The Ineffectiveness of Religion.

I understand it a natural response to of the religious to feel attacked when the religious systems that people have invested their energy and lives in is rejected by the "unchurched infidels" and the "dechurched hypocrites." It seems that the natural reaction of the self-claimed godly people is to fight back in an arrogant, judgmental and a condemning way.But is this the Jesus way? This ungodly response is the reason that the vast majority of the unchurched and the dechurched view religious people as arrogant, judgmental and condescending.

I wonder, how many unchurched or dechurched people do they know (I mean know intimately)? How much time have they spent listening to and conversing with unchurched and dechurched? How many unchurched or dechurched people are their friends? Do they love the unchurched and the dechurched, do they even like them? Is the self-righteousness of the religious condemners effective in winning people whom they condemn, to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?

I fail to see how we as believers can increase our effectiveness if we continually play the shame and blame game and find no room to see our own failures or room for improvement in our actions.

Condemning the unchurched and the dechurched tends to convince the religious self-righteous that they barer no responsibility for negative feelings of people towards religion. Shaming and blaming the unchurched and the dechurched only distances people and adds to their viewing of the the self-righteous as religious bigots.

Where is the humility that would allow the self-righteous to re-evaluate their methodology, doctrine, theology and traditions through the lens of Jesus to bring about badly needed change in their thinking.