In Defense Of Christians
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Bible Teaching
- Fiction No
The subject of this article is Christian bashing. It is true that there is a lot of inexcusable ignorance and erroneous teaching in the Christian community today and I am among those who address these issues, but the attacks on Christian behavior that I wish to address here will be a call for balance.
One article I read was written by a Christian do-gooder who in the name of compassion and understanding for the down and outer had a scathing rebuke for well meaning Christians who have hurt the down and outers (DAO).
First, before I blame the Christians and Christian counselors I want some facts. In this case the DAO claimed to be terribly hurt by a church. Whatever story she relayed to the Christian do-gooder caused the do-gooder to bash churches for being judgmental.
What went on? What is judgmental? Did the people of the church snub this person because they were known to be say--promiscuous and a single mom? That would not be the Christian way and could be labeled judgmental.
Was the church blamed for being judgmental because they reached out to the woman to offer her what Christians have, which is God the Father and Jesus Christ who is Lord and Savior, and in so doing brought out the fact that one must repent of sin and ungodly ways in order to receive the love and care God wants to give them. That is not judgmental, but it could offend those who don’t want to repent or who don’t want to acknowledge that what they are doing is sin. In that case, offensiveness is necessary in the name of truth that will set people free.
Could it be that only one person, or one couple, or one family treated the person with disdain and caused the whole church to be judged judgmental?
The same do-gooder’s second bashing was that Christians are clueless. She accused Christian counselors of giving simple advise without compassion. Apparently the counselor told the DAO to “just move out” of the boyfriend’s place.
We are not told whether the boyfriend was abusive, stingy, overbearing, or whether it was a case of the girl receiving Jesus and needed to change from her ways to God’s ways. The counselor was suppose to be clueless because the girl was an unemployed twenty-four year old and a mother of two children, the second one belonging to the boyfriend and she is already, with his help, barely making ends meet.
As I see it taught in the Bible, the counselor should have offered assistance and support, but I can’t agree that it was wrong to counsel her to “just move out,” because sin has to be cut off. It is not God’s way to ease yourself gradually out of sin.
Before you get mad at me, let’s see how Jesus handled such matters. The woman was caught in the very act of adultery. What did He counsel her? “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Jn: 8:11 He did not say, “Go and try to avoid that type of thing.” He did not say, “Go and work on finding a better way of life.” or “Go and I give you six months to stop committing adultery.”
He knew that for her to have the power to stop sinning she needed to cut it off--stop it. She needed to make a quality decision to stop doing it and she needed someone to believe in who could help her. Jesus did not condemn her. He let her know that the past was in the past, but she needed to start on a new path immediately.
There are many agencies today to help a person get a new start. A good counselor will be knowledgeable about these agencies and will offer the DAO support and assistance in obtaining the necessary help. But to advise her to get out--to cut it out is the biblical way even if it goes against the grain with modern thinkers.
The third bashing by the same do-gooder was that Christians are self-centered and heartless. Now there are many so called Christians that this may be true about, but in this case it was because some pastor declared from the pulpit that illegitimate children don’t deserve to live and so the DAO had an abortion.
Now it is obvious that this pastor is out of line and the words that he spoke are unchristian. But why make a blanket statement that Christians are self-centered and heartless because one so-called Christian spoke unchristian?
The fourth criticism of Christians came from another source. The accuser calls Christians’ attitudes judgmental and condemning. He says that in context of this American Christian dilemma:
“We thoughtlessly criticize anything that isn’t distinctly Christian. When met with opposing ideas, we draw cultural battle lines and those on the other side are considered the enemy. We vilify and ridicule the representatives of “godless culture” and rather than engage with and love the lost, we take offense and withdraw into our Christian enclaves. Practically speaking, many Christians live as if they really don’t like the world or anyone in it!
We are often doing precisely the opposite of what Jesus did. He did not come to condemn the world but to save it (see John 3:17). Sinners didn’t offend Jesus! These were the very people to whom he was drawn and engaged with—the dirty, the broken, the vulgar, and the immoral.”
I will defend this to a point. I understand how it feels to be a passionate American Christian and see what the godless are trying to do to our country. First some may thoughtlessly criticize the opposing beliefs and doctrines, but some of us only do it thoughtfully, caringly and where we think it will help clarify the difference between what the opposition believes and what the Bible teaches.
Second point, when met with opposing ideas we draw battle lines because it is a battle. There is a cultural war on for this country. Often it’s the devil who instigates the battle and it may not be flesh and blood that we are battling--we must bear that in mind, but there is a cultural battle on in America and many of us know for sure that we must keep America strong in godly beliefs and behavior.
Thirdly, I and I’m sure many others that this person is taking to task spend much time loving, caring, ministering, and reaching out to people as Jesus did in the example this writer provides. That is another aspect of our Christian walk. Sometimes they can even be done together. We hate the opposing teaching or doctrine, but love the ill-informed or rebellious.
We do take offence when we see our Christian heritage under attack, but perhaps the person this writer was observing thought he was among his own kind and just wasn’t careful about how he expressed himself.
As for not liking the world--what does it say in 1Jn: 2:15-17--“love not the world nor the things that are of it.” So for many of us, we don’t like worldliness and we do have a wall up against it, but we love sinners and want to give them the Truth.
I think this writer was around Christians who let their hair down, so to speak, thinking that this writer would have observed the same things and would have the same opinions, and maybe they even let a little of the wrong spirit creep into their talk, but that does not say they really were the mean-spirited Christians that the writer perceived.
So this article takes issue with some of the Christian bashing going on. Some of it may be deserved, but there needs to be a balance. The bashers need to make sure they know what they are talking about, because to point out legitimate unloving ways to the Christians is an act of love, but to smack them down when you don’t have the facts is not love and can do much harm.
Sylvia Huffnagle
Editor's Comment:
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