第44节：SUMMER夏(13)

　　Why? You may ask: Why is Christianity diminishing in this used-to-be
Christian country? The dissolution of the traditional two-parent American
family? The media effect that led youth toward adulthood? Or the personal
computer, the internet, the Facebook? (Babcock 51-52)

　　It is true that after the Civil War, the idea of an American nation,
an American people, an American destiny began to coalesce. But that is
not the main reason; the main reason is the changing of Politics.

　　Politics prospered and prospers religions, and it also diminishes
them, or oppresses them. And politics does both —prosper Christianity
and diminish Christianity — different actions from different time, Jews
held distrust and often hatred for the Roman Empire. Although they were
supposed to be under the authority of the Jewish court system, yet all
ruling for the death penalty had to be sent to the Roman government (no
author 1).The political system oppressed the Jewish people, and it, not
some pro-Christianity system, prospered the development of Christianity.

　　And we can look at the political system at the time when the first
Americans came over. Britain was persecuting them so much. It was like
the Roman time in which Christianity prospered—religion needs oppressed
people. Jesus never joined any political parties, and he called for people
to live a “counter cultural” life. At that time, it was against the
authority, against the government, because people didn’t have freedom;
Christianity was actually giving people hope for freedom. Politics in
progress is deep within Christianity. We know that Americans’ political
lives are better than the lives of those who came before us. The thriving
of Christianity back to Roman time suggests that there were oppressed
people who needed compassion. The lives of Jewish people were harsh. By
contemporary view, what Jesus did was against the authority and government.
The key to understanding why Christianity thrived at a time when people
were oppressed—Jewish oppressed by Romans—is that they did not have
freedom, and they desired it. In the race between wanting and can not
having, their desire increased—and, in this way, Christianity, which
tells people to live a“countercultural ” life, to be saved, to have
hope for heaven, thrived. Christians back in that time were materially
poor by contemporary standards, but in at least one dimension —faith
—we have to count them rich. “In ancient pagan society there was little
concern for the victims of violence and injustice. There was no reason
why Zeus or Jupiter should feel sorry for slaves or other victims of misfortune.
Christianity, on the other hand, told of a God who cared deeply about
his children” (Lewy 9). I do not raise this issue to imply that Americans
now should be oppressed, nor am I arguing that the progress of the political
system has made Christianity worse off. I am, instead, making a much simpler
point. We have paid a price for democracy.

　　　　　　　　　　　　

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