Reflections on the effect of media and culture on our faith

After Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 Norwegians on July 22 in Oslo, the media quickly labeled him a right-wing extremist. But Breivik himself claimed in various forums that he is a Christian, most explicitly and in greatest detail in the 1,500-page manifesto he compiled over several months and posted on the Internet.

According to Religion News Service, “Breivik fashions himself a ‘cultural Christian’ and a modern-day crusader in a resurrected order of the medieval Knights Templar, riding out to do battle against squishy ‘multiculturalism’ and the onslaught of ‘Islamization’—and to suffer the glory of Christian martyrdom in the process.”

Many commentators, particularly conservative ones, quickly distanced Breivik’s words and actions from true Christianity, even though some of his words reflect their own beliefs or statements they’ve made.

Others, such as Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero, pointed out that Breivik’s hate and terrorism is rooted “in Christian thought and Christian history, particularly the history of the medieval Crusades against Muslims.”

Throughout church history, Christians have fought over who is a true Christian and who is not. All of us cringe at times when people who call themselves Christian act in ways we find repulsive, whether those actions are deemed liberal or conservative.

Some simply forego using the name. Instead they call themselves “followers of Jesus.” But even that can be misleading, since who can claim to follow Jesus faithfully?

Biblical scholar Wes Howard-Brook in his book “Come Out, My People!”: God’s Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond (Orbis Books, 2010) writes: “The Bible does not present a single, unified perspective on what it means to be a ‘Jew’ or a ‘Christian.’ ”
Since those calling themselves Christian hold such varied, even contradictory beliefs and practices, does the term even have a clear meaning?

Perhaps Christians can sympathize with Muslims, who are often painted in broad strokes as terrorists. While only a tiny minority of people calling themselves Muslim engage in terrorist activities, many treat all Muslims with suspicion.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that some Muslims see most Christians as terrorists in their own right, bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan with their drones. We Christians can protest all we want, saying the U.S. military is not Christian, but it often falls on deaf ears, just as Muslim protests about generalizations against them also fall on deaf ears.

People take names seriously because they can affect how people respond to certain groups. A Lutheran congregation in Rockville, Md., changed its name in May 2010 from Crusader Lutheran Church to Living Faith Lutheran Church.

And Campus Crusade for Christ, a 60-year-old evangelical ministry, changed its name in July to Cru. A spokesperson said the word “campus” and “crusade” were the main problems in their title. I suspect it was mostly the word crusade.

Filling out the complexity and nuance of our identity, whether it’s Christian, Muslim or Mennonite, takes time and hard work. It also requires living up to what we want our name to mean. If we don’t act like followers of Jesus, we’ll have trouble convincing people what following Jesus means.

Perhaps we should focus less on our name and more on the God of mercy Jesus revealed.

Gordon Houser is associate editor of The Mennonite.