All Great Men wear Bed Sheets

I have always thought Gandhi was a pretty weird guy. I mean, smart guy. Either one. But I mean, if you can be labeled one of the most influential people of all time, while wearing a bed sheet, you must have something going for you.

If you don't know too much about Gandhi, his biggest achievements came as a leader of the Indian revolution, using "civil disobedience" to bring Indian government to a more progressive stance for the lower class and throw off outdated British government. His radical thinking has led to many huge shifts toward social justice, including the push for civil rights in America in the 1960's. In fact, Martin Luther King, Jr lists Gandhi as one of his biggest and most important influences.

However, you most likely know Gandhi from his 2 most famous quotes:

"Be the change you wish to see in the world", and "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

In fact, I believe the first quote has been marketed on the shoe brand "Toms". You know you have made it big when your quotes are on shoes.

Unfortunately for Gandhi, I believe he is wrong. Yep, I said it. Gasp. Ok, let me explain, then you be the judge.

As for the first quote ("Be the change..."), I have nothing wrong with the encouragement it gives others to make someone's life better, in fact, that is great. Let me repeat: This quote is such an inspiration, but it is misleading. Let me get right into it. Wherever you look, you see a broken world, you don't even have to look far or have a particular worldview to determine this. Christians and Non-Christians both agree that this world is broken, we just have different solutions to "fix" it. The Non-Christian believes that something other than Jesus Christ can fix humanity. The Christian says nothing else but Jesus Christ can fix humanity. I am being a little broad, as the atheist would most likely say that humanity doesn't need to be fixed, or it can't be fixed by anything, but that is the general point. The reason Christianity makes more sense here, is that if humanity is inherently broken, since the beginning of humanity, then there is nothing in humanity that is capable of fixing it. If the problem is inherently in the world, then the solution must come from somewhere outside the world. That is why it is crucial to Christians that Jesus Christ is God incarnate man. He can't be just a moral person and teacher, he has to be the God-man. Therefore, going back to Mr. Gandhi's quote, there is no infinite change that can be produced by man in humanity. I would say, rather, to LIVE the change you wish to see in the world; you will never be the change. On a side note that might get me into trouble, I would like to point this out to the Christian agenda in America. America will never be a Christian nation, or else it is no longer America. While we need to try to push for as many God-inspired laws as we can (Since we believe that God's law is for the betterment of humanity and Christ came to fulfill the Law with Grace and Truth), we will never be able to save America. Christianity is not to be pushed as a state religion; it is a Theocracy, and we all have an inheritance in it, but we will never be able to "litigate the Hell" out of America.

As far as the 2nd quote goes ("I like your Christ..."), I don't want to go into too much depth, because I actually do appreciate this one as well. I think it is a great warning to Christians, but I think it is a bad rally cry for the Non-Christian. To get to the point, you cannot like Christ and hate his followers. The bible doesn't let you do that, Christ himself won't let you do that. When you choose Christ, you get his followers too as your brothers and sisters. The Christian life was not meant to be lived apart from the community of believers, even Christ himself had his own followers, who were, like all Christians, idiots. When you choose Christ and reject his followers, you are doing something that Christ did not even do. Most of the time, this quote is used to put into words the hate for the "Typical Christian Hypocrite", clogging up the church in America and around the world. I think there are two important truths that come from this:
1. Yes, we are hypocrites. Big time! Therefore, how much does it show about God's love for his people? For a group who mess up every day, and to still choose to work in us, sacrifice for us, and love unconditionally, how great is our God? He sees the depths of our hearts, and he loves us the same!
2. What do you expect? Sanctification is not necessarily a sprint, for most it is a marathon, a very long, tiring, but successful marathon. Paul tells us in Phil. 2 that our attitude should be like Christ's, but since we are not him, its not until we are made perfect will his image be on us. Will you really base your unbelief in the incompetency of others? That's not smart. At least deny Christ or something, not use your own race as an example of ignorance.

Thats it for now, I will leave Mr. Gandhi alone.

Brett

P.S. I don't think I'm smarter than Gandhi.

P.P.S. God's wisdom is smarter than Gandhi.