Christianity is a religion that is monotheistic that is based on the belief of Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the son of God with strength in religion being gained through miracles He performed and is the focal point of Christian faith. Christianity is the largest religion in the globe practices by more than 2.4 billion people who account for 33% of the population. Christians are a majority of the population in more than two thirds of the world and the large extent to which Christianity has spread has played a huge role in the shaping of western civilization and how various systems interact in the community. Christianity has been used as the underlying framework to define rules and regulations for governing various social settings such as governing the extent to which people can carry out actions in the society to ensure they are mindful of others around them (Johnson, 2012).
Christian believe that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world and that He will return to judge the living and the dead and that upon His return, His kingdom shall have no end and that his followers shall have eternal life. Christians refer to certain shared doctrines such as The Holy Bible, which, however has different versions across different churches but revolves around Jesus being the Son of God. The life of Jesus is accounted for in detail in the Gospel books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. However, His birth was prophesied thousands of years prior to His birth. In addition, the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed are shared by Christians with the professions stating that Jesus died, was buried, descended into hell and after three days He rose to save the living and the dead and then ascended into heaven. Jesus, was also born of the Virgin Mary who was incarnated by the Holy Spirit. Catholic churches often pray through Mary referring to her as the Mother of God and have doctrines such as Hail Mary, a Bible that has additional books as compared to that of Protestant Christians and look up to the Pope as an apostolic successor to Saint Peter (Cochrane, 2015).
Scriptures guide Christian living with the Bible having various scriptures which have been proven to be relevant for any kind of situation. Therefore, despite the Bible having been written more than 3,500 years ago, it shows that the information contained in it had been set up to address issues across all times and that the superiority of God to have seen into the future is one of the proofs of his real authority over the world. The Bible has creation theory accounts which most Christians believe in as a result of the beliefs of the information written in the Bible. Some individuals have attempted to create a relationship between the Bible and science and have received backlash for attempting to question God’s authority.
Despite the different branches of Christianity having subtle differences, the religion works together to ensure that Christians are united through the beliefs shared. Unity is achieved through rituals that are supplementary to the beliefs presented. Christians engage in Holy Communion, usually on the last Sunday of the month, with the ritual being a commemoration of the Last Supper where Jesus broke bread with the disciples before He was betrayed and crucified. The importance of this is a reminder of the goodness of the Lord and how He gave His son to die for the sins of mankind. Additionally, the ritual being done at a predetermined time acts as a means of bringing all Christians together through belief in doing a common action (Anderson, 2013).
Christians also celebrate Easter holiday annually where they believe that this was the period when Jesus died and rose again after three days. The observation of this holiday has often been accompanied with businesses closing during the period to allow Christians to take time to observe and fulfil their religious beliefs. Easter holiday encompasses Good Friday when Jesus died and Easter Monday when He arose. Lent is the period forty days prior to Easter when Christians examine themselves as they prepare for Easter. Additionally, Christians celebrate Palm Sunday prior to celebrating Easter. Palm Sunday usually involves Christians carrying palms and taking to the streets to celebrate as it was recorded that it occurred in the Bible where Christ went to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Christmas Day is one of the most celebrated holidays by Christians as a commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The period is often accompanied by Christmas Carol’s glorifying God for the king He had sent to earth to save his people (Carrington, 2016).
Christians uphold values which are drawn from the teachings of Christ such as unconditional love being the greatest value, truthfulness, faithfulness, goodness to others, fidelity in marriage, renunciation of vengeance and worldly goods and honesty. These values have played a role in worldwide conservation efforts where the values are applied to prohibit abortion, to promote sexual abstinence and condemn premarital and extramarital sex, promotion of intelligent design as opposed to human evolution being taught in schools, censorship of sexual content and prohibition of pornography and the importance of intercessory prayers.
Christianity values have also been applied by social democratic and liberal political groups as a baseline for describing some of the political stances taken. The values support compassion across cultures which has enabled laws being set up to protect people from various cultures with different cultural views and perspectives and to protect minority communities from extortion and discrimination. The values have also been used to set up safeguards to protect the environment from pollution and continuous destruction through human activities. The values have been used to advocate for diplomacy instead of countries going to war. Christ also taught on the need to support the poor and this has been implemented through higher progressive income taxes for those earning more (Bretherton, 2017).
Laws of the land in many countries have been set based on Christianity principles to govern people’s actions and to prevent lawlessness. Court proceedings, swearing in ceremonies, and other practices that involve taking an oath usually involve swearing with a hand on the Bible to ascertain that the roles taken up will be carried out ethically following Christian principles and values for effective service to be given to the people of the community (Maritain, 2012).
Christianity and its teachings has been used as a reference point to address some issues in the community such as abortion and homosexuality. These are controversial issues in the modern society which have caused individuals to take different sides with different takes on the issues. Some churches and governance systems advocate for them while others are strongly against them. The United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, Tunisia, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium among other countries are examples of nations who have implemented the Abortion Act with it being legalized up to 24 weeks and illegal after then. The legalization of abortion has been met with criticism especially from churches and religious leaders since it interferes with life.
Homosexuality has also been made legal in the United States and other countries with the government recognizing same sex marriages. This has resulted in an uproar from the religious bodies in the countries who are against it mainly because the Bible condemns with reference to various books in the Bible condemning the actions. God punished the people of Sodom and Gomorrah for their homosexual activities among other abominations and in Leviticus 18:22, God condemns homosexuality and calls it an abomination and calls it a sign of the people turning away from God and His word. The governments allowing recognition of same-sex marriages claim that they are working on the Christianity principle of compassion where they are being compassionate about the minority groups in the society (Hasbany, 2013).
Euthanasia is another issue that has divided opinions in the society. Many individuals are against the process with it being termed as murder from a Christian perspective. Opponents’ debate that it should not be an option since long life is a gift from God and regardless of the person seeming as if they are suffering or not, only God has the sole power of giving and taking life. The question of cloning is also addressed under similar guidelines where it is prohibited since it interferes with the unique design of God being the sole creator and giver of life. Cloning is considered unethical and unacceptable from a Christina perspective since God gave man the commandment to recreate sexually and not through scientific interventions (Leabu, 2012).
Personally, I am against the support for same sex marriages, euthanasia, and abortion among other controversial issues. The Bible has outlined most of the issues and God has prohibited their occurrence with most being termed an abomination. The Bible gives a clear stand on the perspective God has on issues that interfere with life, worship and self-governance. Most of the guidelines are found in the Ten Commandments with the teachings of Christ such as the Beatitudes acting as complimentary rules to support the issues highlighted by God. I believe that there is no issue that can be too modern to govern by referring to the Bible.
References
Anderson, A. H. (2013). An introduction to Pentecostalism: global charismatic Christianity. Cambridge University Press.
Bretherton, L. (2017). Hospitality as holiness: Christian witness amid moral diversity. Routledge.
Carrington, P. (2016). The Primitive Christian Calendar. Cambridge University Press.
Cochrane, C. N. (2015). Christianity and classical culture. Ravenio Books.
Hasbany, R. L. (2013). Homosexuality and religion. Routledge.
Johnson, P. (2012). History of Christianity. Simon and Schuster.
Leabu, M. (2012). Christianity and bioethics. Seeking arguments for stem cell research in Genesis. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 11(31), 72.
Maritain, J. (2012). Christianity and Democracy, the Rights of Man and Natural Law. Ignatius Press.
