The song many of us learned in youth will never be fully expunged from our minds, no matter how long we live.
“Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus, going on before, Christ the royal master, leads against the foe, forward into battle, see his banners go, onward Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus, going on before.”
I could easily segue from that song into a stirring rendition of “I’m in the Lord’s Army,” but I shall refrain from so doing.
These songs and others like them give us a mental picture of armor-bedecked Christians marching side-by-side with weapons of war held at the ready. But when I view the commonly accepted portrait of today’s Christianity, it begs the very question of whether militant Christianity is truly Christian to begin with.
Judge not. Love everyone. Be meek and gentle. Be silent. These and other phrases like them echo not just toward Christendom but also away from it. And all of them have one thing in common: They are merely one side of the coin that is true Christianity. But if one ever flips the coin over to examine the other side as well, a far more balanced picture of Christianity emerges.