Holy Blasphemy

‘Stuart’ wrote asking me about something I’d said on my about page:
“I was reading your “about” page, and wondered how you came to the conclusion that if Jesus existed then God would love white people more than other
ethnic races?”

This unnerving assumption may sound like I’m just being wicked and picking fights. Not true! The problem of Jesus’ historicity excluding certain races and areas of the world through accidental historical developments is the main reason I gave up being Christian. It is an unresolvable dilemma. I spent years seeking the answer, in an attempt to save my faith. In the end, I chose a personal belief in a god that wouldn’t punish certain races to hell over a God who would – the Christian God.

Celsus said it first, and best. To paraphrase, ‘why send the son of god, salvation, to the Jews at one point in history, instead of making him easily accessible to all?’ Christianity started in Jerusalem and Alexandria before spreading to Rome. As it was incapable of coexisting with other religions, it soon wiped out all others. It came to the Americas via the European expansion. Specifically – the Christian idea that the world was made for Christians and that the Indians were wicked savages who would have to die before the ‘chosen race’ could inherit. (Just as the Jews first practices mass-extermination and genocide of the people that they found living in the land God promised them.) Millions of native Americans were also killed by the European viruses; the rest were easily slaved or converted to Christianity. Although much of America is now Christian, including S. America, that legacy is based on insidious, inglorious historical developments that are very ungodly.

Meanwhile, much of the world has never and continues not to be included in God’s plan of saving grace: does God hate the Chinese? They have absolutely never had the same opportunity to know and accept Jesus Christ. Access to him even today is through Westernized Chinese or Westerners, who have Western ideas and lifestyles. Jesus is a white male; a symbol of white culture. The Chinese who turn to him do so to the exclusion of their own culture and history – and it is a tiny fraction of the general population.

In other countries such as S. Korea, the introduction of Christianity has been successful. In the last 50 years, S. Korea has gone from having virtually no Christians to almost 50% or more. Is this country suddenly more deserving of heaven – unlike its ancestors? This increase is do to 20th century political maneuvering and warfare, which aligned S. Korea and the USA. Is this God’s plan? Does God love S. Korea more than Taiwan – which is also closely tied to the USA but in which Christianity has not taken as firm a root?

If Jesus is historical ‘and’ the true son of god – the fullest/best revelation of god and best/only path to Him, then it is problematic that through historical developments Christianity has taken hold in specific cultures. If Jesus is God’s plan to save – why did he only appear at that fixed geographic location – and why has God not seen fit to push the spread of Christianity? Is salvation just ‘luck’ ? Does God not care about Asia?

These are serious questions, which much be explained theologically before Christianity can be accepted.