...I have witnessed a huge shift in the relationship between the church's morality and public morality. I can identify three distinct stages:
1. The church as moral compass to society. Most people, even those who were unbelievers and irreligious, believed that the morality taught by the church was right. They believed that when and if they got their act together, they would adopt something close to the church's moral vision.
2. The church as irrelevant to society. In this stage, people looked at the church's morality as a harmless anachronism. The church's morals were certainly OK for those who chose to abide by them, but they laid no realistic claim on the lives of secular, "enlightened" people.
3. The church as the sponsor and perpetuator of immorality. Increasingly, I hear secular people who see the church as a danger to good moral values. The accusation is that the church promotes narrow-mindedness and bigotry, oppression of minorities, and infringement of important rights like free speech. There is also widespread suspicion that in addition to being bigots, most church people are also hypocrites who secretly practice the very things they condemn.
If my observation is even partly right, how should this shift in thinking change the way churches exist and function in the world?
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5 comments:
I, for one, don't buy the world's argument. Most of the civil rights movement was led by Christian leaders. Take Christian contributions (in both time and activity) to charitable works out of the equation, and what's left?
They called Jesus narrow-minded, a sinner, a drunkard, etc. too.
If there's a problem then it's probably not with the Church, per se, but with the politics of a certain group of American Christians which are currently trending less popular.
Keep in mind that the world doesn't have any concept of the distinction between "the Church" and "the sum total of everyone who sits in a pew on Sunday mornings". Not everyone who goes to church, is in the Church. Neither do they understand true hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not about failing to meet the standards you uphold. It is about holding standards upon others and not yourself. Just because you have standards, doesn't mean you always keep them. I, for one, hardly ever measure up to Jesus' standards; but that won't keep me from holding Him up as the true Light that came into the world.
-- Jim <><
I see people in both categories. What I have noticed though is that more times that not, it is a family systems issue that leads to the disgruntled feelings. Most often the very same people that condemn the church for being judgemental and hypocrits also have issues with overbearing families.
I think the best thing the church can do is practice acceptance and stick to teaching the word. When you teach the facts, absent of any judgement a person is more willing to hear and listen. If you focus more on the person and developing their own individual relationship with God, you will get a lot farther than by saying this is what God wants for you.
When you start adding your own opinion on who will be saved and who will not, they stop listening.
We had a discussion not too long ago in my human behavior class where the professor stated that your religion is only one part of your spirituality. Basically her justification for this was that your religion teaches you one thing but you in turn believe another. She said your religion has it's own set of laws and you then chose what you want to follow.
I pretty much decided she must have come from a certain, rule bound denomination and I was later proved right.
Churches are supposed to be there to pass on the good news, not to pass judgement.
It's also not a popularity contest. When, if ever was the true church found to be the most popular?
Spread the word and hope for the best, that's all you have the power to do. The rest is up to Him.
What I have witnessed is that many of those who have come to the "stage 3" thinking you have described have sufferred trauma in life (not everything has gone according to plan) or have been subject to bitter judgmental thinking, whether from family or from church or even from friends who differ in politics or other practices. Yet, the burden is often shifted to those who would publically maintain a certain standard of morality - ie: the church. Having experienced the pain and hurt of rejection, they in turn reject. So, what to do? Keep the doors open. Love and honor God first and foremost, and in so doing, love those around us in actions more than in words, no matter what they may say or think of us. Needless to say, this is very difficult to do. Mark
So, when we come across one of these "all Christians are hypocrites" type people, instead of laying into them with our well-polished apologetic arguments, we ought instead to respond with something along the lines of, "Gee, sounds like maybe you've had a bad experience with church. Lots of people have. Wanna talk about it?"
This sort of response embodies genuine compassion, love and concern and at the same time implicitly reminds the accuser that there's a lot of people who have had good experiences with churches.
Lots of wisdom in that, I think. Thanks.
-- Jim <><
I must be the lucky one cause I can say to the type 3-er's, So have I, but really they are not all like that.
Funny, in a round about sort of way, the reason I am in church now is because a person that meant a great deal to me thought I was went to church becasue of my actions, but I didn't because of that great disgruntled feeling. That comment stuck with me, a couple more bad things happened, I prayed and poof I started going to church.
Don't give up yet, there is hope still!!!
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