In the name of God, what are you doing?

Religion in a person's life can play out in a number of different ways. Some offer this distinction, a "true Christian" acts differently than a "nominal Christian." People use this distinction to symbolize the difference between those that call themselves "Christian," but then go about living an ungodly life, and those that call themselves "Christian" and go about living Christ-like. The idea is that a true Christian tries to act godly because their belief is deep and permeates their lives, while a nominal Christian is a Christian by name only. That is a nice distinction used by insiders to distinguish between the kinds of believers. It is a mode of internal differentiation that attempts to set apart one group of Christians from another group of Christians.

But my general point still stands, I think, religion plays out differently in peoples' lives and not always for the better.

In this blog I return to the Narrative of Frederick Douglass. I quoted him at length a while back. Here is another powerful quote:

In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting held in the Bayside, Talbot country, and there experienced religion....It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversation, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slave-holding cruelty.

What do we do in the name of God? What kinds of actions, policies, views, do we justify in the name of God? The debate should not be over whether he was a nominal or a true Christian. The debate should be on what he is doing in the name of God--and should he be held accountable for what he is doing.