Unfair Criticism
My brother-in-law and SL’s youngest sis just flew back to the US last Thursday. The night before I had a casual conversation with my brother-in-law and it steered towards God and Christianity.
He was expressing how churches are going after money and how priests are abusing their “powers” in the name of Christianity. He was making a lot of sweeping statements which I thought was unfair, especially his statement about churches just going after people’s money. He said that no doubt the Bible teaches people to be good people but there are good people who aren’t Christians. Yes, I agree but the Bible is not all about teaching people to be good. However, I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to go into an argument with him because on the inside I’m already boiling because of his unfair sweeping statements. He is a very smart and bright person, so much so I think he has total disregard and disrespect for God. I said I agreed with him that there are people who are corrupted in the church but surely not all churches are after people’s money but he was too hard-headed to accept what I had to say.
It is very sad to say that SL’s youngest sis (who was the one to bring SL to Christ) has fallen to her husband’s way of belief when she was once a strong believer of Christ. For me feeling sad and angry is not enough, the goal should be to be better equipped with the Word in order to be an effective witness, especially in the face of unfair criticism. God help me.
He was expressing how churches are going after money and how priests are abusing their “powers” in the name of Christianity. He was making a lot of sweeping statements which I thought was unfair, especially his statement about churches just going after people’s money. He said that no doubt the Bible teaches people to be good people but there are good people who aren’t Christians. Yes, I agree but the Bible is not all about teaching people to be good. However, I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to go into an argument with him because on the inside I’m already boiling because of his unfair sweeping statements. He is a very smart and bright person, so much so I think he has total disregard and disrespect for God. I said I agreed with him that there are people who are corrupted in the church but surely not all churches are after people’s money but he was too hard-headed to accept what I had to say.
It is very sad to say that SL’s youngest sis (who was the one to bring SL to Christ) has fallen to her husband’s way of belief when she was once a strong believer of Christ. For me feeling sad and angry is not enough, the goal should be to be better equipped with the Word in order to be an effective witness, especially in the face of unfair criticism. God help me.
posted by skng74 | 11:04 AM
1 Comments:
these are indeed challenging times. and it's painful when others "unfairly" pick on the "worst" part of Christianity. It's harder when there already so much prejudice against Christianity as a Religion.
conversations like this often "force" me to do my homework so that I could engage people like him better. Nowadays, it also makes me go back more into "prayer" and "intercession" for them. Learning to "accept" them as people without necesarrily "approving" their views has been a constant challenge. These truths help a lot:
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." 1 Pet 3:15-16
Having said that, I found it helpful sometimes to "reframe" the discussion around the person of Jesus. At the mean time, learning to be secure in our faith so as not needing to be "defensive" and show a genuine confidence in Christ and what he has done in our lives. How we respond is equally important with what we say in return, IMHO.
I do wonder what is his story behind all those statements. Perhaps there's more than meets the eye. take care bro!
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