Christianity’s complex history shapes debate

The question of whether Anders Behring Breivik should be called a Christian terrorist presupposes that he is a Christian. And Christians are not of one mind about that presupposition, about the content of his faith.

One fundamentalist Christian said that just because Breivik saw himself as a Christian doesn’t mean that he was a Christian.

“A true Christian would not go and...shoot people in a camp or blow up buildings,” said Larry Keffer, head of Biblical Research Center. “That’s not what a Christian does. So just because a man claims to be a Christian, or even believes that he is a Christian, does not necessarily make him so.”

Keffer added, “The Bible says that ‘you know them by their fruit.’”

For other Christians, the fact that Breivik was baptized at age 15 in a Protestant church means he was a Christian. They say in theological shorthand, “Once saved, always saved.” Since only Christians are saved, then he was a Christian, albeit a misguided one.

Seeing in horror what Breivik did, some Christians defend faith and condemn Breivik.

They contend that Christianity is without flaws. The problem is that human beings are sinners.

Still other Christians read his ramblings and conclude that he was a cultural Christian. “On Faith” panelist Mathew Schmalz made this point.

“If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian,” wrote Breivik, who loathed immigrants, Muslims, Marxists and multiculturalism. “Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian....European Christendom and the cross will be the symbol in which every cultural conservative can unite under in our common defense.”

The very question about what it means to be a Christian splits apart Christians.

What should not be in question is the reality that Christians have engaged in acts of evil, caused injustice, used faith to validate violence. Christians have a lethal history--sometimes with the blessing of preachers and sometimes with Bible in hand.

From history, we know white Baptist churches in the south blessed the Ku Klux Klan, which used the cross as one of its symbols. We know that Lutheran clergy in Germany allowed Nazi flags to be draped across church altars and theologians promoted the Nazi ideology. We know that some American soldiers painted “New Testament” on a tank barrel in Iraq, and that Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin saw the Iraq war as Christianity against Islam--good versus evil.

Debating the nature or quality of Breivik’s Christian credentials absolves Christians neither of their history of extremism nor the future temptation to see self-righteously their cause as God’s cause.

Robert Parham  | Jul 29, 2011 9:14 AM