An Open Letter to my Traditional/ Evangelical/Conservative Christian Friends

Dear Christians who are more traditional, evangelical, and generally less flaky than me,

After I wrote my last letter, I thought a lot about you. While you were applauding me for sticking it to those other guys, I hope you don't think I just wrote it for them.  Even though I have a strong respect for you and your beliefs, some of the things you do and say really worry me.  I want to share a few things with you as well, some friendly advice to help us get along better as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Stop making me feel uncomfortable to disagree with you about stuff.  I often feel uncomfortable around you, and I agree with you about a lot of things. Imagine how uncomfortable the average unbeliever would feel when you start talking. You are not winning anyone to Christ by ridiculing the politicians, or airing your opinions about immigration or healthcare. What do these have to do with the Gospel? You are creating barriers. Learn what is important in life (knowing Jesus, loving God and others) and spend your time and effort on that. Also work to create an environment where people feel free to ask difficult questions and share unorthodox views without being ostracized (see the next point). It is also helpful to keep some of your opinions to yourself, especially around people you don't know very well.

You don't understand everything about the Bible. Quit pretending you do. It makes you come off as arrogant. You may, to some degree, understand your system of interpreting the Bible. You may even be right about several things. More than likely you are wrong about some things too. It's OK if your interpretation is  wrong, because your interpretation is not God's Word. Don't say things like, "The Bible says 'Christians are going to be raptured before/after/in the middle of the great tribulation.'" Say, "this is what I think the Bible is saying about this topic." Realize that just because other people disagree with your interpretation, does not mean they do not respect the Bible, or that they hate God.

Learn to Learn. A lot of people accuse you of being uneducated masses, that only a simpleton could believe and follow the Bible, that you only hold your beliefs because you have never been exposed to anything else. This, of course, is not true. I have known many very intelligent people who believe as you do. But you kind of have a reputation for saying things like "everything I need to know is in the Bible," even though the Bible does not say that (Psalm 143:5, Prov 18:15, 1 Thess 5:21). So read more, and not just pop-evangelical authors, like Max Lucado or John Piper. Read classics. Read contemporary works. Read fiction. You can learn a lot about people from the stories they tell. Read poetry. Listen to music. Learn about other cultures. Accept that you do not know everything about everything. Realize you can even learn things from people who disagree with you.

Stick to your guns. That is, if you have picked the right guns. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world." (2 Corinthians 10:4). At the end of the day you can read and listen to a host of voices. It will make you a more rounded person. It will make you an effective communicator. It may even change your mind about some of your deeply held opinions. But it does not change what is True. If you believe people who don't know Jesus will go to hell, then don't stop talking about it just because it's unpopular. That just makes you a jerk who cares more about what people think of you than saving someone's life. Sift out the bad, but hold on to the Good. Your job is not to become more like the trendy, open-minded, progressive Christians. It is to become more like Jesus. Make that your aim and you will do well.

Your bro,
Zach

An Open Letter to My Enlightened/Progressive/Open-Minded Christian Friends

Dear Christians who are smarter, hipper, and more open-minded than I am,

I ran across this article in the Huffington Post a couple weeks ago, from a self proclaimed Christian telling other Christians to shut up and play nice with everyone else. I agreed with a couple of things he said, but found most of it really irritating. I hear this kind of thing from a growing number of voices, many of them are people that I genuinely like and consider my brothers and sisters. We can not deny that there is a growing divide between those of you who fancy yourselves open minded, progressive, or enlightened Christians (even though you'd never say it like that), and those who call themselves Biblical, evangelical, or "true " Christians (and they would say it that way). What worries me the most, and what prompted me to write this letter is the fear that many of your type of Jesus-followers actually feel they have more in common with progressive atheists and secular types than with other Jesus-followers who hold different political perspectives or different interpretations of the Bible.

I'm sorry the rest of us have been embarrassing you so much. That is not our intent. But we are a family, and everyone has family members they are embarrassed of. We love them anyway. I agree that a lot of Christians need to be a lot less vocal about a lot of things.  It is so easy to get distracted about what the main thing is. Our job is not to influence public opinion or voting habits. It is not to create a "Christian nation" or a "moral majority."  Our job is to proclaim the kingdom of God and work to see it come "on earth as it is in heaven." Our job is to serve without recognition and love without reward, to live like Jesus. That is what will change the world. Keep reminding us of that.

Now I'd like to respectfully offer some advice.

Let the people you disagree with have a voice. There is a difference between shoving something down peoples throats and humbly affirming a truth you hold. Despite our high ideal of free speech, society has a tendency to shut out voices that do not conform to the norms. Often, I feel like certain Christians want to shut out the voices of certain other Christians whom they feel are giving the word "Christian" a bad name. It happens on both sides of the divide. I don't think that is a healthy way to approach our differences. When we can no longer come together in respectful dialog, we just deepen the divide that separates us. We also prove that we do not have the love of the Father in us.

