What does "Hurt By Religion" mean, Ron?

There is a well-known adage I have heard in more than one church that says this: “hurting people hurt people” - but here’s a news flash - sometimes people that aren’t hurting at that moment do a pretty darn good job of hurting people too. Christians are especially good at this. They can be prideful, thoughtless and arrogant, especially when they act as though they believe that their witness is in their “good living”. It’s part of our sinful nature. The minute we forget that Jesus is the standard and all our righteousness is as filthy rags when compared to that standard we start to become prideful and very much unlike Jesus. Our witness becomes more about how good we are then it is a message of hope and mercy for hurting folks. It sounds something like this: “Since I started living for God my life has just taken off. You just need to put all that garbage aside and clean up your act, then God will bless you too.” We point to a few proverbs and quote a few scriptures for them to validate our claim but the truth be told – we never even listened to them. We never heard their hurt and were so busy telling them about our successes we missed it when they realized they could never be “good like us” and turned away feeling more hopeless than ever.

Their witness shows that these believers forgot that when Jesus spoke the truth to hurting sinners He was "gentle and lowly in spirit" – never did he say “live like me and God will bless you” – He said – go and sin no more (good advice for all of us, to be sure).

Almost every time He was really angry He was dealing with the arrogance of the religious establishment. Are most in the Church today like that? Does religious pride make us righteously indignant and angry while finding some poor person who is caught in their lies and addictions causes us to react with love and mercy? According to the Bible - that’s the heart of Jesus. It is certainly not the heart of many of our churches and many believers out there. Sometimes the fact that we aren’t hurting (at that moment) can be our greatest obstacle to loving like Jesus and can inadvertently turn us in to pompous twits. You know, thinking about it – I don’t think anyone was hurt by religion more than Jesus…
            In almost twenty-five years of being Christians together, Rebecca and I have only attended 3 different Churches, and we changed communities each time, so we are far from Church hoppers. In fact – In each of those churches we were heavily involved. Rebecca has a gift for working with children and I was either leading or on the worship teams as well as serving in other areas of ministry. As a musician I have ministered in hundreds of churches, camps and conference centers across many denominations. I say this, not to brag about our Christian service (although it is probably more than yours). J I say that so that when I tell you what I have to say next you don’t think we are a couple of those folks who are just pessimistic about the Church and hate organized religion in general. I have met many wonderful people in churches on my walk with Jesus and the majority of my best friends are Christians but I also love my devout atheist buddy, several buddies who have left the Catholic church with a fairly skewed view of religion – and heck – I even love my gay buddies who try to use the Bible to say gay is OK. I love them because Jesus does. I don’t condone their sin, but I don’t make it out to be any worse than mine (or yours). When I feel I’m doing “well” I can always read about how Jesus lived and that always brings the swelling in my head down (if Rebecca doesn’t get there first).
            The reason I started this blog and called it Hurt By Religion is simple – I have been hurt (as can happen whenever we love humans) and also have hurt people in and out of the Church. I have hurt people when I was happy and when I was miserable. I have hurt people when I was doing “well” and when I wasn’t. I’ve decided I want to change that adage to read this; “People hurt people”. I think that is just more accurate.
            Understand this as well - Hurt by Religion is not here to take people out of Churches (although I am a big believer in the small church / home church movement – but I won’t get in to that here as that will be the subject of an upcoming series of posts). Our goal is to help believers come to truly understand the liberty that should be defined by the lives of those who are in Christ and to help some understand that their value and worth is determined by JESUS – not their thoughts or words or deeds or how they are “doing” at any one snapshot moment in their Christian walk.
            It is FINISHED. Just understanding all the ramifications of that one scripture has the power to transform your life and the life of your church. It can allow us to move toward being believers who walk with Jesus in the most liberated way possible. A place where we do what we want - but more and more, what we want begins to line up with the way Jesus lived. He lived with a full understanding of how much God loved Him every moment and said we could live like that too. Isn’t that awesome?

This begins when I understand that I am valuable because HE says I am. This is the Spirit-given, life-changing love that by it's very nature causes people to be more like Christ instead of falling into the trap of what I call “stare and compare” Christianity where we all stare at the people who we think are the “good Christians” and compare our lives to them, feeling we could never be that “good”. Stare into the face of Jesus – see your lack – see His love – healing and freedom like you’ve never known will follow.

            Hurt by religion exists simply to help people come out of that old life of bondage to religion and into a new wineskin where we seek to know Jesus in His word and in our prayer lives because we want to - not because we need to in order to please God. If you are His, He is always closer than a brother! Remember – leaving after Church Sunday morning should be pleasant because you are filled with the Spirit of God and the love, grace and peace of God in you – not because the guilt-inducing sermon is finally over! He lives in me and says I am valuable - so valuable, in fact, that I can’t sin without Him reminding me that’s not really who I am. I’m so valuable, that he was willing to shed the blood of His own Son to bury that sin and make it as though it had never happened. If that doesn’t stir you up – then check your pulse! Hurt by Religion? Me too. Jesus can handle that. Remembering who HE says YOU are (HIS) may be the first step to healing!

…and you shall know the truth – and the truth shall set you FREE!