Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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When labels are (mis)applied in the church

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Name LabelWe like to categorize other people by applying labels to them. Liberal versus conservative, rich versus poor, informed versus ignorant, interesting versus boring, popular versus nerdy, the list of possible categories is inexhaustible. Politicians use this tendency to categorize to their benefit by trying to portray themselves in a popular category while casting their opponent as the opposite.

There is  danger in carrying this drive to categorize people into the church. In the church there are to be no such categories; we are all equal when we come to the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Yet in some churches, people are categorized and labeled. People can be labeled as troublemakers, critics, backsliders, emotionally unstable, emotionally repressed, etc. Positive labels such as leader, teacher and supporter can also be applied.

Applying labels to people becomes a problem when it prevents them from growing into their God-given ministry potential. This is especially true when the labels are applied based on erroneous or incomplete information. Stephen Covey relates the story of the boys on the subway to illustrate how easy it is to misunderstand another person’s situation and actions.

One day on the subway, while quietly reading a book, Stephen was interrupted by two wild children that got on with their father at a subway stop.

The children were out of control, jumping up and down, running loudly through the subway car.

The father seemed not to notice or care that his children were misbehaving and disturbing commuters…

Stephen approached the father and wanted to scold him for not controlling his children and teaching them respect for others…

The father agreed, and sighed sullenly, saying “yeah, I just don’t know what to do or say to them. We just came from the hospital where their mother died from a random assault….”

I have seen people who have made suggestions get labeled as troublemakers. I have seen people who identify problems get accused of being divisive. On the flip side, I have seen those who are successful in business get tagged as church leaders despite their spiritual immaturity.

Church leaders must resist the temptation to label and categorize people in their congregations. Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

Look at the Disciples that Jesus picked. Among them was a terrorist, a traitor, two brothers with anger issues, a fisherman with a tendency to say the wrong thing and a thief. The man that wrote much of the New Testament was a murderer. Jesus trusted this rag tag bunch to found his Church, people we would likely write off as being of little help.

The point is that if someone is causing a problem in the church, that problem should be addressed without labeling the person. God deals with our sin without labeling us, who are we to refuse to do this for others?

How Chick-fil-A baffled the PR pundits

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Chick-fil-AIn a USAToday article entitled Surprise: PR nightmare didn’t damage Chick-fil-A, Bruce Horowitz expresses surprise that Chick-fil-A was not negatively impacted by the firestorm sent against it by the homosexual community and its supporters. I offer some thoughts on why this “controversy” did not damage Chick-fil-A.

  • Dan Cathy was accused of “hate speech” against homosexuals by his comments in support of marriage. In all of the articles I have read on his interview, I heard nothing hateful toward anyone coming from Dan Cathy’s mouth. He made statements in support of traditional marriage. He did not say that homosexuals are inferior people, nor did he say that homosexuals should be targeted for discrimination. He merely said that by his understanding, marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.
  • I think that people grow tired of the verbal engineering that the homosexual community uses to label as “homophobic” anyone who disagrees with their agenda. Most rational people understand that a person can disagree with his neighbor without hating or fearing him. It is possible to have strong support for traditional marriage and treat homosexuals with respect and dignity.
  • The math doesn’t support the idea that this firestorm should have a large impact on Chick-fil-A. A Gallup.com article concludes that most Americans overestimate the homosexual population to be around 20% when the actual numbers are in the single digits. Some estimate the homosexual population to be as low as 2% and The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force estimate as high as 8% of the population. If you assume that Chick-fil-A had a normal market share in the homosexual community, a boycott could potentially create only an 8% reduction in sales.
  • Consider the fact that because of the firestorm, Chick-fil-A name recognition went up. For a few weeks, Chick-fil-A’s name was often on TV, computer screens and in print. It was essentially free advertising for the brand. Spontaneous sales would naturally increase because of the name promotion.
  • The increased name recognition coupled with the fatigue induced by the verbal engineering of the radical homosexual community induced many to eat at Chick-fil-A that might not have done so before the controversy. Some began visiting Chick-fil-A stores just to support Dan Cathy in light of the unfair accusations against him.

Some who have claimed to be Christian have said hateful things against homosexuals; those who do are rightly condemned. I must confess that the Church has a history of handling the issue of homosexuality poorly. There have been times when homosexuality has been treated as the unforgivable sin, which it is not.

