It’s a Wonderful Life and Christianity
I grew up in Indiana, Pennsylvania — a small town just northeast of Pittsburgh. It’s a quaint town without much hustle and bustle. At Christmas time, however, Indiana transforms into Bedford Falls — the town from the famous Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life. The reason? Because Indiana, PA happens to be the hometown of the movie’s great star, Jimmy Stewart.
Every year around Christmas time, all the local stations showed It’s A Wonderful Life. And to this day, the movie remains one of my favorites. Not only is Jimmy Stewart a phenomenal actor, the movie teaches a valuable lesson.
THE LESSON FROM IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
A little over halfway through the movie, Stewart’s character — George Bailey — experiences a crisis. His business faces the threat of bankruptcy and he faces arrest because his clumsy uncle accidentally hands over eight thousand dollars to the rich businessman in town that everyone hates — Mr. Potter.
The weight is too much for George to bear. He runs down to a bridge, is about to jump off and kill himself, when, suddenly, his guardian angel Clarence jumps in the water before him. Bailey snaps out of his stupor and jumps in to save Clarence.
As they’re drying off, Bailey tells Clarence that he wishes he was never born. Clarence grants this wish, and erases George Bailey’s life from the record. As Bailey heads back in to town, he suddenly realizes that life in Bedford falls was dramatically different from what he remembered.
For starters, the town itself is no longer Bedford Falls, but Pottersville — named after the evil rich businessman. His business no longer exists because he wasn’t there to save it after his dad passed away. His brother was dead because George wasn’t around to save him from drowning when he was nine years old. All the people he helped get nice homes were living in the slums because George didn’t stop Mr. Potter from taking advantage of them. His mom and wife have no idea who he is, and his children don’t exist. And the list goes on.
Eventually, the significance of his wish hits him. If he didn’t exist, there would be horrible ramifications. The world, as he knew it, would be far far worse.
As I watched the movie recently, I got to thinking. How different would our world be if Jesus never existed? Did his existence, like George Bailey, change the landscape of the world as we know it?
BABIES BEFORE JESUS
Prior to Jesus’ life and ministry, the world looked radically different. For example, ancient Romans often committed infanticide — the practice of leaving one’s baby out in the elements to die by exposure or be eaten by wild animals. One man, named Hilarion wrote a letter to his wife, in 1 BC, to encourage her to commit such a travesty. He wrote:
If — may you have good luck — you should give birth; keep it if it is a boy; if it is a girl, throw it out.
The Roman Philosopher Seneca also promoted infanticide when he retorted:
Unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weak or abnormal.1
This is the “civilized” world from which Christianity emerged. If you didn’t want the baby, whether it’s a girl or looks to have some kind of deformity, just toss it out with the trash.
Fortunately, the early Christians used to roam the streets at night looking to rescue discarded babies. The Romans ridiculed the Christians for this, and falsely accused them of snatching up the babies so they could eat them.
SICKNESS BEFORE JESUS
Archeological remains suggest that on any given day in the Roman Empire, one in four people were in need of medical attention. We also know that three out of four people never reached adulthood.2In other words, sickness was rampant and medical assistance didn’t exist. In fact, the exact opposite was usually the case. People fled from sickness because they didn’t want to catch it themselves.
Jesus, however, turned this mentality on its head. Instead of running from the lepers, Jesus approached and healed them. And the early Christian movement followed his example. They were the only known group to care for the afflicted. Instead of running away, they ran toward the sick, putting themselves at risk. They built special communal shelters and provided nurses in what we would consider the first ancient hospitals.
SLAVERY BEFORE JESUS
Statistics vary on the Roman slavery population ranging from 50-90%. Regardless of the exact number, slavery was prevalent among the ancient world. With the birth of Jesus, though, came a movement that would put it to an end.
The Apostle Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28 affirmed that “there is neither slave nor free… for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” It’s hard for westerners to realize the radical nature of Paul’s claims here. It’s even more radical when you consider the Roman backdrop.
