In October 2021, I moderated a lively debate on the college campus of the University of Texas at Austin. As I waited to return home at the departure gate of the Austin, Texas, airport, a passenger on our flight swaggered up wearing a shocking T-shirt that read: “Jesus is a c**t” (except there were no asterisks).
Wow. The profane message sparked an audible, hushed buzzing among my fellow passengers. Eventually a flight attendant called the man up and convinced him to turn the shirt inside out before letting him board the plane. I was grateful the guy didn’t erupt into launching fists, because he was clearly a troubled soul.
I strongly reject the message of that guy’s shirt, and I was grateful I wasn’t seated next to him.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But some Christians do behave in the most wretched fashion, and I wondered who, while invoking Christ’s name, might have hurt this man? After all, it was the most religious people who used their political pressure to get Jesus killed, and it was the apostle Judas, one of the first Christians, who lethally betrayed the son of God. Human nature doesn’t change. Why should we expect better from Christians today?