Isn't Christianity a crutch for weak people?
A woman at the University of California in Northridge challenged me: "Jesus is just a psychological crutch to help you deal with ignorance and fear.Because you are weak and scared, you have constructed a father figure in the sky to give you security. I don't need your crutch."
This attitude toward religion and Christianity in particular is very common in our modern world. It is assumed that if something meets too many of our needs, then it must be suspect; it is thought to most likely be a psychological defense mechanism. There are several responses to this line of reasoning.
The first is that I recognize that too many people have used Jesus Christ as a crutch. Jesus is sometimes used as a Rolaids tablet to settle an upset stomach caused by the fear of death. But Jesus Christ is not merely a sedative to give us peace and to ease our anxiety. Rather, Jesus Christ calls us to a radically new lifestyle.
Jesus challenges his followers to live lives committed to love, committed to justice. Becoming a Christian is not a supplement to our old lifestyles.Jesus calls his followers to have the courage to stand for truth and against lies and half truths, to stand for the dignity and sanctity of human life and to fight the dehumanization we see happening around us.
At the same time, we should recognize that we all use some crutch to prop up our lives. It could be the prop of materialism, living to amass wealth.It could be the prop of hedonism, living to stimulate our nerve endings.It might be the prop of narcissism, living for ourselves. It might be the prop of careerism, living for personal achievement. It might be the prop of personal happiness, living for self fulfillment. Crutches help us to escape what we feel, to reduce the pain of emptiness at the core of our lives.
Jesus Christ comes and knocks those crutches away and challenges us to live for something bigger than ourselves. He challenges us to live to serve God and to serve a suffering humanity. To reject Christ and to buy into one of the crutches that our culture offers is to escape the challenge of life.Christianity doesn't allow us to hide behind crutches. Christ forces us to face life squarely and realistically.
Second, seeing Jesus Christ as a psychological crutch distorts the issue.The question of Jesus Christ is not a psychological question. It is a historical question. Jesus really lived, taught, died and rose from the dead two thousand years ago. It has very little to do with how well Jesus meets my needs.The evidence for Jesus is based on history. The historical evidence is that Jesus lived a perfect life and taught others to imitate his lifestyle; the evidence is that he bled and died on the cross; the historical evidence is that three days after he died he rose from the dead. Now the real question we must answer is, "Is this Jesus really the truth as he claimed to be?"
Third, while some claim that Jesus is a father figure in the sky that we project to meet our psychological needs, the psychological argument is circular.I could just as easily say that the reason people reject Jesus is because they have psychological hang-ups that prevent them from being able to trust a father figure. Just because God meets certain needs in us is no reason to reject him. In fact, it would be strange if he didn't fulfill certain needs we have. But again this is not the issue. We are confronted with the historical Jesus Christ who claims to be the infinite, eternal God penetrating human history two thousand years ago. Is he the truth or is he a liar?
The last thing I want to talk about is the true nature of sicknesses and cures. When I was on the basketball team in college, several of my team mates suffered knee injuries. Their legs were put in casts. They were given crutches to walk with. Since they were dependent on their crutches, does that mean I should have kicked the crutches from under them? As human beings we all have real needs. We have known guilt, loneliness and fear, and have experienced emptiness, sorrow and depression. Trying to escape them seems impossible.Regardless of how many sophisticated games we play to ignore it, we all face the finality of death.
To reject a cure because it is a cure seems silly. The exciting news is that Jesus Christ meets us in the midst of our very real needs. Jesus promises to forgive us and to wipe away the guilt that plagues us. Jesus Christ calls us into a relationship with the living God that will meet our deepest need for unconditional love. Jesus Christ knows our struggles, our fears and wants toreplace them with peace and joy. We should only reject acure if it is a false one, especially one that makes our condition even worse. But Jesus is the true cure to our real ailments. He only asks us that we try his medicine and see if it works.
You and I have real needs and hurts in life. It does no good to cover up these hurts and needs. That is escapism. Jesus Christ challenges us to face reality, and Jesus Christ promises to go with us through reality if we will invite him into our lives. The question today is, Are we willing to invite the living Lord Jesus Christ to go with us through life, through death and out the other side to eternity?
Suggested Reading
- Michael Green. Running from Reality. DawnersGrove, lnterVarsity Press, 1983.
- C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. NewYork: Macmillan, 1981.
