Subscribe to Posts
evangelicals, at our worst
Many of you are cringing. Not to worry, this post won’t be a laundry list of American evangelicals at our worst. There’s only one thing worth mentioning and it trumps all the others: at our worst, we’re more concerned with being right than being evangelical. It’s the saddest thing about American evangelicalism today, how much passion we have for being right and how little for being evangelical. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being right, unless it keeps you from being what you are meant to be. And in this case it does.
Until we understand this about ourselves and face it and find our way back to being evangelical, our movement will continue to shrink in the United States. Until we do, it ought to. If we’re not evangelical, God will find someone who is, whether or not they use the label.
Face it: we’re known for thinking that we’re right about so many things. We’re right about abortion and gay marriage mainly. We’re right about what’s wrong with the world, in general. We’re right about our politics, our religion, our interpretation of the Bible. We’re right about evolution being wrong and climate change not being exacerbated by human activity. That’s right: most of the climate scientists are wrong, but we are right about climate change. A typically evangelical sensibility, I’m afraid, in these dark times. We’re right about liberals and their mushy-headed ways. We’re right about truth being objective, even though the truth we claim is a subject, not an object. We’re right about the so-called Christian worldview trumping all others because we heard a talk on worldview once and now we’re all anthropologists. And on, and on, and on.
There’s Nothing Wrong with Being Right
Please don’t make me assure you that there’s nothing wrong with being right. All right. There’s nothing wrong with being right. Unless our desire to be right eclipses our passion for the gospel. And we end up being known for being the people who argue and assert and dissect and inspect what’s right and what’s wrong as if it’s a holy calling. We’re the truth squad instead of the grace brigade. Which, I’m sad to say, is too true of us these days.
It’s not our job, as evangelicals to be right. That’s not what we’re here for. That’s not what we’re about. God is right. He has it covered. We, on the other hand, are sinners. That means that we are of the stock that ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Ever after we have had the pernicious feeling that we know what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, ourselves. We can figure that out and be very sure of what it is. And tell other people. We have even come to think of this as our job, our divine responsibility.
Is this what it means to be evangelical? No.
To be evangelical is to be preoccupied with communicating the message of good news. Good. News. What’s wrong with you and me and the world is not good and it sure isn’t news. It’s bad history–bad, boring, unimaginative history; “old news” the ultimate oxymoron, not good news, the thing the world is dying to hear from us. Convincing people of what is right and what is wrong is not our job. That is the job of the holy Spirit. Our job is to be evangelical–telling and being good news to anyone who will listen.
I feel the weight of our concern for being right like a millstone round our neck and we’re on our way down and don’t have a reasonable plan for how we might take a next breath. Dear Jesus, help us.
Tags: abortion, christian worldview, climate change, evangelical, evolution, gay marriage, objective truth, right, the Bible, wrong
June 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
As someone burned out on the “I’m right so you must be wrong” debate, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear that I’m not the only one craving more “good news”.
At our present moment in history we seem to be unable to go anywhere or do anything without running into an endless barrage of ‘the bad news and the worse news’ headlines. I often wonder if there is any good news. I have a friend that greets me with the same question every time I see him: “read any good news today?” The answer is usually no.
Today you reminded me that as a believer the answer should always be yes. We have access THE good news. We should be ever ready to share it with everyone we come across in need of it (which lets admit is most everyone).
This will definitely be my personal project for the week. A little more Good News and a lot less Op-Ed.
June 4th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
As I read your post I kept thinking of Paul’s comment to the Corinthians that without love “I am only a resounding gong”.
A lot of evangelicals think that by debating “right” and “wrong” they are “loving people”. Yet, as we can see through history, that is not the case. Those people who have had the greatest impact on the world – not just Christianity, but the world – have been those who truly “loved” people because of and through Jesus Christ.
