On several occasions over the last couple of years I have heard a phrase uttered by people either contemplating a conversion to Christianity, or flatly refusing one. The phrase goes something like:

Will becoming a Christian make me a good person?

I am sure that those of us who know Jesus and the difference he has made in our lives would offer a wholehearted "yes!" But never the less, when we come across questions or sentiments such as the one above I think we have to be honest and ask ourselves- where are these questions coming from? Clearly, for many, the above question is a rhetorical one.

Far too often I see Christians merely brushing off these kinds of concerns. Frequently we do this without so much as a thought towards what we might have done to encourage them. I think this denial of all culpability is, to some extent, an outgrowth from fundamentalism.

Our defiant isolationism has cut us off from the kind of meaningful and fruitful dialogue that could actually help to shed light on such matters. Many times we have allowed, and even encouraged this seperation and called it "defending the Faith" or "being in the world but not of it".

I think that any Christian, and any Christian community, that desires a truly missional approach to life needs to spend time and energy asking where certain "outsider beliefs" come from. Things do not dream themselves up for no reason whatsoever.

Not too long ago I heard a pastor preach a sermon in which he said, quite to the contrary, that we should just ignore the critical opinions of outsiders. That we should just chalk them up to a further expression of Jesus being hated by the world. In this instance, It's almost as if this pastor used a form of spiritual cursing to wipe the slate of any potential responsibility on his/our part. I think this is not only naïve, but also gravely misguided; and anything but missional.

That is not to say that the spiritual blindness of non-believers doesn't factor into the equation. I'm sure we've all come across people who seem almost innately opposed to the idea of God. And in those situations, no amount of reasoning, selfless love, or turning the other cheek, will make the difference. As Jesus said, some things only change by way of "prayer and fasting". However, once again, we cannot use this knowledge to whitewash all sense of culpability on our part. That might be convenient; but it is neither intellectually or spiritually honest.

So now that we've addressed the fact that we can't really pass the sentiment that becoming a Christian might not actually make me a better person off as mere spiritual resistance/blindness, what else could be at play?

While it may be true that when it comes to the 2000 year history of Christianity, that some people seem to (conveniently) only remember the Crusades and the Inquisition, it seems a stretch to assume that only selective memory is at work here. That might be the case for those people who are, in some sense, willing their own spiritual blindness. But what about the people who are truly seeking a spiritual life?

I have met many such people; people who desire spirituality for the right reasons. For the altuistic reason that it will make them a more loving person, a better neighbor, a more harmonious co-habitant of this beautiful gift of a planet. And for these people, Christianity seems like the opposition to this goal- not the means to it. I don't think we can deny the fact that the less than compelling witness of contemporary Christian living is a major factor in this unpleasant equation.

Rather than sit around and mope about this we could be a little more constructive and ask ourselves- "okay, so if the lives lived by Christians are a little less than compelling examples of virtous living- why is this?".

I'm sure the reasons behind this phenomena are many. But I think that what lies at the root of much of it is the dualistic sense of reality that many Christians - especially in the West - carry with them. In other words, much of this comes down to bad theology.

I recently read a study which found that, for those people who claimed "a personal relationship with Jesus", that concerns and actions in support of a healthy world in the here and now- seemed at times almost non-existant. Not less than they should be, but actually almost non-existant.

And on the flip side of the equation, for those who professed no belief in a "next world"; or at least no belief in a Christian worldview, concern and action for this planet and its inhabitants was strong and persisitant. This proved true almost across the board; in everything from environmentalism to social justice.

Many evangelical Christians today assume that "finding faith" means obtaining a ticket to immortality. I'm not referring to the kind of immortality that is an extension of our present lives (where Christ is already alive in us), but the kind that is a wiping clean of the slate of our current existence. When one considers the implications of this decidedly unbiblical position, its not surprising that it leads to the kind of mentality that says "why bother with this world when it's going to Hell in a hand basket anyway?"

Let me offer an example of this in practice. About a year and half ago I had the opportunity to, alongside two others, design a curriculum for a discipleship school within a large, Evangelical movement. This curriculum was to be utilized in several different countries as the basis for an international discipleship program. I lobbied for one of the sections of the curriculum to address environmental concerns (i.e. Creation Care- or whatever you prefer to call it). We did add that section to the program. When we released the curriculum for feedback from the various national participants, truth be told it was only the American participants in the program that came back saying "why would you include this in a discipleship school program?"(i.e. it doesn't belong here- and in fact, its not all that important at all). Where do such ideas come from if not from a dualistic sense of reality?

This dualistic thinking- where this world is effectively cut off from the next, is rooted in a Greek and Platonic worldview- not a Judeo-Christian one. For all our talk as Evangelicals of the importance of "being biblical", we have really missed the boat on this issue.

As the sons and daughters of Yahweh, believers in the inherent goodness of Creation (because of the very fact that it bears the mark of the Creator God) we should be the first to defend it, to protect it, to preserve it- to bring it into alignment with the values of the Kingdom; a Kingdom that is not only coming in the next world, but that has come already- in THIS WORLD. That would be an orthopraxy born out of good theology; the kind of theology that is good for us and everyone else. The kind of theology that can actually help to make us good people after all.