The Dividing Line Between Christians and Assholes

I would like to think of Christians as a peaceable people, and Christianity as a humanitarian religion.

The spiritual tenet of loving one's neighbor as oneself is a humanist ideal.  In encounters with Christian authority figures, this tenet is quite frequently cited as evidence of Christianity's benevolence and gift to humanity.  Though the tenet is neither unique to Christianity nor invented by it (despite Christian attempts to assert precisely that), it is a truly benevolent thing, and I would be willing to reserve all judgement against Christians if they would abide by it.

Though the bible has many literal contradictions (Was Christ born in Nazareth, or Bethlehem?  Was he the biological child of Joseph, or not?), the contradictions of practice are another thing altogether.  I refer specifically to the following passage, John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Having lived in South Carolina, and grown up around fundamentalists, it is my displeasure to say that this sentence represents the absolute worst, least humanist aspect of all Christians in modern practice.  This is the passage that promotes intolerance towards other faiths and justifies the hegemony and superiority of Christians.  Again, I am talking about, in practice.  There is no reason that this literal passage, even in the context in which it is delivered, need be interpreted to mean what modern Christians and Christian fundamentalists have deigned it to mean.

Though my mother was a Christian, it was heartbreaking to hear these words spoken at her memorial service.  I won't go into details about the priest or church, but suffice to say that the attitude was exactly that of paranoia towards lackluster church attendance while promoting increasing intolerance (the church in question split from the Episcopalian ministry because of the institution's positive stance on gay marriage).

It was sad to watch.  As my wife said, churches should be ecstatic to have people in them.  They should say "come, we have cookies!"  Instead, church attendance is waning.  I find it somewhat amusing that of all the possible causes being evaluated, no one is looking at demographics or changes in public attitudes towards issues such as gay marriage.

Christians have a great potential to be the humanitarian religion that Jesus would have wanted.  In practice, however, it has fallen quite short of its ideals.  Perhaps someday its leadership will realize that in order to survive the 21st century, it must resolve its contradictions in a way that puts the needs of human beings over its own narrow dogma.