The other evening I was listen to a Christian apologist on the radio. One of the callers was an atheist in his mid-twenty (at least he sounded like someone in their twenties). He told the apologist that all the logic and arguments about “truth” was worthless if he could not experience the hand of God in his daily life.
Sadly, the apologist responded by telling this man that he didn’t care if he experienced God or not. His logical arguments were correct and that unless God gave him the “mind” of Christ, he wasn’t going to understand…
What a lost opportunity to introduce a searching soul to the person of Jesus. Evangelicals at our worse…
June 4th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Ken, were you spying in on our conversation last night during potluck? It is funny to me how God works sometimes as this was exactly what we were discussing. What I find most interesting is this movement to be right, it has caused more division within the church in the past 2,000 years than it is worth. We all have our opinions, that’s the way God made us, but what does it tell the world when we as Christians can’t hold it together? You are exactly right, it isn’t about being right, it is about so many things greater..love & Jesus. Great post!
June 4th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Wow! Yes!
June 5th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Good God, Ken…
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=10fe77b0-802a-23ad-4df1-fc38ed4f85e3
You were WRONG.
haha
BD
June 5th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Dearest Ken,
Based on your blog posts of recent months.
Being RIGHT is the LAST thing you have to worry about.
haha
Love,
b.d.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Ken, you are right!
June 5th, 2009 at 9:44 am
While I may disagree on the specific points mentioned: ie, still skeptical on global warming (from scientific data, not religious reasons), against gay marriage (see it as oxymoron) and abortion (murder), I completely agree with your point, Ken. These are side issues compared with the salvation of the soul and it is up to the Holy Spirit to convict.
What we are to do as believers is exactly as you say. The reason Jesus came to this world was to be the good news and we are to share it as good news. The good news that we are loved and that we can be reconciled with God no matter what our opinions are on these hot issues or our past actions.
The huge mistake evangelicals tend to make is to major on the minors. The main job we have as ambassadors of Christ is to act like He did. He did not lecture the prostitute who washed his feet with her hair on her particular sins, and even the woman @ the well was not castigated for having many husbands. The focus was always in God’s reaching out to us and our response.
So thanks for the reminder.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Ken you are right! And yes, the pun was intended.
So, who is right? I think for us Jesus people; if our desire for rightness comes across as RIGHTeousness we have a problem with our audience. We also attach being right with being good. It was not the tree of right and wrong, it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We have heard from our earliest years that we should desire to be good Christians, good citizens, good employees, etc., which is all meshed into this being right thing.
Someone referenced Jesus as being good and he said, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone,” another passage, “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” And again, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…”
Good is not something you are, it is something you do.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
hmmmm…. the first definition of “right” at wikipedia is “in accordance with what is good, proper, or just: right conduct.” ken, why is preaching the gospel and wanting to be “right” an either-or proposition for you? i don’t think it’s the desire for being right that’s a problem at all, it’s a lack of love in communicating what’s true and right. it’s the culture around us that says there’s no right and wrong, and that we really can’t judge anyone. that’s not jesus, and that’s not scripture. don’t let the world conform you to its mold. ken, read 1 corinthians 6:1-11. we’re not to judge? we are to judge. your interpretation of the tree of knowledge is bizarre. the story has nothing to do with judging; it has to do with *knowledge* – both good and evil. when they ate the fruit it doesn’t say that they became judgmental, it says they became *aware*.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
b..d.., here are a couple of fun articles on James Inhofe (R-Exxon):
http://www.desmogblog.com/senator-james-inhofe-skeptic-report-global-warming-screed
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/inhofe-global-warming-deniers-47011101
June 5th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
gem,do you blog? I think you should! Good stuff.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
What draws a people to any Christian missionary? Is it the Holy Spirit that hovers about him or her? Or is it the missionary’s intolerance of unrighteous behaviour.
