Allegiant: Is Christianity a fix-it religion?

[Spoiler alert]
Everybody is living inside an experiment. 

Creepy, eh? 

That's what Tris finds out in Allegiant, the third book of the Divergent series.  All of her life up to this point has been lived inside an experiment at gene manipulation.  A long time ago people decided to alter the genetics of a select group of people so that negative qualities would be erased.

However, "when the genetic manipulation began to take effect, the alterations had disastrous consequences....Take away someone's fear, or low intelligence, or dishonesty...and you take away their compassion.  Take away someone's aggression and you take away their motivation, or their ability to assert themselves. Take away their selfishness and you take away their sense of self-preservation."

So they ultimately damaged people's genes and, as a result, had to set up false, monitored societies, like the faction-led world of Tris and Tobias, to slowly fix people.

Have you ever heard someone say of Christianity, "it's not a religion, it's a relationship"?  It's become something of a cliche, but there is truth in it. 

Christianity, when lived as a religion, is a lot like the world of the Divergent series.  We want people to be better so we manipulate them by using lots of rules and fear.  We read about rules, preach about rules, and quote the rules.  We try to take human nature and fix it by external means. 

Here is the common problem with this method.  Like the situations mentioned in Allegiant, enforcement of standards leads to a whole host of internal damage.  We create a culture where certain feelings are unacceptable, so people hide their true struggles and stuff them, instead of sharing with others.  Be a good role model and be happy, yet we are cutting in our bedroom at night.

We tell each other what to do and not to do and subsequently create hidden cultures where people act out these forbidden behaviors in secret. 

Religion gets to play a fix-it role again when we go to church on Sunday and confess our sins in the service.  We feel some relief and turn around and do all the same things again the following week.

At the worst, religiosity can make us cocky and lead to lots of bickering, much like the Purity wars mentioned in Allegiant.

Scripture gives us a different picture.  "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."  Galatians 2:20

"When someone is joined to Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has gone and the new has come."  2 Corinthians 5:17

I was a good kid, according to the rules, when I was in junior high.  My teachers saw me as a responsible, well-behaved young man.  Still, I was just doing what was expected of me.  I was a manipulated gene, manipulated by the approval I received.    Really, there was a very different me going on inside that I kept hidden from others.  I began to truly change, to become a "new creation," though, when I surrendered my life to Father. 

My heart began to change naturally as the Holy Spirit showed me my issues.  I found myself growing compassion for people I had once hated, developing patience for people that bothered me, finding out the joy of opening up about my honest feelings, and growing in desire to learn and know Jesus.

Lasting change, I'm finding, comes not from monitoring or manipulation, but from meaningful relationship with Father.