people choose to apply the good or benign elements of scripture to their culture or religion. They blithely disregard the depiction of their God as a violent dictator who will send you to hell if you don’t pay him homage. This is why Christians take umbrage when people blame their religion on violence perpetrated in its name. Religious adherents who commit acts of violence, they claim, have lost sight of what defines their faith. They aren’t “true Christians.” But unfortunately, they are.
Christians have integrated themselves deeply into American society. Everyone assumes the faithful have peaceful intentions, until they don’t. Their scripture allows plenty of leeway to invoke violence, and many Christians will as soon as they believe it has become necessary.
Allowing Christianity to exist without criticism is similar to allowing a Country Club in your neighborhood that still has a “no Negroes” clause in its by-laws. Even though the Club might not enforce that by-law, it should not be allowed to remain.
Ailment #4: You participate in and contribute to a culture of unearned trust.
Certain roles in society garner automatic respect: doctors, lawyers, professors, state officials, scientists and clergy.
The automatic respect given to all of those professions is generally deserved. Their professions are backed by organizations that provide oversight and self-correcting measures. Those organizations will disbar bad lawyers, take away licenses to practice medicine, removed bad professors from tenure, or vote them out of office. The outputs of those professions can be measured both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Except the Clergy.
Their respect is illusory, and every Christian who attends church contributes to the illusion. They grant unearned trust to the person behind the podium, who claims to preach “truth” but is making assertions without ample evidence.
I’m going to be fair: many church leaders are fine people, who, even though they proffer gibbering delusion, might actually give people a warm sense of well-being. As John Lennon says, “Whatever gets you through the night.”
Christianity has no central governing body that consistently and justly ensures that pastors who molest children are permanently banished. They have no self-correcting measures to reliably, and without bias, makes sure Pastors aren’t preaching toxic political messages, or using their positions of power to unfairly manipulate people, or saying that climate change is a hoax, or that the election was stolen, etc. Every day, average Americans fall prey to pastors because they are given unearned respect. All Christians contribute to this.
While many churches might be completely innocuous love-fests and pot-luck dinners, each one is neatly arranged in a field that is well-traveled by humanity, and it is minefield.
Conclusion
Leaders in religious journalism should not be afraid of pointing out these ailments that afflict every type of Christian church. While its true that “high control” churches have a worse effect, all churches spread these ailments, and they make our society vulnerable to very real danger.
We’re about to see a very clear example of this happening in the US.
Every religion (not just Christianity) has this self-condemning prerequisite: you must believe something without ample evidence. If a group does not do this, I would argue that group is not a religion.
Belief in Christianity requires a leap of faith. You have to jump across a chasm of ignorance, believing without evidence that there is an imaginary island on the other side.
This non-evidentiary path to “truth” is inextricably bound to every conceivable version of evidence. This has created a fatal flaw in the Christian American mentality and even the best of Christians not only possess it, but are responsible for it.
Christian tenets of faith (which change year over year) do not come from the Bible, they come from people. Usually men, and usually white men. This has set the stage for a certain type of creepy, smarmy authoritative voice to evolve over the decades. That voice has become an emotionally coded language for evangelical Christians. When they hear that code, it’s as if they fall under hypnosis and believe whatever is spoken.
This condition is a cancer on our society. It has allowed Right-Wing Extremists to hack into 30 - 40% of our population simply by issuing a few dog whistles and mimicking that sickening code. Not all Christians have been hacked, but 80% of White Evangelicals have. This embrace of “faith,” as if it were a virtue, is the line of source code that has left all Christians susceptible to being hacked. If you’re not a White Evangelical, you might fall prey to the next scam.
All of Christianity is guilty because they all adhere to tenets of faith that cannot be proven with evidence, and that is where the fatal flaw begins.
