First off, if anyone has turned away from religion or the church, I completely understand why. The level of corruption and the distance from what Jesus Christ actually taught is hard to ignore. If Christianity had remained what its originator proposed; peaceful, loving, and grounded in compassion, most people would either still be part of it or, at the very least, coexist with it without protest.
But that’s not what we’re seeing. Instead, there have been so many toxic and distorted shifts away from those original teachings that people aren’t just rejecting the religion, they’re struggling to even coexist with those who practice a version of Christianity that openly contradicts Jesus’ message. We’re now at a point where violence, hatred, racism, and even war are not just present, but often justified or endorsed within what passes for mainstream Christianity today.
At its core, it feels like everyone is following a personalized version of the faith, rather than adhering to the most basic teachings that leave little room for interpretation. The irony is that some of the most vocal Christians twist the very words they claim to live by, reshaping them to justify their own hostility and aggression. And they do this while still calling Jesus the “Prince of Peace” and criticizing other religions, like Islam, for being violent or militaristic.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t condemn another religion and its founder as violent while simultaneously claiming Christianity is a religion of peace, if your version of it allows for hatred and violence whenever you deem it “necessary.”
The portrayal of Jesus as a pacifist is often treated as tradition, but many modern Christians don’t actually seem to believe it. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly common to see him reimagined as a kind of warrior figure, something closer to a character out of Game of Thrones than a teacher of radical compassion.
If that’s the direction people want to go, then fine, but let’s at least be honest about it. The labels “Prince of Peace” and “pacifist” shouldn’t be casually assigned to Jesus if those claiming them don’t genuinely believe he stood for peace.
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