“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
–Romans 5:6
Karl Marx’s famous line, “Religion is the opiate of the masses,” is still a common view for many people today. They scoff at Christianity as a crutch for the weak and believe that people who cannot think for themselves go to church every Sunday to have someone think for them.
Here’s what I think…
It’s true, Christianity is a necessary and timely crutch. Now before you rub your eyes to see if you’re reading that right, let me explain.
We are all broken people. We are all weak and floundering and in need of Jesus to lean on, to trust in, to follow. All of us are also seeking to be among a community of people who can buoy us up, who have the same challenges and weaknesses we do, and who are searching out a meaning higher and more worthy than ourselves. That is true for EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. US. It’s just that some of us have figured it out, while others continue to meander from one vice to another. While some of us have found solace in God, others think they have found it at the bottom of a bottle.
So while I don’t necessarily find the “crutch” analogy offensive, I find the implication behind it inaccurate.
Most people do not become Christian out of a desire for bliss through ignorance. It’s not a crutch for those seeking mindless information. I would argue you can simply turn on the T.V., go to the movies, or visit social media for that.
Rather, Christianity, in its truest form, is for the devoutly curious and deeply studious. If you look, it won’t be too hard to find Christianity full of deep thinkers. You have, of course the apostles in the New Testament, but we also have contemporary writers like C.S. Lewis, Timothy Keller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and AW Tozer, to name just a few, who have spent much of their lives in serious study of God and Christianity as a whole.
So… although we need a “crutch” in this life… God does not want mindless believers. He does not want you to check your brain at the door. He wants you to read, contemplate, pray, and research so that you may know Him on a deeper level. And there is nothing weak about that.
