What are stumbling blocks for the blind?

My blog takes its title from Leviticus 19:14, which says, "Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord." (NIV) I've always thought this was a pretty strange verse; who would do that? A jerk, I guess. Someone who picks on the defenseless, I guess. Someone who doesn't fear the Lord, we can infer from the verse. Someone who doesn't realize what the Lord might do to avenge them. Keep that verse in mind.

Come with me to 2 Corinthians 4:4. "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." The god of this age refers to the devil, and the verse says that he's blinded those who don't believe, so they can't properly understand the gospel and come to Christ. Non-Christians are blind people, spiritually.

And unfortunately, I believe we as evangelicals, who generally are the most concerned with sharing the glory of Christ with others, have become stumbling blocks to blind non-Christians. For a whole lot of reasons, people see us as the most visible, obvious Christians, and say, "I don't want any part in that." It's not because they love sin so much or are such horrible people, it's because we've attached so many cultural things to Christianity that have nothing to do with the call of Christ, and some of those things are bad.

Join me for an imaginative exercise - suppose you're a lost person, you've gotten the impression that there's more to this world than the physical, but you don't know which religion, if any, is the right one. You really like one religious teacher who lived a long time ago, we'll call him "Chresus Jist", but when you visit a church to learn more about Chresus, you receive a flyer about the need for universal healthcare from the greeter, there's an introductory skit about how abortion gave someone a chance to finish college, and the sermon is about how Chresus supported unions and was a vegetarian, neither of which you had seen any evidence for when you read his book. Really, try to imagine it. Would you feel like you "chose correctly" in that situation? Or would you go back out and say, either, that you need to do more research into other religions, or that you're not into "organized" religion, even though you believe in God?

If you're thinking "Good thing I believe in Jesus, and not this Chresus guy!" you're missing my point. We've given Jesus a lot of baggage that isn't his, and whether those other things are right or wrong (and some of them are wrong!), they're stumbling blocks to people who would otherwise find Jesus. And if Jesus is really our Lord, that ought to grieve us immensely.

Young people are leaving our evangelical churches in droves, and where many in the past would join later in life, that trend is drawing to a close as well. The reason isn't that people are different than they used to be; it's not that Jesus is changed; it's that we've attached things to Christianity that are really our own personal preferences. And because it's gone on for so long, evangelicalism has become so homogenous that most of us can't even see the problem, but we can see how ridiculous the Chresus Jist example is. (Maybe it is a bit over the top, but I visited a church once where the sermon opened with a joke about what a constant liar Obama is, and numerous times I've heard things in church about big government spending, with the accepted implication being that we should vote republican (as if the Republicans aren't big spenders) . My example is probably a lot for one service, but it's not disconnected from reality.)

We need to step back from all these things that most evangelicals agree on, but aren't taught in the Bible. We need to pry those things apart from our religious beliefs, and that MAY require letting go of one or the other. If it does, let's make sure it's Jesus that we hold on to, not anything else.

Full disclosure: Personally, I'm pro-life, notice that Jesus cared for the sick without charging, go back and forth on unions, and believe vegetarianism is probably a better way to live, but I haven't been able to find any plants made of meat.