I Like Your Christ but Not Your Christians?

Legend has it that Gandhi once told a group of missionaries, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

There are two problems with this quote. One is that Gandhi did not actually like the Christ of the Bible nor His gospel. And two, Gandhi did not say this.*

Gandhi was a civil rights leader in India who encouraged nonviolent civil disobedience to gain independence from the British. This inspired another civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., who employed Gandhian principles to achieve social change. King said that Gandhi was “the guiding light of our technique for non-violent social change.”

I Like Your Christ but Not Your Christians?Since Gandhi was such an icon, his sayings became legendary, including many quotes Gandhi never said. Including:

  1. Be the change your wish to see in the world.
  2. An eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind.
  3. Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.
  4. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, tehn they fight you, then you win.
  5. I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

This is one of them, and it’s been repeated everywhere from the Washington Times to Relevant Magazine, and in books by Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, and Jen Hatmaker.

While Gandhi didn’t say this about Christianity, he did say, “No religious tradition could claim a monopoly over truth or salvation.”

However, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is the only truth, and He is the only way to heaven.

Gandhi believed in a version of Jesus that fit with his Hinduism, but he did not consider Jesus to be anyone other than a great teacher. He denied Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

Dear Friend,

I have your letter. I am afraid it is not possible for me to subscribe to the creed you have sent me. The subscriber is made to believe that the highest manifestation of the unseen reality was Jesus Christ. In spite of all my efforts, I have not been able to feel the truth of that statement. I have not been able to move beyond a belief that Jesus was one of the great teachers of mankind. Do you not think that religious unity is to be ad not by a mechanical subscription to a common creed but by all respecting the creed of each? In my opinion, difference in creed there must be so long as there are different brains. But what does it matter if all these are hung upon the common thread of love and mutual esteem?

Gandhi’s letter to Milton Newberry Frantz, a minister in the U.S., dated April 6, 1926

Therefore he didn’t think highly of Jesus’ followers who preached the truth — that fellowship with God and eternal life are given only by faith in Christ alone.

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:18)

Gandhi was not an authority on Christ or Christians or even humanity. Yet it’s Gandhi one is appealing to with this quote, which he didn’t even say. Our authority is Christ, and His word is the Bible.

…when we understand the text.

*The quote is similar to something said by a man named Bara Dada: “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians — you are not like him.”

(This video is by WWUTT. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)