June 5th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Humphreys, my understanding of Adam’s and Eve’s eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is that it enabled them to judge what was good and what was evil and that this was an activity that God wanted to keep for himself. According to Jesus, this really isn’t our business. He made plain that it wasn’t even his business when he walked the earth. He cautioned us to be as little children. He cautioned us not to try to separate the wheat and the tares. He instructed us to look for the lost and to bring them back to the fold. To welcome the prodigals. To love God and love one another. But he never asked us to judge our fellow men and women or to judge what is right and what is wrong.
June 6th, 2009 at 7:56 am
B..D.. Don’t you think referring to Ken as “god Ken” is a little outside his league? I mean I realize Mr. Wilson is taken (thanks Dennis the Menace) and Barbie definitely stole the name Ken. But good god BD, Ken loves to connect with the Father, but to elevate him to god status just doesn’t seem right. haha
B..D.. I appreciate the angle you consistently come from. It doesn’t alway sit well with me, but it definitely brings much more life to the conversation.
June 6th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
duke, read hebrews 5:13-14: “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” …. “have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” that seems super clear.
June 6th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Well said Humphreys.
June 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Follow up on Curt’s remark:
In Matthew 7:15-16, Christ is quoted asking the following rhetorical question: “Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
Ironically, today’s doctrinal police wear their thorns and thistles like badges of pride. They tend to see their thorns and thistles as challenging “stumbling blocks” to unbelievers; and those who resist the pricks of orthodoxy as heretics seeking teachings that will appease their “itching ears.”
Follow up on Duke’s remark:
Before I started reading the threads on Ken’s website, I had never previously been exposed to the interpretation of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” that has been expressed many times here.
I’d appreciate a link or two to more in-depth exegeses of this passage, and other interpretive Scriptural passages of the Fall, supporting this view.
This interpretation suggests (to me) that the forbidden fruit that Man lusted after was the right to sit on the judgment throne, in effect displacing God.
The interpretation is so radical, compared to other interpretations to which I am much more accustomed (e.g., man’s pride, disobedience, and quest for autonomy & to make himself the center of all things), that it sets my mind reeling.
June 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Eric C., You could try Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, and the more recent, Repenting of Religion by Greg Boyd. The judging thing is a really important issue that need some wrestling with Scripture over. That nature of the tree being “the knowledge of good and evil” can’t be incidental to the understanding of the origional sin. Scripture seems to have two poles on this judging thing, almost like fee will-destination. My gut says we tend to resolve it a little too easily and the depth of “judge not, lest ye be judged” gets lost in the shuffle.
Humpreys, This seems like one of those “too easy” resolutions to me. What does it really mean to “by constant use [of what-how?- to train ourselves to distinguish good from evil” to train ourselves: does that mean simply exercise our best judgment? This needs some exploring in light of “judge not, lest you be judged.” Otherwise we are in danger of so narrowing what Jesus meant that we lop of much of his intended meaning.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I really don’t understand the confusion. Did Jesus come to judge, or did he come to save? Did Jesus come to reinforce the teaching of the Pharisees, or did he come to overthrow it? Did Jesus come to draw the lost and the sinners to him, or did he come to cast them into outer darkness? Jesus placed the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the adulterers and the thieves and the prisoners and the poor and the diseased and the excluded at his right hand. Who are we to follow as Christians? Christ? Or someone else?
June 7th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I have not been a Christian for very long. So I’m not really following everything everyone is saying. So I apologize if what I am about to say is not correct or is not a logical contribution to this conversation. But I have tried to understand simply what Jesus asks us to do as his followers. I look through the Gospels. And I ask others to show me what he tells us to do to follow him. I find where he says we should love one another and God. I find where he says we should preach the good news. I know this isn’t everything. But are not these the important things? Are not these the things that he emphasizes? Please help me understand this. Thank you.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Ken,
Thanks for the reading recommendations! I just read the first 2 pages of “Ethics” on Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature: http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Dietrich-Bonhoeffer/dp/068481501X#reader.
