(Continued from Christian myths, part 1: Cautions before busting.)
On Monday afternoon I came home from work, and about tore out several of my personal hairs.
It was because of my wife. Yet let me quickly say I was not being mean; my frustration wasn’t because of anything she said. It was because of a Friday Wretched Radio broadcast that she played for me.
“Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
A woman called in to this Christian talk-radio program, hosted by Todd Friel. She didn’t pick much on Todd, but on one of his friends, a guy named Justin Peters. This teacher/speaker has a ministry particularly geared toward pointing out the wrong teachings and heresies of “Word Faith” leaders, such as Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and (everyone’s favorite) Joel Osteen. A victim of mild cerebral palsy, Peters’ purpose is to show video clips of the “prosperity” preachers at churches, then carefully, Biblically explain why their teachings are anti-Biblical.
Well, this myth-busting of people who had made Such a Difference in this dear lady’s life didn’t sit well with her. She started off by condemning Peters for being so mean and for condemning other Christians … uh, yeah. Think about that last sentence from a logical-fallacy perspective. Todd brought up that little inconsistency, very graciously yet clearly.
Bing went one hair from my head.
Then she went on into general admonitions that Peters should be more “loving.”
Boink. Bing. Out went a few more hairs, along with a howl — loving, but lamenting.
Toward the last, the woman even brought up the “judge not lest ye be judged” notion. By that point she was just hurling clichés, leading by her own feelings, arguing from emotions, not a lot of Biblically informed thought. And I had pulled out at least a few more clumps of hair.
Finally she parted with a gushing blessing on Todd Friel, but without willingness to see her inconsistencies or even lack of concern for those who have been deceived by false teachers.
Even if God had worked through the false teachers to convey some truth to her, it didn’t matter that almost all of what they said otherwise was heresy. All that seemed to matter to her was her own experience. So regretfully classic. “Bless her heart.”
What would she say if she met the young man I heard interviewed, who had been “healed” by Benny Hinn yet was still partially blind?
What about a man who has worked for years to honor God and provide for his family, yet doesn’t have enough “faith” to get a ministry empire like Joel Osteen?
What if she had bought steak from a grocery and had no problems herself — would it matter much to her if almost all the other packages were putrid and gave people salmonella poisoning?
Please, before moving on to this post, pray for this woman — and for many like her! Such persons, even if they are true Christians, have adopted the belief that it’s almost always wrong (except for them) to myth-bust other Christians, even directly and in public. It will hurt people.
You have met them. Maybe you are one of them yourself — or maybe just a little.
Either way, I hope you’ll read the rest with a spirit of Christ-honoring open-mindedness. If this is the case, might you for a moment dismiss whatever experiences you’ve had with abuses of Christian myth-busting, or God using a particular teacher for you despite his un-Biblical beliefs, and consider: is myth-busting, when done right, Biblical? 1
Starting on Saturday, I’ll list at least three reasons why it is.
Maybe you can think of a few more reasons. Or maybe you’ll think of rebuttals.2 Regardless, please post your thoughts. “Discernment” can be done wrong, that’s for sure! Yet done right, with love and Biblical balance, busting Christian myths honors God and points people toward His truth and His love — and most of all, His glory.
- Also remember: if you disagree, and want to tell someone that Christians who say this are wrong, doesn’t that kind of violate the “rule” for Christians never to pick on each other anyway? As it turns out, it is really hard to follow this “rule” consistently! ↩
- One of those objections might be the Gamaliel Game (Acts 5: 33-40), i.e., hands off any Christian, because if something is God’s doing you’ll be in the way, and if not, it will fail. But what Gamaliel said was only described in the Bible, never brought up here or anywhere else as an example for Christians to follow. False teachers are often successful. “(T)he gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many,” as Jesus said (Matthew 7:13) before describing false prophets. ↩
So I guess this lady would have issues with the bazillion times Paul spoke out against false teachers and false teaching?!? Like in Philippians 3:2, 18,19. Or 1Timothy 1:3-4 where Paul tells Timothy to “command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer”. Or how about the entire book of Galatians?!?
Naturally Todd Friel made reference to many of those truths (same as the case made in tomorrow’s column). When finally she was confronted with these, kindly yet firmly — and without being distracted by her rabbit-trails — she concluded that there must just be a way to be “more loving” while discerning false teachings.
Of course this is so true, and many Christians are not this way. But with this, the case can be strongly made — as Friel did, augmented by a call later in the program from Peters himself — that love had been exercised very well.
When Peters had come to her church and criticized the Such-A-Nice-Young-Man, Joel Osteen, he had just “stepped on her toes,” and made her upset. She didn’t even acknowledge she was doing the same thing to them as Peters had done to her (which she claimed she didn’t like). Not much can be done about that, I suppose. Yet if I could talk to her myself, I would ask: Is it loving to ignore the damage these false teachers have done to others, even if you personally were not affected?
To be honest, I’m glad I wasn’t the one on the radio with her. Friel did a much better job. I would have hit the studio roof when she finally spit out that “judge not that ye be not judged” line as if it were a debate-ender. Churchians spitting out slogans like a pull-string doll … meh. God give me the grace not to even cringe inwardly when they do that!
Moreover, God give me the grace (and truth) never to do it myself. Hit me if I do. Please.