An honest reckoning

Christianity's Failures: An Honest Reckoning

Christians have committed real and grievous wrongs: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the defence of slavery, centuries of antisemitism, colonial abuses, and the sexual abuse of children and its cover-up. These are not small things, and we will not hide or excuse them. Here we try to tell the truth about them plainly, hold the real complexity honestly, and ask one fair question: do these failures reflect the teaching of Jesus, or betray it?

Why an honest reckoning

A faith that cannot face its own history does not deserve to be trusted, and we do not ask you to trust one that hides. Terrible things have been done under the name of Christ. Some of the people who did them believed they were serving God. Naming that plainly is not weakness; it is the least that honesty and the victims are owed.

Two things can be true at once, and we will keep both in view. The wrongs are real and must never be minimised. And on nearly every one of these questions, Christians stood on more than one side: some defended the evil, and others gave their lives to end it. History is not a slogan.

Throughout, we make one distinction that matters more than any other. There is a difference between what Jesus taught and what people have done in his name. He himself confronted religious hypocrisy more fiercely than any critic since, and measured every claim of faith by its fruit.

The hard questions, one by one

• Christianity and slavery: Christians defended it, and Christians led the fight to abolish it.
• Christianity and colonialism: missions entangled with conquest, and missionaries who fought for the conquered.
• Christianity and antisemitism: a long and shameful record, including Luther's 1543 tract, and the Christians who hid Jews.
• The Crusades: what they actually were, honestly, and what historians still debate.
• Religious violence and Christianity: the Inquisition, wars of religion, witch trials, and how the myths and the facts differ.
• The church and Galileo: the real story behind the myth of science versus faith.
• Church abuse and Jesus: survivor-first, and where Jesus stands.
• When Christians fail: the message and the messenger.
• Has Christianity done more harm than good?: weighing both sides honestly.

If you are here because you were wounded, you may also want when the church has hurt you, spiritual abuse, why are Christians hypocrites, or why people leave Christianity.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a Christian site admit Christianity's failures?

Because honesty comes before persuasion, and the victims of these wrongs are owed the truth. A faith that hides its history does not deserve to be trusted. We also believe the failures, when examined, betray what Jesus taught rather than reflect it.

Doesn't the church's record prove Christianity is false?

The failures are real and terrible, and no honest Christian denies them. But the deepest question is not the mixed record of Jesus' followers; it is whether Jesus himself is who he claimed to be. He confronted religious hypocrisy harder than any critic, and asked to be judged by his own words and works.

Are you excusing what Christians did?

No. On every page here we refuse to minimise the harm, and we name it plainly. What we also do is tell the whole truth: the complexity, the Christians who resisted the evil, and the sharp contradiction between these acts and the teaching of Jesus.