Very tantalizing. The book is on my list.
June 7th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
The one thing I see lately in Christianity is we have an over abundance of self professed scholars which will debat the scriptures for ever if you will listen or read.
Although theology is nice to know(I think), I sometimes get the feeling we have too many self professed Scholars and not enough seed planters.
Right or wrong, that is my opinion.
The scriptures are pretty clear to me and I am no Scholar. So what if I am a little off on my quote of a scripture. Does that really make me entirely wrong?
What we have to do is win souls to Christ, not debate theology. How do we win souls to Christ? Lead by example and spread the “Good News” which is written in the Bile with passion to non believers and ones seeking the Word. I think that pretty well sums up what a Christian should be.
Am I right?
June 7th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Sorry I meant to say Bible in the last paragraph.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I am a sinner saved by grace! Throughout my life in Christ I have encountered many broken and wounded people in need of a savior. My theory is “Sinners sin”. It’s what comes naturally to them. In my encounters with those outside the faith I never tell them to stop sinning or point out where they are in error. I always point them to a Savior.
Once they enter the fold my approach is becomes slightly more complex, though even then I am led by the Spirit of God in how I might approach them concerning sin in their lives. And of course, I must examine my own life first before pointing out something in theirs.
It is clear to me that scripture tells us to judge one another (those of us in the fold) in a spirit of meekness and love. But to those outside the fold, we show God’s mercy, grace and the invitation to know Him.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Good post by the way!!!
June 8th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
okay. in john 7:7 jesus says, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” isn’t testifying “that what the world does is evil” judging good and evil? i think your interpretation of what jesus meant by “don’t judge” is too easy and not consistent with the whole of the holy bible. how are we to “hate what is evil” [romans 12:9] when we don’t even distinguish good and evil? what is saint paul doing in the letter to the romans 1:18-32? wasn’t saint john the baptist judging herod [luke 3:19]?
June 8th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Supreeta.
You got it, as Christians we are to love God and others as a 1st priority.
I think this particular discussion is focusing on the specifics of how to do this in real life.
It’s all very easy to say that we just need to love God and others, but what does that mean?
It’s gotta be more than just ‘live and let live’. Is there a place in a follower of Jesus for judgment or right and wrong? Or at he very least some moral compass of right and wrong?
Great example on the radio today:
Apparently there is a growing trend among the young today to practice ‘hookups’.
Instead of the traditional dating where a couple gets to know each other, create emotional ties and then become sexually involved (hopefully in marriage, though I know this is not the case very much any more, but that’s another discussion) now people are 1st having 1 night stands and then deciding if they want to get to know each other.
So the question is; as a believer in Christ who values the Biblical teaching concerning the sacredness of marriage and its rightful place as the only proper environment for sex, how am I to react to this trend, if at all?
If I express any disagreement, I will be called judgmental. So, should I just accept this and not ‘judge’? Is loving my brother never disagreeing with him and never encouraging him to change habits that may be destructive?
What if the person practicing these ‘hookups’ is a friend? A nephew?, a son?
June 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
good post joao. (is that a name?) since i’ve become a regular, i’ll tell you a bit about myself. as you may have guessed, humphreys is my last name. i live in midland michigan and go to FUMC of midland. college (religion) at calvin in grand rapids. would love to know more about you all. i think this tree of the knowledge of good and evil is an important point. my understanding is that it’s an allegory, representing the development of the human from childlike innocence to an adult awareness (at least that’s what they taught me at calvin). when you’re a little child you don’t know the difference between good and evil, and likewise you don’t sin. (i don’t take the original sin view of augustine). as you get older, you come to know the difference, and have the capacity to choose sin. (paul wrestles with this from the “law” perspective). babies and little kids are naked and unashamed. as you get older you gain awareness and become ashamed of your nakedness. the point is not that we’re supposed to go back to an infantile-childlike understanding of the world, where we don’t know good and evil. its that we received knowledge that we weren’t ready for yet, in our sinful state. it’s the challenge of the human condition. i think it would be a mistake to read this allegory as saying that we’re not supposed to distinguish or judge good and evil. that would be like saying the story of babel is that we’re not supposed to build tall buildings. totally missing the point. we have more knowledge and power than is good for us. a recurring theme in the bible. the solution isn’t less knowledge. it’s a transformed heart.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
What is the fruit of a transformed heart? How is one to live in relation to oneself and others? Should one seek out the outcasts and attempt to heal them? Should one party with the sinners? Should one defend the oppressed against their oppressors? Should one offer friendship to the least among us? Or should one attempt to shame sinners? Should one castigate sinners until they are convicted of their sin? Should one tell sinners that what they do is evil? Should one exclude them from our company and our churches?
