I call it The Gandhi Problem.
What is The Gandhi Problem, you might ask. It is the unexamined assumption that pervades much of Christendom today, especially in the West. It concerns the abiding belief by the vast majority of Christians – especially evangelical Christians – that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is, or is going to, burn in hell for all eternity.
Yes, this post is going to wade into seemingly heretical waters. But do me the honor of wading in with me. I promise we’ll hop back out before our skin gets too wrinkly and we no longer recognize who we are.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: 1869-1948
Gandhi is also commonly referred to as Mahatma, a term out of Sanskrit that means “Great Soul,” applied to him long before he died in 1948. For those Westerners of a younger generation (like my own) who might be unfamiliar with the Mahatma’s pursuits and endeavors, you can either go on Netflix and add Richard Attenborough’s award-winning biopic to your cue (that’s the easier way to learn that involves less reading), or you can get a basic gist by clicking here. For the sake of space, I won’t go into detail here. Suffice it to say that through an astonishing commitment to non-violence and passive resistance, Gandhi revolutionized India (as well as, through his example, many other nations including the U.S.), leading out in such arenas as poverty care, women’s rights, economic independence and religious tolerance.
Gandhi taught radical lessons on self-sacrifice, including repeated encouragements toward complete physical submission to enemies. It doesn’t take long, in any biography, for a Christian to recognize that what many of us wrestle with regarding the literal nature of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount, Gandhi took absolutely literally with no equivocations. In that way, his life and lifestyle point more to the principles of the kingdom of God than most Christians’ lives.
But here’s the dilemma. Gandhi never accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. He never had a personal relationship with Jesus. He never invited Jesus into his heart. He never admitted, believed, and confessed – at least in the manner and formula we Christians are accustomed to organizing conversion. So, self-sacrifice or not, martyrdom or not, radical submission to peace and social justice and love or not, Gandhi is going to burn.
So, um, what’s the Problem?
“A disciple is not above the teacher,” says Jesus in Luke 6, “but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own?” A few sentences later, the Savior continues, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.”
And, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus asks the following question: “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” His audience answered that this was the first son, to which Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors (traitors) and the prostitutes (unclean sinners) are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (parentheses and italics, mine).
Gandhi’s life more closely resembles the kind of followers Jesus was asking for than my own. Not only this, Gandhi was persecuted throughout his life for his commitment to civil disobedience and for his insistence on equality, justice and liberation. Jesus addressed that, too: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…” (Matt. 5:11-12). Now, you might argue those three little words, “on my account,” but is not almost everything Gandhi did in keeping with what Jesus was doing, and the ushering in of the very things on which his kingdom is built? How did Gandhi not live on Jesus’ account, or for his sake? Just because he didn’t end his own prayers with the standard, “in Jesus’ name”?
So what do we do with Gandhi, Christians? Are we so bold to claim that Gandhi is damned while we – we who squirm in our pews during the Sunday morning invitation, we who strive not to make eye contact with the ushers passing the offering plates, we who would rather send our checkbook onto the mission fields of the world rather than ourselves – waltz into heaven to hear our Savior say, “Well done”?
Is this how it breaks down, this salvation thing? Is this the way it works? Do our deeds really count for nothing? If so, why does Jesus repeatedly call his true disciples to good deeds? Perhaps it’s time we read again those verses on which we bank so much of our view of salvation, of who “gets in” and who is “left behind.” Let me be clear, this is not an argument for universalism. It’s an argument on the nature of true obedience and true submission. It’s an examination of what holds more weight: the words of my mouth, or the inclination of my heart? It’s an investigation of just how a person “comes to Father” through Jesus (John 14:6). And even if you’re reading this and thinking, “Hmm, this still sounds a lot like universalism to me,” my question to you is, what if it does? After all, if you’re a Christian and you’re not a universalist, I understand completely. But if you’re a Christian and you’re not a wannabe universalist, I don’t know what to do with you.
We’re getting all wrinkly. Time to step out and towel off, at least for now.
I don’t remember any Christian formulas to conversion mentioned in the Beatitudes… Brave and necessary questions my friend. sine on,
Chris
Shine not “sine”
Interesting. I think I know what CS Lewis would say about this. Also, I like your last line. I’ve been very convicted about that lately.
