Is it my imagination, or have we adopted the relativist philosophy that says we are good so long as we are not worse than the bad guy?

Take Iraq, as an example. When the fact is brought up that we have killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the counter-argument always seems to be that more would have died under Saddam Hussein. When the Abu Ghraib prison torture, abuse, and killings by the U.S. came to light, the argument was that Saddam’s torture, abuse and killings were worse than what we were doing.

This is not exactly a new justification for unacceptable behavior, it seems ingrained in our culture. It’s okay for us to do almost anything, so long as we can point to someone associated with the target of our behavior who did something worse, or who did it first (although with Bush, the bad guy didn’t even have to strike first, we just have to think he will). You hit me, so I hit you back; your violence justifies mine. The death penalty is this principle writ large: we can kill this person because he killed someone else. How very Old Testament.

Which brings up another observation: where are the Christians when it comes to the real world? You hear a lot about Jesus Christ from Christians when it comes to the abstract, to belief and prayer and Who’s Your Savior and all that. Who’s your most respected philosopher? Jesus Christ. Whose teachings do you follow? Jesus Christ. Peaceful teachings, teachings of love and restraint. Jesus is the emblem and icon of the faith, the face for the world to see.

But when it comes to actually applying one’s faith to the real world, suddenly Jesus isn’t around so much and Christians tend to go straight for the Old Testament. Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth, and Smite the Bastards.

Okay, I know this doesn’t describe all Christians, and maybe not even most Christians. If you’re more about forgiveness than vengeance, my apologies and wonderful on ya mate. But from looking at how said application influences our society, it’s certainly the Christians who speak out and do things that affect all of us who seem to fall into this particular category I’m talking about. It’s as if Christianity has a multiple-personality disorder, and when any stress is applied, the God-of-Moses personality suddenly appears. Or even New Testament, but not the parts that came from Jesus Christ.

It just seems to me that if you call yourself a “Christian,” then you should follow what Christ said first and last, especially when it comes to what actions you take in life; everything else in the scripture and dogma should come second, and not at all when it contradicts what Christ said and did, the philosophy and way of living that he personified.

Or do I have it wrong?