"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."Ouch.
I first ran across this quote in Jen Hatmaker's "7" (which I unabashedly recommend to any and all!). In the midst of the kind of re-evaluation Jen's book should elicit in all readers' lives, I took it in its intended spirit, not questioning whether Gandhi actually said it or not, and shared it from my Kindle app to my wall.
I mean, Gandhi said it, why would I question that? Jen wouldn't just make something like that up, would she? Besides, they have editors who are supposed to catch that sort of thing, right? (I thought none of this, bee-tee-dubs, when reading it; I just trusted the book, like most do).
But, then, I decided to base an entire Life Group lesson on it...
I created this blog as a place to document my inability to simply take things at face value. My mind always wants to get down to the roots of things. Did they say that? When and why? Did they do that? Was it the first time that was ever done? What does that word mean? In its native language? And on and on... I can't seem to stop myself from wondering about beginnings.
Anyway, back to this quote.
Before I espoused its fundamental truths, its check-yo-self matter-of-fact-ness, I wanted to know when it was said, to whom, and in what context. To the Googles!
Aaaaand... I found this:
Well, poop.
- I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.
- As quoted by William Rees-Mogg in The Times [London] (4 April 2005) {not found}. Gandhi here makes reference to a statement of Jesus: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13); also partly quoted in Christianity in the Crosshairs : Real Life Solutions Discovered in the Line of Fire (2004) by Bill Wilson. I have found no authoritative source for Gandhi saying this. The actual quote is attributed to Bara Dada, "Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians -- you are not like him." Source - Jones, E. Stanley. The Christ of the Indian Road, New York: The Abingdon Press,1925. (Page 114)
As has been the case for a long time (but is becoming more problematic with the ubiquitization of teh intarwebz), quotes get wrongly attributed, people get misquoted; you live, you learn. I don't fault Jen for perpetuating the mis-attributed misquote. Understandably, it's had a long life in Christian circles, apparently stemming from a 1926 review of E. Stanley Jone's book.
Okay. That's cool. I wanna' know who this Bara Dada fella' is, then!
A Google search resulted in some recyclings of the quote, those unhelpful question-and-answer sites going over the same ground (what's up with these things?), the above wikiquote page again, and some speed metal mp3s that aren't half bad, but no leads on Bara Dada.
Then, I saw the Google Books result linking to pages from "The Essential Tagore", which "showcases the genius of India’s Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate and possibly the most prolific and diverse serious writer the world has ever known." Tagore was a contemporary of Gandhi's, though I guess they disagreed about some things (well, that's what the internet says, anyway).
Hang on; let's bring all these people back into focus:
We've got E. Stanley Jones (a Methodist missionary to India during the Revolution era), Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and this mysterious Bara Dada (to whom Tagore refers familiarly in his writings).
Now let me retell the story:
E. Stanley Jones spent a good amount of time with Gandhi while a missionary to the subcontinent, once asking the Father of India: “How can we make Christianity naturalized... not a foreign thing, identified with a foreign government and a foreign people, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India’s uplift?" You'd be amazed at his (correctly-attibuted) response!
Jones also spent significant time with other influential Indians, including the Nehru family for sure and apparently the Tagore family. Rabindranath Tagore was certainly a bright mind and an influential man, but Dwijendranath Tagore - Rabindranath's older brother, his Bara Dada (a nickname? a term of endearment? no idea!) - must've left quite the impression on Jones when he said, "Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians -- you are not like him." (Aha!)
It seems to me that most preachers, commentators, and authors read the review of Jone's book (where the mis-attributed misquote most likely began) or some derivative, not the book itself, took the rebuke in its intended spirit, and passed it on... and on... and on... to me! The added fact that it was attributed to someone of the stature of Gandhi surely didn't hurt its momentum.
But now knowing the quote's history, I can only image E. Stanley Jones, sitting with the Nehrus, the Tagores, Mahatma Gandhi, and the other movers-and-shakers, asking humbly, How can we undo the harm others of us have already done here? How can we help you and your people see the Christ of the Bible and not the hatred and hypocrisy of His church?
I also imagine Jones doing his best to bear brunt of the apparently honest, perhaps hostile responses he got, those moments inspiring his first ever published work.
Getting down to the roots makes this mis-attribution practically inconsequential.
I think we could all learn a lot from this mis-attributed misquote, its history, its spirit, and its implications for today's Christian. And I hope that, when the next root-seeker goes searching for its beginnings, they find this and are encouraged.
