Charleston: The Result of The Attack on Christianity

Already we are hearing sentiments that the attack in Charleston, South Carolina was not motivated by racism but was an attack on Christianity.  Sadly, there is a very real and threatening attack on the Christian way of life but it is not coming from outside sources.....the attack on Christianity is coming from within, it is a subtle attack that erodes at the foundation of everything for which Christ stood.  I'm embarrassed to say that it is an attack that even I myself at times have participated in, the attack of apathy. 

To deny that we still have a real and true issue with racism in our country is an attack on Christianity.  To make a murderous rampage about gun control vs gun rights is an attack on Christianity.  For Christians to fight harder and more vocally about political agendas and social stances rather than earnestly seeking to build and foster true and meaningful relationships with others is an attack on Christianity.  To place a higher priority on converting people rather than loving people is an attack on Christianity. 

For me one of the most troublesome aspects of this latest massacre in Charleston is the youthful age of he attacker. This was not an old man who lived in an old era of racism in this nation's past.  No this was a young man who was born more than a century after slavery and a generation after the civil rights era.  He was clean slate born at a time when we should be well past these issues, yet on that clean slate in this "enlightened" era the marks of racial hatred were made, so much so that he grew to hate complete strangers enough to murder them for no other reason than the color of their skin.  If we want to acknowledge an attack on Christianity then we need look no farther than this young man.  He embodies the attack in that his life of hatred was sculpted on our watch, under our noses.  While we were fighting to keep our guns, prevent certain people from being able to marry, and arguing over doctrine, a life of hate was growing in the midst of our so called religion of love.      

There will be those who will say, this wasn't about the gun but the person holding the gun, if that's you then fine, I'll give you that argument, but if that's the case then let's start addressing the issue, stop worrying so much about keeping the gun and let's start trying to reach hearts and lives.   People are literally dying because of hate and the failure to recognize that is the real attack on Christianity.