Yes, we have so-called Christians running around committing all sorts of evil and heartbreak. However, we have an interesting little concept in Christian scripture called the Anti-Christ. Perhaps someone along the line understood that people do not always behave as they ought so we have an anti-Christ to account for bad behavior. Some schools of thought think that the Anti-Christ will be a specific person in a specific time and place. As a member of a main-stream church, I suspect that the Anti-Christ has been with us since, at least, the time that Judas betrayed Jesus. People want following Jesus to be about something Jesus was never about, thus they create the Anti-Christ.
It seems as if things start out fine with people following the teachings of Jesus and feeding the poor and clothing the naked and bringing hope into the darkness of the human condition. Then, the Anti-Christ sneaks in and whispers something about power over others, or getting more money, or fame and off the person goes on a wild hunt to eliminate witches from the countryside. This person still says the same words as before, but they have wandered off after the Anti-Christ of judging others.
The whole concept of loving mercy, acting justly and walking humbly is hard and people don’t like hard things so they follow a path that allows them to judge and condemn. Being humble isn’t very rewarding either, especially with the braggart gets all the attention. Thus, the person who started out okay wanders off to follow the Anti-Christ of condemnation or fame.
That whole thing about Christians not believing or accepting science is false. The problem with accepting the Bible as a science or history book is that the reader misses the spiritual significance of the stories and accepts lies about history and science. Focusing on lies is bad, but the substitute of a form of magical thinking for reason is sorcery, thus people leave the pat of faith to follow the Anti-Christ of lies and sorcery. Not good.
Sadly, the church structure tends to reward the person who strives to get ahead. The pastor with the growing church gets a raise. When the congregation grows, the pastor gets promoted to senior pastor with a staff of clergy under him. She may get promoted to district superintendant and eventually a bishop. Meanwhile, the humble servant who’s small congregation cares for widows and orphans, feeds the hungry and shelters the grieving is overlooked in the church structure. The structure itself makes room for the Anti-Christ of pride and arrogance to take control.
Historically, the Christian church has been as much about the Anti-Christ as it has been about Christ. In the name of Christ they have gone to war. In the name of Christ the church has commit genocide of native peoples across entire continents. In the name of Christ the church has judged, condemned and killed.
However the Anti-Christ is not the Christ and following the Anti-Christ is not Christianity. Christianity is a quiet almost invisible system of actions that seeks to heal the sick, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and offer hope to the hopeless. When you see someone offering mercy instead of condemnation you might suspect they are Christian. If someone speaks out against the injustices of our society, they just might be a Christian, and if they go quietly about the business of serving those who have nothing to give back they just might be Christian. There is a vast difference between the followers of the Christ and the Anti-Christ if the observer is willing to set aside the rhetoric and look at behavior and what that behavior creates, they will find the difference.
Why is this theological distinction important? The answer is not a pretty one. History tells us that when Christians do stand up and call out the behavior of those who follow the Anti-Christ, the Christians are the ones who get killed first. When the rest of society gets fed up with the behavior of the followers of the Anti-Christ and finally decide to eliminate the scourge, they tend to get confused and kill those who feed the hungry, heal the sick, house the homeless and shun judging others. At this point, all considered, I’d like for those who get fed up with the followers of the Anti-Christ to be able to tell the difference between the two groups and abstain from killing the innocent.