I heard a story about a girl who was a victim of child pornography. The perpetrator of the crime was a pastor at the girl church. As I heard this story I felt a righteous anger rise up within me. Various other stories of pastor and church leaders that have committed terrible atrocities against those in the flock began to come to mind and I was furious. I wasn’t angry at them however, I was angry at myself. I was angry at the church as a whole.
How far have we fallen to allow such things to happen? Where is the righteous anger that should rise up within in the christian to say, that’s not right and we need to fix it? I add the last part because it is the real issue that angers me. There are more than enough ‘christians” who will stand up and say that something or someone is wrong. Where are the christians who will actually attempt to change the root of the issue. Where are those who will confront the cause of the sin and remove it so that the flock can prosper. It seems we are simply content to call those who stumble hypocrites and then continue on with our walk.
There is a much deeper issue here than a man struggle with pornography. There are much deeper issues than people having affairs or being addicted to drugs. Don’t get me wrong, these are all serious problems but the real issue is why did they still struggle with those things. Why didn’t someone know about the issue? Why has the church, the one place we should all feel accepted and welcome, become a place where we feel the need to hide the most?
It seems strange but if you want to find the people who are the most honest about who they are don’t bother looking at a church. Instead try a bar, or a crack house. Why is it you ask? It’s simple, the church is no longer a place of refuge it is a place of judgement and condemnation. We have presented the image of perfection to the world. “Come here and join us and all you problems will go away.” What you end up with is a large group of people who feel like they are second rate because they have problems even after joining. Instead of talking about it they hide it so that they don’t get ridiculed.
What would have happened if the man who struggled with child pornography had been open about his struggle? I fear in most cases he would have been judged harshly and cast aside as one who was not walking the right way. What should have happened to him though? He should have been embraced as a brother who was struggling. There should have been those who came alongside him and helped him to bear the burden, helped him to finally be free from the sin that had ensnared him. The man wanted to be fee but he didn’t know he could be. Even if he knew he could be free, he didn’t know how to be and had no one there to help him.
I write this not to throw stones but to confront the truth that we have, as a church culture, created an atmosphere of darkness and called it light. If we don’t begin to remove the darkness and start walking in openness and transparency the sins that have invaded the church will consume the church. It is only in the light that we are able to become truly free.
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January 24, 2008 at 10:04 pm
baddogmooney
i know what you mean. Being a guy who goes to church, I know sometimes I deal with stuff I can’t share with others for fear of being cut off. Is it my pride? I guess walking out “bear each others burdens” starts with me putting them out there no matter the reaction.
peace,
- mooney
January 25, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Beth
Nate, I totally agree with you.
1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”
If the church would open its eyes to what “Christians” are like outside the church then they would see what the world has seen for years. This is why Christians are commonly called hypocrites. We are great people in church all loving and accepting, but in the real world outside the four walls of the church we are either casting judgment on others, joining in on the sin or are blinded by the Christian title that we don’t see it is our fellow brothers and sisters that are hurting inside the most. The reason it is Christians that hurt the most because they put on a fake mask and say they are great when they are dealing with the same issues as the people down the street washing their sorrows away in liquor.
Even with the 24 hour connection to the internet Christians still try and hide their sins. Pictures and videos are popping up everywhere of Christians who have shocked the church by an unknown sin that they can’t get away from. What we have gotten away from in repenting and changing our ways. We have alter calls, but just because a person has ask for forgiveness and gotten it, will that one alter call help them change, Only if they want it to. How many times do we see people going forward for the same sin? We have gotten away from helping each other pray and work through our problems. We expect them to work it out themselves. How many times do we ask a person that went forward the week before how he or she is doing with that issue? We forget it and move on, but they are still struggling inside and eventually it will come out. We need to start looking in the church for lost souls. We are all sinners and we all deserve to die but God has given us a chance to live. It is time to set the world on fire and make the devil flee from the church.
~Beth W.
January 25, 2008 at 4:08 pm
C.L. Mareydt
… this earth is not heaven … & has always been full of gross darkness …
but we who are in the ‘light’ suffer with the world till ALL is fulfilled according to God’s plan, not man’s plan.
we should be outraged, insulted, & demoralized! if we stop be, then the problem is us.
January 30, 2008 at 5:53 am
Jason Clement
This is why people aren’t honest on Sunday morning, because if they aren’t “perfect”, they aren’t allowed.
Check out this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, painting a dismal picture of Christ to the rest of the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120061470848399079.html
February 8, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Em Danser
This is really a great piece, Nate. A lot of frustrated ramblings about the modern day church leave me feeling personally attacked, as if I should have single-handedly seen our present state and changed it myself — in fact, I should have changed it before I went to work last night.
The fact of our current situation is that it is both complex in its dilemma and simple in solution. We have, however, tried to simplify the problem by denying our feelings and issues (in hopes that they’ll dissolve) because the solution is simple — none other than Jesus Christ, who was the Saviour of our souls at the moment we were so privileged to believe. We unfortunately forget that Jesus taking our sins did NOT mean that He would take our affects, temptations or our humanity, which He Himself shared with us, that He might lead us as a High Priest who fully understands our suffering.
All that to say, then, that your writing here is right on track with your heart, which I know is in the right place. It’s nice to read your words. I know they will be light in dark places.
…and sorry it took me so long to comment on here.
February 29, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Chris Taylor
Interesting post. I’ve posted something related over at my blog. Part of the problem with our church body is that we rationalize our own “sins of choice”. We give voice to greed by stealing, to lust by fantasies, to wrath by fighting.
We all have moments when those things sneak up on us. However, we also have things in our life that we choose to live with knowing they are sin.
Check it out over at http://sharpeningiron.wordpress.com
In Christ,
Chris