Ailment #2: Christianity’s Toxic Doctrine
Millions of Americans have been taught that they have “original sin” and are evil by nature. This idea resonates with normal human insecurities, so many follow the prescription and surrender to God in order to receive forgiveness. For a person to believe they have a “sin nature” is wrong and profoundly unhealthy. Sin is an imaginary construct, but natural human behaviors are not. By asserting that a person is ugly to their core robs them of a much more beautiful version of their life that they might have lived had they never met a Christian.
Additionally, implying that someone is doomed to sin creates a tendency to make unethical choices when they might not have without this condemnation put upon them. If you believe you are bad, you will do bad things.
Religions indoctrinate people with this toxic idea, year after year, to millions of people who were born innocent. For that reason, I say all Christian churches are part of the problem. Its doctrine is toxic.
Ailment #3: The Ambiguity of Your Scripture Allows All Manner of Evil to Lie Dormant
Violent extremism is on the rise for a number of reasons, and Christianity is apparently helpless to defend against it happening within its own ranks. I believe this is because of the ambiguity of its scripture, and for this reason, all versions of Christianity will always be a danger to society.
There might be a few splinters of Christianity who do not imbue any version of The Bible with any magical powers. Those splinters are extremely scant, so I apply this condemnation to all Christians. They adhere to a religion that is based on an amorphous scripture. The Bible can be used to justify loving one’s neighbor, or stoning a fornicator. On one page God desires mercy, and on another page he wants his chosen people to commit genocide.
This ambiguity allows religious people to dine on their faith cafeteria-style. Most often, religious people choose to apply the good or benign elements of scripture to their culture or religion. They blithely disregard the depiction of their God as a violent dictator who will send you to hell if you don’t pay him homage. This is why Christians take umbrage when people blame their religion on violence perpetrated in its name. Religious adherents who commit acts of violence, they claim, have lost sight of what defines their faith. They aren’t “true Christians.” But unfortunately, they are.
Christians have integrated themselves deeply into American society. Everyone assumes the faithful have peaceful intentions, until they don’t. Their scripture allows plenty of leeway to invoke violence, and many Christians will as soon as they believe it has become necessary.
Allowing Christianity to exist without criticism is similar to allowing a Country Club in your neighborhood that still has a “no Negroes” clause in its by-laws. Even though the Club might not enforce that by-law, it should not be allowed to remain.
Ailment #4: You participate in and contribute to a culture of unearned trust.
Certain roles in society garner automatic respect: doctors, lawyers, professors, state officials, scientists and clergy.
The automatic respect given to all of those professions is generally deserved. Their professions are backed by organizations that provide oversight and self-correcting measures. Those organizations will disbar bad lawyers, take away licenses to practice medicine, removed bad professors from tenure, or vote them out of office. The outputs of those professions can be measured both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Except the Clergy.
Their respect is illusory, and every Christian who attends church contributes to the illusion. They grant unearned trust to the person behind the podium, who claims to preach “truth” but is making assertions without ample evidence.
I’m going to be fair: many church leaders are fine people, who, even though they proffer gibbering delusion, might actually give people a warm sense of well-being. As John Lennon says, “Whatever gets you through the night.”
Christianity has no central governing body that consistently and justly ensures that pastors who molest children are permanently banished. They have no self-correcting measures to reliably, and without bias, makes sure Pastors aren’t preaching toxic political messages, or using their positions of power to unfairly manipulate people, or saying that climate change is a hoax, or that the election was stolen, etc. Every day, average Americans fall prey to pastors because they are given unearned respect. All Christians contribute to this.
While many churches might be completely innocuous love-fests and pot-luck dinners, each one is neatly arranged in a field that is well-traveled by humanity, and it is minefield.
Conclusion
Leaders in religious journalism should not be afraid of pointing out these ailments that afflict every type of Christian church. While its true that “high control” churches have a worse effect, all churches spread these ailments, and they make our society vulnerable to very real danger.
James Aames is the author of the book How to Become a non-Christian: A guide to escaping the delusion and a Substack Blog.
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