Christianity as Establishment

Is it a blessing or a curse to be the accepted religion of a country?

Jesus, while on earth, claimed that His knowledge was limited. Some aspects of the future were only known to His heavenly Father. At times it looks as though He never thought the world would last long enough for the Christian religion to become the established one in any country.

It seems clear that Jesus would have sat uneasily with His followers becoming part of the establishment. He saw how some of the Jewish leaders behaved with their establishment status ... and He was not impressed. The showmanship, the hypocrisy, the politicking all galled Him. These ugly behaviours were totally alien to what He wanted to see in His disciples.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” He announced, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12 ESV).

Since the blessed day of Christ’s walking on earth, our Father God has shown centuries-long patience with the human race. It has persisted for 2000 years. During that time Christianity has spread dramatically – and with that spreading have come problems. These would hardly have been anticipated by the first generation of Christians, small, scattered and under pressure.

Later generations have had to handle the down side of being accepted as the establishment, and have not always done so well. Even if He did not know exactly what would happen after He left this earth, Jesus spoke truly when He exclaimed, 

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).

The rot began to set in when the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Christians in high places began to imitate the splendour of imperial pomp and majesty. As the Empire fell and Christianity took over as the only cohesive force in Europe, it turned into that ugly power bloc known as Christendom. From this stemmed the bloodbath of the Crusades and, at home, the domination of priestcraft over the minds of men and women.

Even the Reformation could not free Christianity from the taint of establishment. True, it rightly brought to the fore the spiritual side of faith, where the Kingdom of God grew soul by soul as the individual dedicated his or her life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. But it also set out the distasteful doctrine of “cuius regio, eius religio”, which meant that a person’s brand of Christianity was supposedly determined by where he or she came from. A “loyal” Englishman would belong to the Church of England, while a “loyal” Scot would be a Presbyterian. You might not actually be persecuted for having other Christian convictions, but you were viewed as somehow unpatriotic and a second-class citizen. Doors open to others might be closed to you.

Sadly, overtones of this culture still exist today. It shows up, for instance, in the chameleon-like position of the Royal Family – Anglicans while in England, Presbyterians as soon as they set foot in Scotland. What a travesty of our Saviour’s purposes for us!

As spiritual winter and long-term decline have set in to the churches of this country, most of the big old denominations, established or semi-established, have seen their position eroded. While not usually being militantly anti-religious, most people now reject what they call “organised religion”.

In a way, a loss for one church stream is a loss for all, because the enemies of Christianity seize on such things. Yet in some ways I view the new minority status of the Church without regret. Small, admittedly, is not always beautiful – but Christianity as Establishment has not been Christianity at its best.