Actual Christianity

Loving Your Neighbor Was Never Optional  Or Selective

The belief that Christianity represents the sole path to spiritual truth does not reflect humility or devotion. It reflects the ego’s oldest and most persistent impulse: to elevate one’s own tribe above everyone else. And it stands in direct contradiction to what Jesus actually taught.

Jesus was consistent and unambiguous on this point. He emphasized the unity of all humanity as children of one Creator. He instructed his followers to celebrate what binds people together rather than fixate on the distinctions that justify separation. Claiming that his teachings are inherently superior to other spiritual traditions — particularly when those traditions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, embody the same core principles of compassion, humility, ego dissolution, and unity — reveals not spiritual maturity but tribal thinking dressed in religious language.

The implications of this are uncomfortable for many Christians, but they are unavoidable: someone who lives earnestly by the principles Jesus taught — forgiveness, selflessness, love of neighbor, release of judgment — regardless of their religious affiliation, may be far closer to genuine spiritual awakening than a self-identified Christian whose daily life contradicts those teachings at every turn. The Kingdom of God was never gated by denominational membership. Jesus said nothing of the sort, and building a theology around that premise requires ignoring most of what he actually said.

Christian Nationalism represents the most institutionalized and politically dangerous expression of this failure. At its core, it is a declaration of tribal superiority — not only religious but national, fused with hyper nationalism that embeds itself deeply in personal identity and ego. The movement prioritizes conformity to cultural and political symbols over the actual embodiment of Christ’s teachings, marginalizes non-Christians as outsiders or threats, and mistakes allegiance to a tribe for genuine faith. The moment anyone adopts language asserting their group’s superiority over others, they have already violated one of Jesus’ clearest instructions: do not judge. The implicit belief that other nationalities or religions are inferior is judgment, whether consciously recognized as such or not.

History is unsparing on where this trajectory leads. The Crusades, genocide carried out under Christian banners, centuries of violence justified by the conviction that one group held divine mandate over others — these are not aberrations. They are the predictable endpoint of tribal thinking operating without spiritual restraint. That such destruction was carried out in the name of a man who taught radical inclusion and the dissolution of division is not just ironic. It is a precise measure of how far his followers have strayed.

This distortion appears in subtler forms too. In modern sermons across countless churches, the implicit — and sometimes explicit — message is that Christians are inherently better than others, regardless of those others’ actual beliefs, character, or spiritual practice. Agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus: all are cast as lesser, lost, or condemned. Pastor Doug Wilson made the logic explicit when he stated that we should not want neighbors who are unlike us — a position so nakedly contrary to Jesus’ teachings that even a child could identify the contradiction. That such views attract large followings reveals how thoroughly the authority of the pulpit has been confused with mastery of the teachings being preached. They are not the same thing.

“Love thy neighbor” was never a conditional instruction. It was never limited to people who share your culture, your politics, your nationality, or your theology. It extends precisely to those who are unlike you — because that is where the ego resists most strongly, and that is where the teaching becomes most necessary.

A genuine practice of what Jesus taught never places the self above others. It never declares victory over other spiritual paths. It never mistakes the cross around the neck for the transformation within the person. It simply does the harder, quieter, more demanding work of seeing every human being as a member of the same family — and acting accordingly, without exception.

That is what Jesus taught. Everything else is ego with a scripture verse attached. Among other toxic and unproductive thoughts in mainstream Christianity, There’s also:

Among other toxic and unproductive thoughts in mainstream Christianity, There’s also:

• Since Jesus already died for my sins I can do all the sinning I want and I do not need to take any steps on my own spiritual journey, for self development and growth. Contrary to this rampant cancerous idea in Christianity, you need to actually take the necessary steps to shift and change your life, your mind, your thoughts and habits. The idea that ‘Jesus did all the work for me already’ is patently false and misleading and leads to spiritual laziness.
• “I accepted Jesus as my savior, thus I am born again an enlightened being on earth, all my spiritual work is done” – Another form of bare minimum spirituality, where no actual changes or steps towards spiritual growth and introspection are ever taken

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