The outrage
machine is currently turned up to 100 over Duck Dynasty. In case you've been
under a rock for the last 24 hours, here’s a recap: Phil Robertson, the
patriarch of the Robertson clan, stars of the A&E reality show “Duck
Dynasty,” has been suspended from the show for remarks he made about the
sinfulness of homosexuality in an interview with the magazine GQ. Some of what
he had to say was a simple restatement of historic Christian beliefs. Some of
it was, to be honest, pretty crude. But the purpose of this post is not to
re-hash what he said. Others can, and will so much more eloquently. The purpose
of this post is to talk about the Christian reaction to this “scandal.”
Let me
preface what I’m about to say with this: if you are upset about this issue, that
is absolutely your right. I’m not telling you not to boycott A&E or not talk
about it on Facebook or not tweet about it until your fingers hurt. My concern is
people who scream about “Christian values” on the internet, but whose lives don’t
reflect those Christian values anywhere else. Social media activism is not the same thing as
sanctification. But very often, we believe if we are angry about the right
things, then that proves we really do love Jesus. That’s not how it works.
If you are
screaming about A&E’s attack on the faith today, you’re a hypocrite if you’re
not in church on Sunday. If you’re eating at Chick-Fil-A because of their stand
on Christian morals, but you cheat on your wife and beat your kids, then it
doesn't count for much. If you tweeted about Hobby Lobby yesterday, but are fudging
on your time sheet at work today, then you really don’t get it. If you spend
half your time reading about the latest Christian controversy on the internet,
and the other half looking at porn, then something is not right.
Growing in
grace has nothing to do with posting, “Like if you love Jesus, keep going if you love Satan,” on your wall. I’m afraid we have far too many “Facebook”
Christians, who live one life on their social network, and a completely
different one in the real world. Maybe they can’t tell the difference between
the two.
The bottom
line is this; let your reaction to culture be informed by your faith, but
please don’t let it be the whole of your Christian faith. Growing in grace is
not mainly found in what we’re angry about. It’s mainly found in how we love,
how we serve and how we share the Gospel with the world. Outrage is not a fruit
of the Spirit.
4 comments:
I don't feel outraged. I feel sadness that Christian values cannot be expressed without outrage from other groups. Then I remember that when Jesus walked this earth a lot of what He said caused outrage among some sects/groups.
Yes, Christianity has always been offensive. Always will be. We shouldn't be surprised by that. We make some pretty audacious claims. We should expect people won't always like it.
Any religion can be offensive, if that's not what you believe. Christianity is not alone in this.
Excellent article!
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