The dominant impression of Christians conveyed in popular media isn’t very flattering. They are often represented as mindlessly dogmatic, harshly judgmental, and openly antagonistic toward those who don’t share their view of things. This impression can be challenged, of course. It is typically the most extreme examples who grab our attention, and Christians come in many varieties.
One of the central reasons that Jesus was criticized by the religious elite of his day was his willingness to welcome people who fell outside their circle of respectability. Jesus associated with the common people who didn’t have the time or resources to devote themselves to studying and observing scriptural prescriptions of proper behavior.
There are some people who have a theology that says God is in control of everything, so the universe is the first kind. They think that in creating, God knows everything that will happen, and in deciding to create this universe, endorses what will happen down to the smallest detail. Notice that in this kind of universe creatures might imagine they have their own sphere of control, but that is a kind of illusion. It’s all in the script. I don’t think that this account describes our universe.
The central issue for the version of Christianity I grew up with was whether you would go to heaven or hell after death. The churches I attended all taught that your ultimate destiny depended on whether or not you had been saved.