Take a look at Luke 7:36-50. What does Jesus say to the host? Whose part does he take? Who does he forgive and who doesn’t he forgive? Isn’t the unforgiveable in Jesus’s eyes the refusal to love? The refusal to love God and the refusal to love one another?
June 8th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I love these threads, because so often, cogent challenging arguments are presented from both sides. Thanks, Humphreys, for post #’s 16, 27 & 29.
In the past few years — after feeling the brunt of false accusations and helping my parents overcome some scandously false accusations as well — I became ever more conscious of Biblical passages dealing with man’s tendency to falsely judge.
What’s amazing is how many passages deal with this issue. So dangerous and prevalent is man’s false judgment tendency that God devoted one of the 10 Commandments to it (“thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”).
And yet in my 29 years of Evangelical church-going, I have NEVER been to an evangelical church service that focused on the problem and theme of false judgment.
Why is this particular sin — the sin of false judgment — ignored?
Isn’t it every bit as destructive — I would say more — than all the other sins that regularly get evangelicals’ rapt attention?
Does the doctrine of total depravity fan the flames of our tendency to falsely judge people?
Those strongly influenced by the Reformed tradition (including myself) are likely to obsess over the doctrine of depravity. To the point, I think, that we PRESUME GUILT. For a Calvinist, it is natural to presume that your neighbor’s motives and actions were wrong, that he was up to no good, etc.
Why aren’t more conservatives deeply (and I mean deeply) troubled by all the innocent people who are convicted of crimes they never committed, all because of the human tendency to presume guilt? Why isn’t the “Innocence Project” a major conservative Evangelical cause? It ought to be!
June 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
What tunes the conscience to awareness of right and wrong, good and evil? Is it possible to rightly discern good and evil, right and wrong by studying the bible? So what if you are right. Once you have made your point, what is the point?
We teach our children by example, loving discipline, and teaching. Much of their learning and awareness is from mistakes and the learning associated with those mistakes. When someone in our family falls, we reach out to help. Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered. And he was without sin. When we see people suffering for their sins, what do we think in our heart of hearts? Are we moved with compassion? Or, do we think they are reaping what they sowed? When was the last time we looked at the sins of others, and considered the sins to be the greatest opportunity for that person to experience the love of Jesus?
Yes, the scriptures say we will reap what we sow. Again, so what if you are right. Once you have made your point, what is the point?
“You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.”
How we treat others is the evidence that will be used against us. As we reach out to those within walking, talking, feeling distance, we are commanded not to judge them. And if we suffer for the light that is within us, because we are trying to help someone, then we are beginning to understand what love is.
Being right is a lonely place to be.
June 9th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Eric, I am personally convinced that the doctrine of total depravity accurately describes the human condition.
To me it’s simple, look at history, the news, too many examples to list.
I am also convinced that there is no excuse for the usage of this doctrine as a reason to assume the worst of people. Since we are all in the same boat…totally depraved… it’s pretty hard to consider oneself ‘better’ than someone else.
But I’ll add that I also don’t consider it an important doctrine in so far as salvation is concerned.