Respect faith, even if (and maybe especially if) you don't believe the same thing. I think you often misunderstand what faith is. Faith is believing in something that can not be proven or falsified. So ridiculing someone's faith because it can not be proven just shows your own ignorance. Now, a lot of Christian types put their faith in a lot of different things, not all of them are right or helpful. But please stop criticizing them for having faith. If, for example, someone believes that the Bible is infallible and inerrant, they are not giving a scientifically verifiable statement, they are sharing a tenant of their faith. There are reasons people hold this view derived both from the text of the Bible, and the history of its transmission. Agree or disagree, you can not deny that it's a tenable statement of someone's deeply held belief. Similar things could be said about other beliefs you don't agree with, such as: six day creation, substitutionary atonement, and eternal conscious torment in hell. Remember that there are those who would ridicule your faith as well, just because they don't get it. Faith is a difficult thing to keep a hold of. Give some props to those do.

Stop worrying about what is popular or trending. Right now it is becoming more and more popular to affirm homosexual marriage and deny homosexual acts as sin. Popular opinion should have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you support gay marriage. For too many it does. As followers of Jesus, our motivations should be how to best reflect God's holiness, goodness, and love in society and in our lives. If that motivation leads you to affirm gay marriage, then good for you. But don't talk about society changing and us needing to change with it. Don't talk about being progressive or open minded. Don't remind us that we are living in the 21st century. You are not winning any conservative types to your cause when you do. Talk about being Christ-like. That's an ideal we can agree on even if we disagree on some of the details about how we apply that today.

It's not all about love. I hear a lot of talk about love these days. I like to talk about love a lot myself. It's the part of the gospel that non-believers like to hear about. It sounds nice, at least until you try and live it out. In truth, the love we are taught by Jesus is so radically higher than anything we see or experience that we need to spend a huge amount of our time figuring out what it means and even more time trying to do it. However, reducing the whole of the Bible's teaching to "love" is like reducing the plot of "Inception" to "it's about dreams." The message of the Gospel is far too complex to reduce to a single unifying principle. I kind of like it that way. I reminds me that God is a lot bigger and more complex than we are. If God were easy to figure out, he wouldn't be God.

It is a lot about love. So let's work on loving each other. The love taught by Jesus is revolutionary. It brings together enemies. It breaks down the barriers of nationality, race, economic status, gender, and political ideology. I think the love of Jesus could break down the barriers between different kinds of Christians as well.  Well, it's a long shot, but I think it's a really good place to start.

I love you. Let's be friends.

Your bro,
Zach

Why I'm Not, Not an Evangelical

 

The label "Evangelical" has fallen into disrepute in recent years and probably for good reasons.  Ironically, it is evangelicals who often show it the most contempt.  From what I've heard, "evangelical" used to mean a person who took the Bible seriously, tried to do what Jesus says to do, and thought everyone should follow Jesus.  In the 19th century evangelicals were the champions of social causes like ending slavery and child labor, and giving women equal rights.  Nowadays, "evangelical" implies a host of other things - someone who likes guns, hates gays, votes Republican, and wants to bring prayer back to school (as if it ever left).  Evangelical culture has developed a product line full of books, music, movies, clothes, and all the other things that entice the commercially driven and insulate them from the influence of the "world."  Most of all, being evangelical implies being conservative, that is, having the orientation that things used to be much better (in America), during some long forgotten epic (the 1950s), and the best thing we can do is reverse the clock and return to those simple days (of racial segregation, misogyny, and the cold war ).

I find myself stuck in the middle.  When it comes down to it, I do believe the Bible, as it was originally given, was inspired by God, and should be taken seriously.  I also believe the Bible's teachings alone hold the answers to our greatest personal and societal problems.  I want everyone to follow Jesus.  I see something unique about those who do follow Jesus, that God has done something in them that differentiates them from every other person in the world. I believe any  life after this one is only guaranteed to those who know Jesus.   That level of exclusivity would lead many to label me an evangelical. So, maybe I am.  But on the other hand, I don't fit the cultural mold of an evangelical.  I don't always vote the way evangelicals do (and I don't put all that much stock in voting).  I believe following Jesus leads me to compassion for the poor, placing the needs of others above my own economic interest. I believe following Jesus leads me to pursue peace for all people, everywhere.  I reject the American dream, as it is sold to us, and I reject the idea that I can share my loyalty to the kingdom of God with any earthly nation, even America.  I prefer to get input ( books, news, the arts) from a variety of viewpoints, even from those I don't agree with.  If I say, "I'm not evangelical," I risk people thinking I don't believe certain things I believe, things we may hold in common.  If I say, "I am evangelical," I risk people believing certain things about my behavior and lifestyle that are just not true about me.

Is it possible to just not take a side?  What if we left the labels at home and just lived what we believed and let that speak for itself?  Maybe we could actually come to the table and talk sensibly about the issues we disagree on if we weren't so caught up in labeling each other. When I write, I usually avoid these loaded terms.  We mostly use these terms to sound smart around others, but they have the unintended consequence of putting people in a box, a rigid stereotype that they can't escape.  I don't like being put in a box, and I try not to box others in either.  I try to just explain things in the simplest terms, regardless of my audience.  I find people respond well to that.  So for now I am not an evangelical, and I'm not, not an evangelical either.  I'm just me.  Get to know me; we might have something in common.