Is Christianity regarded as a crutch?

Wayne Barrett
Columnist

April 20, 2008 01:51 am

— We often read or hear someone say that religion, and Christianity in particular, is a crutch, and that he doesn’t need it. Sometimes we hear that God is a crutch. These types of statements are often made by a person who seeks to denounce Christianity. But just the other day I also heard a person who professed to be religious, he did not say what religion, say that he depended on his religion for strength-but that it wasn't a crutch. He wanted that clearly understood.
What is the meaning of this often-used metaphor? Why do people keep using it? A crutch is something a person uses to supplement or replace the use of a leg when that leg cannot bear weight or otherwise function properly. When I seek to apply this metaphor to Christianity, I have trouble finding the relevance.
The essence of Christianity concerns a relationship to God, broken by man, restored by God Himself through the work of Christ. It has nothing to do with man doing a little better for himself, or being a self-made achiever or what have you-something for which a crutch analogy might apply.
But what an irrelevant thought this is when applied to the Biblical teachings that man is morally guilty before God. That he is separated from and judged by God because of this guilt. That he is hopeless to save himself from the consequences of his wrongdoing-which is unending punishment. That God in His love became a man, walked among us, died for our wrongdoing, satisfied justice, rose from the grave, and saves those who trust in Him. And that those who follow Him share in His very life obtaining a restored relationship and communion that is eternal.
In the midst of these great truths, the statement that religion is a crutch is like a comment made by a person who walks up at the end of a conversation and says something that reveals they haven't heard a thing that has been said and which is so off the mark, no one knows how to respond.
Of course, even though he is using a poor metaphor, a person who says Christianity is a crutch often means, I think, that he doesn't need help from anyone-including God. He makes it on his own, he works hard, he takes risks, he achieves, and he reaps the fruit of his own labor and intelligence. He is not a weak, groveling, praying person constantly asking for help and refusing to take responsibility for his own life and circumstances.
What a misinformed and strange perception of Christianity such a position reveals as well as, apparently, a profound ignorance of the actual lives of Christians. And how must this person be viewed from the galleries of heaven, a person who exists in a universe that has a Creator, a person whose very personhood is a gift of this Creator, a person who is sustained and enabled in more ways than he can imagine by that Creator, a person who ultimately owns nothing, who utilizes the raw materials that the Creator has supplied, and who one day will go and stand before that Creator. How it must look from heaven to see this person announce in his pride and foolishness that religion is a crutch and he wants none of it.
Human achievement, properly understood, is glorious indeed, but the ultimate glory is to the Creator without whom nothing exists, including humans and including their achievements. A person who recognizes the former without acknowledging the latter does not need a crutch. He needs an awakening.
He must come to terms with the created order and the moral order. He must understand that he exists in both. He must recognize that he is capable of actual moral guilt and that he is guilty before his Creator, not only because of his immoral nature-his very self-but because of things he has done that are wrong.
The Bible calls this sin and being a sinner. We don’t like to hear those words. Because we're sinners.
Followers of Christ know that Christ is their Life. He is their Savior. He is Truth. He is Love. Through His life he has brought freedom to those in prison. He takes away guilt and replaces it with thanksgiving and joy.
Christianity is not a crutch. It is eternal life in restored fellowship with God. That's not a crutch. That’s what we were created for.