Rejecting the Bible on a False Assumption

Christopher W. Brooks, writing in his book, Urban Apologetics: Why the Gospel is Good News for the City, addresses the common accusation used to deny Scripture that Christianity has a historical track record of behaving poorly--that Christians have failed by turning a blind eye to oppression, or by being the actual oppressor. 

However, this is selectively unfair, since, as Brooks points out, just because people call themselves Christian, or conduct themselves under the banner of a Christian church, doesn't mean they are actually Christian. 

Secondly, those who reject Christianity based on a negative historical record at the same time do not acknowledge the positive historical record of true Christians, such as William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Jr., Catherine Booth, Elizabeth Fry, Harriet Tubman...the list goes on. 

Again, as I have pointed out previously, many folks base their personal ideology and worldview on unexplored negative criticisms just so that they can reject God and/or Jesus Christ, along with the Bible. But it is an ignorant rejection, as Brooks makes clear:

     Focusing on oppression at the hands of supposed Christians "can lead to false conclusions if one is not careful. Merely claiming to follow Jesus is entirely different from actually following Jesus. One can nominally claim to follow Jesus and yet disregard His teaching and continually break all of His commands. However, one cannot actually follow or love Jesus while disregarding His teaching and continually breaking His commands. Doing so proves that such a person is neither obeying nor following Jesus.
     It is entirely fallacious to argue that the Bible is false because someone in history failed to obey it or chose not to apply it. It is equally fallacious to argue that the Bible is false because various people in history tried to read their own erroneous ideas into it or twist and stretch the interpretation of a passage in an attempt to make it support their personal opinions. It is not the Bible that is being irresponsible or wrong, but rather the people who do such things." Christopher W. Brooks

And to judge Christianity based on a false premise is equally detrimental.