What a polarizing question: “Is Christianity Worth Saving?” It immediately creates tension for many individuals who either rejoice in the obviousness of the question or see it as heretical. Of course it needs saving! And there’s nothing wrong with Christianity; how dare you ask such a question! are two very valid responses. 

Then there’s a third group of people who, like me, are in neither camp and feel a genuine desire to dig to the core of the question. Because when we hear is it worth saving, we want to answer does it need saving. We go right to the trenches in defense of a position. It’s easy to paint Christianity black and white, to ignore the good or the bad, and hold to convictions about an institution. 

But what if Christianity could transcend institutions. What if we could arrive at a place where the core truths of Christ’s message could shine from the depths of our souls and bring us in communion with the Divine, with Each Other? That is something special, certainly worth saving. 

The truth is that Christianity does need saving: salvation from prejudice, salvation from patriarchy and oppressiveness, salvation from the roots of colonialism and imperialism. Christianity requires a reformation. But is it worth saving? Can we sublimate the good in a way that transmutes the impurities into something beautiful and immortal? 

That is the question The Liturgists are tackling today. There doesn’t need to be a direct answer, simply an awareness of the tension this question brings and an honest appreciation of what true reformation entails. 

 

The Question With One Thousand Answers

Truthfully, the question is not a problem to be solved or a question that we can answer completely. Throughout the Liturgists’ experience, we keep asking the question, keep finding new avenues and iterations to explore. 

With each iteration, there is always a divergence of answers, with no one completely agreeing with each other and an inherent tension acting as the wellspring for creative action. The dissonance of so many voices coming together in glorious cacophony is one of The Liturgist community’s greatest assets.

But this dissonance also makes it difficult to agree on anything or organize the community. It’s far easier to raze a building to the ground than to raise a grounding structure from nothing. With this challenge in mind, The Liturgists will always remain open to everyone’s beliefs and include all individuals regardless of their positions or beliefs. 

The fact is, this question of whether Christianity is worth saving applies to everyone in the west, where Christianity has its roots so firmly entrenched. The catholic church and later iterations, essentially a continuation of the Roman Empire, are an institution over 2,400 years old. Everyone in America and the West frames their beliefs in Christian values and ontological truth. 

Whether you’re an atheist, a devout catholic, or have no freaking clue what you believe, Christianity underlies the framework for those beliefs. To understand this possibly radical proposition, let’s take a look at the roots of Christianity. 

 

Swastikas, Imperialism, and Divine Reformation

Admittedly, if you start any discussion with a talk about nazis or swastikas, the conversation is already over. But why is that? Going back through the symbol’s history, we see that the world loved the swastika until a genocidal regime corrupted it. It was a symbol of luck, well-being, and renewal for thousands of years across hundreds of cultures. Once the nazis used it as a brand for genocidal destruction, the symbol became permanently distorted into something quite the opposite. 

The point being, is it possible for something as compassionate and wholesome as the word of Christ to become corrupted to mean the opposite? Can the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, the “brand” of the cross, represent resentment and dissatisfaction?

With its foundations in the Roman Empire, with thousands of years of genocide, oppression, colonialism, imperialism, and slavery, the Christian Church is by no means operating from a clean slate. This question and the idea of reformation are not new at all.

Every 500 years, give or take, Christianity experiences a new reformation. From the First Council of Nicaea and Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation, there have always been individuals who found the church in need of a severe overhaul. Each time the question is asked, a zeitgeist occurs, expanding our awareness of what the church means and its function. 

In the modern era, this question is more relevant than ever. Christianity has been in remission for the last 20 years in America and massively declining in Europe, primarily due to dogmatic or oppressive beliefs and practices. What we see is that Christ’s core teachings carry through each reformation. At the same time, rigid culturo-political patterns are stripped away or redefined. 

Thus, the teachings of Christ about love, forgiveness, and compassion are the best-case scenario for Christians everywhere and something to strive towards in a true reformation. What Jesus Christ had to say about accepting everyone, loving everyone, and living through God as Christ Consciousness is exceptionally relevant to everyone and a formula to benefit all. 

 

Recapitulation

In discussing whether or not Christianity is worth saving, we see that the question’s motivation has to do with the Christian Church’s complicated history. Despite all of the bad, many good and legitimate practices come out of Christianity. Further, the entire west is shaped by Christianity, from politics to culture to the deepest levels of how we perceive reality. Thus it is not possible to get rid of Christianity. Even the most devout atheist still perceives the world in a Christio-Roman mental framework that’s been passed down for thousands of years. 

For many, the best-case scenario is to leave their Christian communities altogether due to a lack of openness and acceptance. They cannot find a home because of who they are. They choose to or are forced to leave. This experience of nonacceptance creates trauma, and the trauma of leaving the community magnifies that. Instead of compassion and love, individuals are met with contempt and shame. 

In these situations, it’s challenging to know where to go. Are we supposed to learn a new language, practice, community? That’s asking too much. Considering everything else that goes on in our lives, we are too busy and too deep to start over. Another issue for many Christians is that they lose runway as they grow in consciousness until they stagnate, giving up spiritual development in resignation. 

We see that much of Christianity’s basis: the community, practices, loving acceptance, are already in place and do a lot of good for the world and individuals in Christian communities. The limiting factors for those who leave are a lack of openness-acceptance and scarcity of practices that allow for continual spiritual growth towards living as Christ Consciousness. 