Bo, Christians believe that, no matter what we do, if we don’t explicitly accept Jesus as our one and only Savior, then we will burn in hell forever. So, forget your deeds, forget your good intentions, because it is not about what we do, it is about what Jesus already did 2000 years ago, dying on the cross as a substitute sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. So, if we fight hard for justice, peace, equality, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, being honest, etc, but do not specifically accept Jesus as our Savior, we are lost. Might as well stop doing whatever we are doing for the poor and the needy, and prepare ourselves to burn in hell, because what we do would be based on self righteousness, it would be done so that we can “earn” our way to heaven, not because we are doing it for Jesus. Right? Or, we can simply DO what Jesus commanded us to do, fight for the Kingdom of Heaven , without worrying about who is saved or not, and without worrying about whether or not we are going to heaven. Heaven can be lived here on earth by loving our neighbors as ourselves. Bo, your words are bold, but they speak truth. I was once a fundamentalist Christian, but now I am a reflective Christians. I believe I am closer to truth than before. Am I a universalist? Am I a Deist? Am I this or that? It does not matter. What matter is, Am I going to DO what is right in this world, which happens to be what Jesus, Gandhi, Buddha, Mother Theresa, and other famous figures reminded us to do in order to live the Real Life. I am impressed with this post. Keep it up.
Thanks, Noel. Honestly, though, I’m not sure what to make of your comment. At first it seemed you were poking holes in my understanding of salvation. But then I kept reading…
I appreciate your take, but I would argue that terms like “universalist” or “Deist” matter. Indeed, they speak a lot to what a person believes about the nature and character of God. It does matter how you view yourself, and specific theological ideologies, while not what saves us, are, I believe, still an important part of how we engage in the Great Conversation, and how we view our own walk with God. I’m still very much of the belief that Jesus is far more important a figure than Gandhi or Buddha or Mother Theresa because he was – and is and ever will be – the Son of God.
Bo, I think we are mostly in agreement. My position is still fluctuant, since I am continuous growing and learning in my spiritual journey. What I meant by “it does not matter what I am” is that at this point, for the sake of living the Kingdom of heaven, I believe we first must DO what we were commanded to do, which, in my view, will ultimately define who I am. I respect your view on Jesus, I also believe he was (or is) the manifestation of God (Son of God, Light of God, etc).
Aren’t you glad we don’t have to make the call about who gets into heaven and who doesn’t! I struggle with some of the same ideas you wrote about. But I keep coming back to the recurring statements in Scripture that it is not “through righteous things which we have done, but by His mercy we are saved through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out om us through Jesus Christ our Savior” (semi quote of Titus 3:4-6). If following the teachings of Jesus (which admittedly many who are not professing Christians do much better than I) is the portal, then it seems to me that Jesus could have just come as the perfect example of how to live a life pleasing to God, and that there was no need for the atonement and all that entailed. I am 100% sure that Jesus’ death and resurrection were essential to making us right with God – but I’m NOT at all sure how God applies that to individual hearts, The older I get, and the more I study and read, the more I realize that man is unable to truly comprehend the Who and What of God. I think if I spent half the time I do trying to “figure things out” on applying what I DO understand, I’d be a lot further along!
Thanks for the comment, Pat. I suppose it will take another post or two to straighten this out, but just for the record, I never meant to intimate in this last post that following Jesus’ example was the portal. Rather, that it is the evidence of the transformative work of salvation. Believe me, I am not throwing out the Atonement – as a committed, orthodox (believe it or not) Christian, I can’t and won’t deny the Atonement. However, what I am challenging is the assumption that there is a particular way by which we receive this salvation, namely a particular brand of prayer. If Jesus preached so very much about the importance of our good works of righteousness, and so very much about what goes on at a heart level, then an unexamined assumption that a certain formulaic prayer or prayerful response nets us his glorious salvation rather than something more (or something less) seems ridiculously thin, and suspiciously human-centered, rather than God-centered. I’ll write more on this next week…
Sorry – didn’t mean to imply that I thought you were discounting the importance of the atonement. Sometimes I just need to remind myself that amid all the conversation, it doesn’t come down to an either/or. I totally believe that “praying the prayer” is neither the only way salvation is ushered in nor the sum total of that salvation. I am so grateful for those of you who challenge me to expand my spiritual understanding.
Actually, “The Gandhi Problem” and the comments that follow bring to my mind the story of “The Good Samaritan”
Luke 10:25-37 (RSV)
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?”
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion,
34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
36 Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
37 He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”