I started to post a comment on Holy Cow’s blog, and it got long. You can get to him here, but most of the post was this video:
Okay. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s just me because I work part-time in a church and I’m really involved in ministry and really into the Christian thing. But – and maybe it’s just me – I’m getting kind of tired of hearing this, honestly.
Jim and Casper was pretty revolutionary. All of the Barna studies leading up to it, and that came to follow, were pretty ground-breaking. News of the first dozen churches across the country to hold public meetings and apologize for not “being Christian” was encouraging. All the blogs and videos and books and articles are perhaps, though, getting counter-productive.
And maybe it’s just me that feels like I’ve heard this a million times. If a Christian out there hasn’t heard that Christians in America don’t love people like Jesus wants us to, by all means: be rocked by the message.
At some point, though, we need to get over the revelation and do something. Right now it sounds like the world, that is hostile toward God’s people anyway, shouting, “Hypocrites! Jerks!” etc. and us going “You’re right! We suck!” I feel like we’re just feeding the lie.
Because strains of it are true: there are Christians who are not living godly lives. But it’s just not true that “most Christians” are bad people. The good ones simply don’t make the news, and they usually go unnoticed in our day to day lives because they’re just nice people. We need to do good – probably more good than we are right now, sure – and point to it when the accusations fly. After that, we need to shut up and fix ourselves – not make documentaries about what horrible people we are.
I’m also getting really tired of the holier-than-thou attitude that this kind of stuff fosters within the Church. You’ve got a group of “real” Christians who create and/or use the articles and videos and books to puff themselves up because they know what’s really wrong with all those other, lesser Christians.
It’s not everyone. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that, by default, the authors of these works are arrogant. I wholeheartedly believe that most of the original authors and producers are genuine people who want to help the body of Christ see where she needs help. It’s the conversation that goes on about them, in Christian circles, that is so often laced with self-righteousness. I know because I’ve been there. I’ve used some of it to put myself on a pedestal over other believers. I’ve since been knocked off said pedestal, but I wasn’t up there alone.
So if you haven’t heard it before, now you have. A segment of the body of Christ is failing to love the way Christ loves and serve the way Christ calls us to serve. Sit back for a moment and let it apply to you too, because it probably does. Agree with your adversary quickly. Okay? You good? Get it?
Now let’s move on before this becomes our legacy.
