A CO-OPTED CHRISTIANITY

Is this unchanged to this day?

Icon, author unknown, the First Council of Nicaea with ten men and a text of the Nicean Creed in Greek. [1]

A recent meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation touched on the co-opting of Christianity by the Roman Empire.

The message delivered by Jesus, for which he dearly paid, was centered on love and its derivatives— the virtues of kindness, compassion, justice, mercy, peace, generosity, veracity, and so forth, which are humanity’s most endearing qualities.

Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4^th century and that event brought unsolicited gifts in the form of endorsement of and by the ruling aristocracy and powers of the time. That event brought with it the values and behaviors of the ruling parties— greed, the endless struggle to seize power and control, fear of neighbors and selfishness. The rationale for that behavior was perhaps the search for that fleeting sense of security that never was, never is, never will be if we fail to cooperate with each other.

That environment has ruled over us. The freshness of the early Christianity movement was enveloped in increasing bureaucracy and theology when it could have perhaps continued and/or increased its focus on the above-mentioned virtues for the benefit of mankind and creation.

How hopeful is our future when we witness, especially in the actions of politicians and oligarchs in power, who purportedly profess Christianity, a fetid display of our baser attributes?

We must resist the current regime daily. And we must concurrently turn away from its values. We must work daily to build communities based on love, compassion, justice, mercy, peace, generosity, veracity, collaboration, cooperation.

We can do this…what are we waiting for?

20250407

[1] This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright termis the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

https://email.cac.org/t/d-e-siuikjt-tlkrjkkrtk-a/