The year was 1979. I was a young USAF airman stationed at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota. I was also a Christian. Late one morning I, along with some close Christian friends, had just left church. As I was riding along in the back seat of their well-used station-wagon, heading down a narrow street in a rundown subdivision, I noticed a few young men, late teens, or they could have been in their early 20's like me - they were in the middle of this narrow street throwing a football back and forth. As they saw us slowly approaching they moved to one side to let us pass. As we passed them one held up a hand, extended his middle finger, and from just a couple feet from the car, looking right at us with a very angry expression on his face, he very loudly yelled:
"FUCK CHRIST"!
There were seven of us in this station-wagon, Christians every one, from about age 17 to 50. I don't think any of us said anything to each other, but we all heard what he said, and I was very angry. I wanted to be let out and teach this fella a lesson, sort of a Jesus style beat-down. But I said nothing and just stewed as we slowly moved on down the narrow road.
So, how did this young man know we were Christians - and why was he so angry with our Jesus?
On the front and rear bumpers of the station-wagon were several Christian bumper-stickers. I remember there was a red and white sticker that was similar to or exactly like the one above. I distinctly remember that it had the word "Christ" on it.
So, this rather expressive young man obviously had a serious issue with Jesus Christ - so serious that this issue aroused a very angry and vulgar response from him, aimed directly at the followers of Jesus Christ.
I am going to go out on the proverbial limb here and make an assumption: His issue was not actually with Jesus Christ, but with Christians, or perhaps with a small group of local Christians, or perhaps just a single Christian . . . ? My guess is that, like the vast majority (all) of us humans, our ONLY experience with Jesus is through the followers of Jesus. Let me rephrase that: humans never actually experience Jesus, but we do experience other Christians who believe in Jesus. We experience their words, their writings, their attitudes, their actions, and often (quite often) those experiences are disappointing, unpleasant, disturbing, and downright frightening.
This angry young man had never experienced Jesus but it is almost guaranteed that he had, at some point in his life, experienced some "followers" of Jesus. It could have been a parent or another close relative, or it could have been a minister or Sunday School teacher. It could have been that he had observed numerous followers of Jesus display hypocrisy or cruelty directed toward him or he may have just observed it from a distance directed at another individual. I mean, we have all observed this brand of Christian behavior, up-close and / or personal. Some of us simply shrug it off, some move to a different church, some get angry and tell their Christian friends what they observed, and some eventually stop following Jesus altogether and leave Christianity.
What if this young man was sexually abused by a Christian? Would his reaction upon seeing a Jesus bumper-sticker be entirely justified?
Of course it would!
If he was molested or raped numerous times as a child by his Sunday School teacher, an important representative of Jesus in his life, wouldn't his vulgar reaction be entirely understandable?
Of course it would!
Knowing what I know now, about life, about Christianity, and about human behavior, if I could find this young man, who is now in his 60's, I would love to sit down over some beers and ask him to share his story with me. I would really like to know what happened to him so many years ago, to prompt his anger. Hell, he may even be a Christian now . . .
bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com
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