According to the Bible, every human has dignity because humanity bears the image of God. We have all marred that image through sin, none of us stands with an unblemished record. This is the point of the “do not judge” command that Jesus gives us in Matthew 7:1. We are not to look down on others because they are sinners because we ourselves are also sinners.

While the Church should treat homosexuals with the respect that is due those who bear the image of God, we also must stand firm on the definition of marriage that God gave us in Scripture. This is exactly what Dan Cathy did. Mr. Cathy allowed his belief to inform his policy.

Apparently America agrees with his right to do so.

A test for idolatry

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Farm GateGod is in the idol smashing business. Scripture and experience show this to be true. Much of the Old Testament is taken up with the story of Israel falling into idolatry and God confronting that idolatry through the prophets and the judgment of the surrounding nations.

The first two of the Ten Commandments deal with the issue of idolatry:

“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:3–4, NASB)

Few of us in Western Civilization literally bow down before an image and practice what we would consider idol worship. But that does not acquit us from the charge of idolatry. The decent into idolatry is subtle and can go unnoticed.

How then can we know when we are falling into idolatry?

When you find yourself thinking, “if only I had _____, then I would be happy,” it is likely that you are falling victim to idolatry. The blank will be filled by different things at different times, but if it is a person, place or thing other than God, it is idolatry.

Why would God be so hard on those who succumb to idolatry? I believe it is because God understands better than we do that the person, place or thing to which we look for fulfillment will eventually disappoint and frustrate us.

In a fallen world, things break or get used up, places have their bad points and people will eventually disappoint you. Even the best of us experiences failure, bringing disappointment to those we love. For this reason, God seeks to reorient our focus on himself, because he is the one person who will never disappoint us.

Perhaps this is why Jesus tells us that those who mourn are blessed. When we understand that creation is fallen and we participate in and contribute to that fallenness, mourning is the proper response. A line written by Wendell Berry about his farm illustrates this.

“My aim has been to go against its history and to repair the damage of other people. But now a part of its damage is my own.”

When we have this proper sense of mourning, then it will be less likely that we will fall into idolatry. With this corrected perspective, it will be easier to realize that God is the only person who will never disappoint us. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul tells us that “when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13:10)

May the perfect come soon.

Responding to the Dinesh D’Souza controversy – 4 things to keep in mind

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Dinesh D'SouzaI am not writing to condemn or defend Dinesh D’Souza. The facts in this case will eventually come out and I am not willing to invest the time to work through the details, nor do I trust all of the available sources of those details. I hope that as a Christian, Mr. D’Souza has someone to whom he is accountable and no matter what he did or did not do, he will grow as a result.

In response to the stories in the news, I offer some thoughts on a framework for developing a response:

  1. All human leaders fail. In small ways or big, all leaders will eventually fail. This is just as true for Christian leaders. There is danger in putting Christian leaders on a pedestal, expecting too much from them and being disappointed when they do not meet our expectations. We cannot expect perfection. So when a Christian leader falls, it should not rock our world to the point where we doubt the truth of Christianity.
  2. God chooses to use flawed men to accomplish his purpose for humanity.  Or more correctly, God chooses to use us in spite of our flaws. The failure of men, even men of high standing, cannot derail God’s plan.
  3. Christian leaders should be held to the standard of Scripture. The qualifications for Christian leadership are found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. When the qualifications for leadership are not met, then it is appropriate to have that leadership role taken away. Christians should not knowingly sit under the leadership of anyone who does not meet the qualifications for leadership that the Apostle Paul outlines.
  4. Every leader has the opportunity for repentance and restoration. God uses broken people who have experienced failure. Peter denied his Lord. The Apostle Paul was a murderer. David was a philanderer and a murderer. Moses had anger issues. Abraham got caught lying to a king (twice). Yet, God used all of these men to play significant roles in the advancement of His agenda. We cannot write off any leader as a total failure.

We cannot use the excuse that everyone has flaws to give a leader a pass when he fails. The failure must be addressed. But, it must be addressed with the goal of repentance and restoration.

My prayers are with Mr. D’Souza, The King’s College and those men who can speak into Mr. D’Souza’s life. No matter what actually happened, the controversy has created a storm around the college and her former president. All involved will need wisdom and grace.

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