Revisionist History (S14 Episode16)

Well, it is time to embark on a new series that will take us all the way to Easter. As part of our year in The Tensions, I want to take some time to explore the tensions we often feel with the Church and the history of our faith.

Those looking to cast stones at Christianity over the centuries have plenty of rocks to choose from: the Crusades, the Inquisition, Catholic vs Protestant wars, slavery, and sexism, to name but a few. Even today, the Church continues to be rocked by abuse of power and sex scandals, even as we come to terms with the Church’s role in residential schools here in Canada.

Is it possible to be Christian today without feeling a sense of shame? Has the Christian faith been good, or bad, for the world? For this series, I want to try out my best Malcolm Gladwell and do a little Revisionist History. I want to take us on a journey into the overlooked and misunderstood aspects of Christian history and how the cross has shaped our world, for good and ill. And so, into the good, the bad, and the ugly we go. My hope is that this series will be provocative, unsettling, challenging, but most importantly, full of hope!

For this Sunday, I want to start by examining Three Asinine Stories that Remade the World. These stories are familiar to many but have so radically altered the world we live in; it is sometimes easy to forget just how powerful they are. In fact, you may not even believe these stories to be true. Further, you might even think them silly, but what these stories spawned is now considered orthodoxy to the Western mind. So, off we go on what I promise will be a most fascinating journey!