So, I want to clear something up that some have asked me in the past. In several sermons I have made a point to say that Christianity and the simple gospel message has nothing to do with much of what it seems to have been intricately entwined with. Christianity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has very little if nothing to do with any particular political party, political agenda, how a person should dress (or not dress), a list of things we should or shouldn’t do, or any number of fads that have come along in the church world over the last few decades.
Understandably, some may think that I am saying that how we as Christians live, the choices we make, and how these things intersect with clear teaching of Scripture do not matter. It may sound as though I’m saying anything goes and we can do whatever the heck we want because in the end Christianity is all about grace and so it’s all good. Or some may think I’m saying that we should not care about the current issues of the day, political or otherwise—including issues that cut right against clear biblical teaching like the sanctity of human or the sexual ethic clearly taught throughout the Bible that would label same sex marriage and activity as sin and outside of God’s intention and design for human flourishing. So, let me be clear. On those 2 issues in particular I have been very clear over the last 20 years and have stated thus in multiple sermons and written pieces. And, there are many other things on which the Bible speaks very clearly. And these things which are clearly taught in scripture need to be followed and believed as the Christ follower grows in maturity and Christlikeness.
And, yet, even important scriptural issues like the sanctity of life and human sexuality do not define what Christianity is about. They are not the Gospel—the “Good News.” And, my long held contention after nearly 30 years of ministry is that many people are repelled not by the Gospel of Jesus or even the hard edged truth of Scripture.
I believe that most non-believers are repelled by their faulty understanding of what church, Christianity, and being a Christ follower is at its essence. And, in most cases, they have this faulty understanding because for many years the conservative/evangelical church world has been more vocal about everything other than the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ for our sin, and the grace offered to a broken world. For too many years (and getting worse today) what the unchurched world has largely heard is that church/Christianity is really about family values, or the Moral Majority, or the Republican party, or consuming only “Christian” media, or being against science and believing the earth is 4,000 years old, or dressing a certain way, or not dancing, or not playing cards, or having to fall in line with the most recent church fad, or homeschooling as opposed to public schooling, or believing in a premillennial-pretribulation rapture, or the King James Bible is the only real Bible, or the evils of Harry Potter and trick or treating, or being anti global warming and opposed to environmental concerns….
I could go on and on. And I’m not saying that this characterization is always fair. Some folks don’t want to believe and wouldn’t even if Jesus Himself presented them with the 4 Spiritual Laws. I’m just saying that in the minds of many, to be a Christian means having to really become a different person in many ways. Not different in ways the Bible says a Christian should be. But different in ways that are more human opinion than biblical prescription.
And, by the way, I’m part of the problem. My calling and job is to get up all the time and try to preach the Bible and this simple Gospel without Chris’ opinion becoming too intertwined in it. And I fail at that too often. Not only in my preaching but in my living.
But I want to give an example of the damage caused by this kind of thing. About 25 or so years ago a young pastor named Josh Harris wrote a best-selling book called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.” This book sparked what was called the Purity Movement which encouraged teens to not date so that they would be less tempted sexually and would be “pure” for their future spouse. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. The Bible certainly speaks to this issue of sexual purity even in a world as sexually confused as ours. The problem was that the book, Churches, pastors, parents, and kids took this idea to an unbiblical and sometimes strange extreme which ended up causing more harm than good. It took a biblical teaching—abstinence before marriage and sex only within marriage—and tried to put a lot of other rules around it.
About 5 years ago young women who grew up in this “purity movement” (1990s and early 2000s) began to write books and blog about the destructive impact it had on them. Many of them gave up on the church. Nearly all of them have a real hard time believing that God loves them since they didn’t stay “pure”. This movement basically said that if you stay pure, God will reward you with the greatest marriage ever with mind blowing sex all the time with your wife. To be fair, there were lots and lots of male and female kids who grew up in churches that really pushed this and are now perfectly well adjusted young adult believers. But my issues with it stem from the legalistic mentality that accompanied it as well as the absolutely heart wrenching stories I have read from young adults who were spiritually and often physically damaged as a result.
This is just one example (of many) of a fad that went through the church world which took a biblical principle to kooky extremes and became intertwined with what “real” Christians do. So for about the last 5 or so years Josh Harris has been apologizing for the damage the book caused. Then last year, sadly, Josh Harris announced that he and his wife were getting divorced and he longer considered himself a Christian.
That’s a pretty extreme and sad example. But it speaks to the damaged caused to the name of Christ and the Gospel when we allow the Christian faith to be too closely related to things other than the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. The apostle Paul says that is the gospel we preach. Woe to us if we ever forget that.
Chris Higgins 