The great philosopher Aristotle considered slaves as “living property,” and he himself had fourteen slaves. Plato didn’t consider a person wealthy unless they owned fifty slaves. That is to say, slavery was not only acceptable, it was encouraged.
It’s interesting to note that slavery all but ended in the West in the fourth century once Christianity became the dominant cultural force. Slavery didn’t reemerge until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the Transatlantic slave trade.
Although atheists, who rejected that all people were created equal, initiated this awful institution, Christians in the American South participated for far too long. While skeptics like to point this out, it’s worth noting that these colonial Christians are the exception, rather than the norm in church history.
WHAT WOULD THE WORLD LOOK LIKE WITHOUT JESUS TODAY?
Despite Christianity’s benefit to society, several civilizations have rejected it and adopted godless schemes. Let me give you two modern examples.
First, we have the Communist regime under Joseph Stalin in the former Soviet Union. Building off the enlightenment philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche, Stalin established an official atheistic regime that would itself control morals, education, families, and the economy. The result?
Millions upon millions died from overwork, starvation, exposure to the cold, or execution — all because Stalin embraced Karl Marx’s utopian communist vision and pushed God out of society.
Another example comes from Communist China and their dictator Mao Zedong. Like Stalin, Mao strongly opposed Christianity. He expelled missionaries, imprisoned and tortured Christians, and destroyed all existing Christian churches.
Due to his godless policies, at least thirty million people perished from 1959-1962. Countless more died during his rule as a direct result of his Communism.
What would the world look like without Jesus? We don’t need to wonder. We’ve seen it in the Soviet Union and China — not to mention North Korea.
JESUS IN AMERICA
It’s no secret that Christians haven’t always lived up to Jesus’ message. And despite the American South’s insistence that the Bible supported the slave trade, they were sorely misguided. The nation, however, is undeniably better off because of a man named Jesus.
Let me share some statistics from recent research:3
Faith-based organizations provide a safety net for over 70,000,000 people with some kind of need.
Twenty of the top fifty charities are faith-based and raise $45 billion annually.
During disaster relief efforts, 59% of the organizations providing relief services are faith-based.
Clergymen save America $216 billion in mental health fees each year with free or low-cost counseling.4
The US Catholic Health Association operates more than 1,600 care facilities including hospitals and clinics for low-income families.
Through all their ministries, non-profit faith-based organizations save the US government $2.67 trillion every year.5
Simply put, Christianity feeds the poor, helps those in trouble, provides mental health, gives medical assistance, and saves the American Economy trillions of dollars.
JESUS TRANSFORMS THE WORLD
If Jesus didn’t exist, the world as we know it would be completely different. We see what it looked like in the Roman Empire prior to Jesus’ arrival — infanticide, slavery, high mortality rates — and we’ve seen what it looks like in modern civilizations who have systematically rejected Christianity — Communist Soviet Union, China, and North Korea.
English minister James Russell Lowell was so confident of Christianity’s positive influence that he penned:
I challenge you to find on the face of the earth a single place ten miles square where a decent man may live in safety and happiness where the Bible has not gone before to make that security and morality possible.6
I’d encourage you to take up this challenge. I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a place. Truth is, all across the world in countries where no Christian influence exists, oppression, slavery, mistreatment of women, and low wages are the norm.
As westerners, we take for granted things like hospitals, libraries, universities, and individual freedoms. These luxuries, however, did not always exist. Christians started them.
Like George Bailey, Jesus’ existence has made the world a better place. At the end of the day, he’s the one who’s made it possible to have a wonderful life.
- De Ira. 1.15.2 (LCL, 329).
- John J. Pilch, Healing in the New Testament: Insights from Medical and Mediterranean Anthropology, 2000.
- “What Would America Look Like If it were a Nation without Faith? Republican Study Committee, 2016.
- Rodney Stark, America’s Blessings, 109.
- Rodney Stark, America’s Blessings, 109.
- Ferdinand S. Schenck, Christian Evidence and Ethics, 85.
