The teaching minister at our church recently asked me if I would be interested in forming somewhat of a “book club.” Since I love to read, I was all for it. We decided to choose a book each month, read it, then meet to discuss what we read and what we thought of it. Initially, I believe, it’s only the two of us, although others may join at some in future months.

We decided to start this month, and suggested several books. We ended up choosing one we’d both read a few years ago, but both wanted to read again: Lee Camp’s Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World. So, after starting the book this weekend, I thought I’d post a few initial quotes and thoughts.

Camp opens the first chapter discussing the Rwandan genocide of 1994, highlighting the fact that Rwanda was considered “‘the most Christian country in Africa’, with as much as 90 percent of the population claiming some Christian church affiliation.” He questions why the Rwandan church failed to be the church during this horrific time. Why, if 90% of the country is supposedly Christian, did over 800,000 people die at the hands of their neighbors?

He suggests that perhaps the Rwandans brand of Christianity – largely imported from the West – was made up of Christians, but not of disciples of Jesus. Camp writes:

When push came to shove, the Jesus who taught his disciples to “love their neighbor” was missing when young men were hacking old men, women and children to death, simply because these neighbors were of a different ethnic background. Numerous Christian martyrs of both Hutu and Tutsi ethnic identity died because of their resistance to the massacres. But that these faithful martyrs were a minority among the fold of Chrsitians has led critics to suggest that the “gospel” imported into Rwanda failed to ever challenge the ethnic identities of its “converts” – they “became Christian,” but many remained first and foremost either Hutu or Tutsi.

This is not a unique failure of Christians in the history of the church, as he points out. The church has often used the sword in our history. What about Jesus’ example and authority in our lives? Camp continues:

“Jesus is Lord” is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often sought to ally itself comfortably with allegiance to other authorities, be they political, economic, cultural or ethnic. Could it be that “Jesus is Lord” has become one of the most widespread Christian lies? Have Christians claimed the lordship of Jesus, but systematically set aside the call to obedience to this Lord? At least in Rwanda, with “Christian Hutus” slaughtering “Christian Tutsis” (and vice versa), “Christian” apparently served as a faith brand name – a “spirituality”, or a “religion” – but not a commitment to a common Lord.

Then, Camp asks the following:

We American Christians, are we any different? Do we have all the same cultural assumptions about Christianity that would allow us to shelve our discipleship, to compartmentalize our faith, so that we too could fall prey to such demonic forces? Do we have on the same blinders? We good American Christians, could we do the same thing?

Recently, on a “Christian” message board, there was a thread titled “Communism and Christianity.” I no longer recall exactly what all was being discussed, but there was a quote that stuck with me, largely because it seemed so glaringly un-Christlike (and, by the way, it was made by one who is actually in ministry himself.) Here it is:

I like my freedom and will fight to the death to keep it!

“It’s all about me, baby. I will kill to maintain my lifestyle” – with an exclamation point. You might expect things like this from the more extreme folks – perhaps your Phelps’, or maybe even your Robertsons or Falwells, considering some of their off-the-wall comments in the past – but coming from someone in ministry and a part of my own tradition of Churches of Christ, it was a little more troubling.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that it’s really that uncommon. Many of the Christians that frequent that board, and many other boards/blogs like it, would apparently wholeheartedly agree with his declaration. (Particularly if the “enemy” were Muslim.) And so the more things like this that I read, the more it seems to me that the answer to Camp’s question – “Could we do the same thing?” – very well may be “Yes, we could.” I always come back to a quote by Shane Claiborne, which I’ve used here before:

Our world is desperately in need of imagination, for we have spent so much creativity devising ways of destroying our enemies that some folks don’t even think it’s possible (much less practical) to love them. We have placed such idolatrous faith in our ability to protect ourselves that we call it more courageous to die killing than to die loving.

When it comes down to it, are we more willing to “die killing” then “die loving”? If we say we’re following Jesus, what does it really mean to truly follow Him? Is our allegiance fully to Him, or only when it’s convenient, only when it’s safe?

I am going to try to post regularly as I go through this book. That’s it for today, but hopefully I’ll post more later. And let me add one other thing, just to be clear: I’m asking those questions above of myself first.