While there has certainly been abuse through church structures in history, it’s also true that the Christian Church has been and still is the most charitable group on the planet, and has brought greater good to this planet than any other thing. The above question is already answered – which highlights a greater question related to how we balance these two factors, and why.

Firstly, the idea of corruption is actually connected to human beings – not any one group. Wherever humans are found, corruption is found! If this is true, while people have certainly corrupted church structures at times, this isn’t actually a ‘Church’ issue. It’s a human issue!

Secondly, our perspective is altered when we consider the great irony that this Christian faith we are criticising has also given humanity its highest moral ideas and definitions for ‘good’ – this being a reality that many people from all walks of life and various religions openly recognise this (even if they don’t believe or follow those teachings).

The irony this strange desire within our culture to criticise the Christian faith goes further when we consider the benefits we enjoy because of it – as alluded to in the first paragraph. The lives of those who have followed Jesus’ teachings have produced an extent of good on our planet that no other group has ever come even remotely close to. A study of history shows that this includes our own culture’s ideas on charity, equality of races, equality of genders, education and health care for all, scientific method, values associated with our economic freedoms and systems of law and justice, personal human rights and freedoms, the limitation of powers (which is fundamental to our ideas on democracy), and much more. How did we actually come to live in one of the most free, prosperous and equality-based nations on our planet today, and in all of human history?

The abuses of power that have taken place in Christian history are a huge embarrassment to the Christian community worldwide.

However, for every negative story there are thousands of untold positive stories – and the negative stories didn’t come about because of the Christian faith, but because the people involved weren’t actually following the teachings of Jesus. (They were hypocrites!)