 

The Eternal Question: Four Reasons to Reform Christianity

What if we could do away with exclusion and xenophobia, extend the runway of spiritual growth for Christians while keeping Christianity’s core values and practices intact? It sounds nice to put it in words, but this is an arduous task to accomplish in practice. Is saving Christianity worth doing the difficult work? 

Yes! Here’s why. 

1. We Are Already Swimming in Christianity
   Christianity started with Jesus Christ. However, the institution of Christianity as the church began much earlier with the Roman Empire’s establishment. Categorically the Roman Empire expanded and dominated the entirety of the Mediterranean and most of Europe during their reign. Their success was a double-edged sword. In conquering other civilizations, tribes, and nomads, they systematically oppressed these peoples. Rome’s novelty was that they also integrated and accepted new cultures and peoples over time, giving them rights and including them under Roman (later Christian) rule. This pattern has continued unabated for over two thousand years, and we live in a predominantly Christian world. The surface-level politics of “religious” and “secular” have changed drastically. But our beliefs about the world, from marriage to education and elections, are framed in Christian terms and views. 
2. Christianity Has Many Valuable Practices
   There are many valuable practices from Christianity and the teachings of Christ that have been immortally passed down through generations. It’s not enough to simply demonize Christianity without recognizing what’s effective and valuable about it. In the same way, only focusing on the positive without recognizing limitations makes salvation impossible. True reformation involves including the good and restructuring limitations towards practices that benefit all. 
3. We Can Avoid The Trauma on Trauma of Having to Leave Christianity
   When we ask ourselves if Christianity is worth saving, it’s not for fun as an intellectual game of ping pong. It’s because the alternative to reformation: allowing the limitations of Christianity to continue, is no longer acceptable. It can be easier to ignore the issues of Christianity, bear with them, or get as far away as possible. But a true reformation would prevent any of this from being necessary. Keeping the community and culture of Christ while allowing acceptance and freedom for those involved is one step closer to a working reformation. 
4. The Groundwork is Already Laid Out
   The first three reasons are good enough not to ignore Christianity. But they are probably not enough to tip the scales for individuals. It’s a lot of work to recreate something from the ground up and frankly impossible to do so with an institution as ancient and permanent as Christianity. The biggest realization going into this process and asking this question is that there’s nothing new here.
   We are not alone. At all. Christianity has been asking this question for thousands of years. Every iteration gets us closer to the ideals that Christ taught to us. The final reason to reform, the edge that pushes us over from complacence to action, is the groundwork laid out for us by our ancestors. Christian traditions, rituals, and practices have survived for thousands of years. They continue through every iteration of reformation. 

Is Christianity Worth Saving? It is not a question. It is the torch we carry forward from our ancestors to our progeny. As we pass the torch, we keep the valuable and the immortal: the teachings and practices of Christ. With each pass, a bit of the oil and detritus burn away, limitations and handicaps purged in the fires of Christ’s Love, and the flame glows brighter. Opening and more expansive, illuminating the way, providing warmth and comfort to all. 

 

The Tree of Christianity

The Tree of Christianity is ancient, with numerous ecosystems living within and amongst it. Yes, there’s some poison ivy growing around, predatory birds, and rotten fruit. But it’s an ancient Tree with a massive trunk and deep roots.

There is remarkable life growing and breathing through the history of this Tree. A lot of pain has come from the Tree, and it has traumatized many people. But cutting it down is not a realistic or helpful solution. We live in this Tree. It is our home, our society, and our culture. 

While the state of the Tree, its deprivation, and disease seem hopeless, we can come together to rid the Tree of its thorniest branches and most poisonous roots. That is the effort that’s required. We must go all the way to the Tree’s roots to effectively reframe and reorient how it’s to grow. 

Imagine if this Tree, dark and scary and lurching as a shadow over our lives, could be tamed and transformed into something beautiful and open. Imagine if people didn’t have to experience more trauma and religious abuse if we didn’t have to learn new languages, myths, or symbols. Imagine a lens click on reality, reorganizing the roots of patriarchy and imperio-colonialism into tools for good. 

This is the Liturgists’ goal: not to rewrite Christianity but to strip it of its limitations and defragmentation into the unconditional Love of Christ Consciousness. A true and profound reformation. 

 

The Liturgists’ Commitment 

The goal of this season of The Liturgists Podcast is to spell out a realistic and repeatable plan for reformation. This goal will involve creating and curating spiritual technologies in the west to become more present without escape or dismissal. 

There’s no need for new stories, myths, or rigid practices. What we can offer are new technologies and tools updated to the current breadth and breath of consciousness. We will focus on Christian language to celebrate the totality of existence, creativity, sexuality, and uniqueness. 

At The Liturgists, we strive to embrace the orgasmic, loving bliss of This moment. Our commitment is reforming, synthesizing, curating, and creating technologies and tools to grow towards each other, not away from an-other.

What will this look like? We’re grateful you asked. We will discuss and spell out what reformation will entail throughout this season of The Liturgists, eventually spelling out an open letter to the world of our ideas, practices, and plans. 

To learn more, check out The Liturgists Community and listen to the podcast. We love seeing new faces 🙂