My brother asked me why, if religion is so great, he hears and sees so many uncharitable comments from religious people. What do I say?

This is a tough issue – your brother recognizes the hypocrisy in the sinful actions of Christians who claim to act righteously. 

Remind him that Christians are human, and nobody is perfect. We all sin, despite our best efforts not to. We make uncharitable comments and do unkind things to those around us, just like everybody else. That doesn’t excuse our behavior, but we have to acknowledge that we are all sinners.

In this internet age, we can hide our unkind behavior behind the anonymity of social media user names. We can become obsessed with making our point – and people’s feelings take a back seat to being right. That’s just wrong, and certainly doesn’t reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Explain to your brother that Christians believe Jesus died for our sins, and gave us the gift of forgiveness. There’s a popular meme: “Christians aren’t perfect, they’re just forgiven.” The important thing is that we realize we’ve sinned; we’ve asked for forgiveness; and we’re trying harder to do better in the future.