Christianity, the Church, and Witchcraft

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how I am a Christian: one who believes that Jesus is King. Yet, at the same time, I am forced to grapple with the real deep grievances of the Church-- those mentioned in A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult and the many untouched simply because they are not relevant to the content. How can I maintain my belief in the Lordship of Jesus while simultaneously reading about the gross abuses of power and corruption of the Church? How can I reconcile the character of Christ's Kingdom with the stains of Christ's Church? How am I supposed to respond to the fair and just criticisms of how the Church manipulated its positions and authority to preserve itself?

I must begin with lament. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Body of Christ-- has been a vessel for destruction, death, and persecution rather than life, unity, and flourishing. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Bride of Christ-- has prostituted itself to the gods of power, status, money, and security. I lament the ways in which the Church was the entity to prey on women as being the conduits of witchcraft, instead of being the light to affirm and proclaim the dignity and value of women. I lament the ways in which the Church distorted and cherry-picked the Scriptures to justify its own biases and dispositions, instead of being shaped and conformed to the truths breathed out by our Creator. I lament the ways in which the Church has damaged the witness of the Kingdom of God, instead of being the means for which God was going to reveal the praiseworthy character of His Son to the world.

All too often, modern day Christians look back on the history of the Church and express sadness and condemnation for its grievance injustices. However, that sentiment oftentimes stops there-- as a sentiment. We think we are able to look back on the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and transatlantic slavery and check the box of distancing ourselves from those gross memories of the Church by simply decrying what happened. Don't get me wrong-- public denouncement and condemnation for the Church's grievances is called for and necessary. Yet, at the same time, I don't think that many of us are truly aware of the reality of the Church's grievances. By that statement, I mean that many of those grievances rest in our brains as "history," something that we study in a textbook. Without dismissing the importance of studying history, what I'm trying to convey is how I am unsettled by the fact that we tell ourselves that we "understand" what happened in history by reading about it and then simply move on. In other words, I don't think we grasp the real weight that these events, these injustices, these decrees, these movements, these actions all happened to real people in real time in real space in our real world. We cannot just check the box of condemning past actions and then try to move on.

What can we do, then? What ought the Church be doing today in light of its stained past? Now, the following thoughts are just that: thoughts. They aren't gospel nor tested and true theology. They are simply my hypotheses on how the Church could better posture itself in light of its stained and blemished past.

To start, lament must be sincere and true. We cannot shrug off the past of the Church, theologically because we are all one body and practically because we are suspect to the same temptations and errors of the Church, just in a different context. The modern-day Church must do a better job of sitting with the shame and stain of the Church's previous (and current) grievances. Doing so will not damage the witness of the Church to the watching world but will actually strengthen it. We must not try to shirk the responsibility of owning up to the deep, grave, serious sins of the Church.

We also must learn from the past, and I'm not just meaning the past 1,000 years. Since the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, God's people have always been prone to wander, prone to chase idols, prone to walk in ways dishonoring to the Lord. The same can be said of the Medieval Church... and the Church today. The Church must have a deep familiarity with and understanding of its own proclivity to sin or else we will keep multiplying the sins of the past.

Finally, the Church must return to her True Husband, to her True Shepherd, to her True King. Easier said than done, involving grey just as black and white, the Church must be a people who cleave to Jesus, not vain attempts at power or status or money. Might we be faithful in our interpretation of Scripture, quick to accept rebuke, gentle in our disagreements, and sincere in our devotion to our Lord.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.