I have been avoiding controversy on social media for over a month now… and I have avoided most of my Facebook feed for a few weeks, and, in some ways, my ignorance has been bliss, but one day back on Facebook, five minutes reading my news feed, and I’m instantly convicted all over again that people I know who claim to serve Christ are both the solution and the problem with my Facebook feed…
The first post on my feed was from a Christian friend who was sharing something thought provoking about Christianity.
The second post was from a Christian friend who was sharing something about a local store requiring masks. The comment thread to follow was filled with comments, and Christians I care about were hurting each other in the comments about the reason for wearing masks.
- Pastors used to tell people to care for the poor.
- Pastors told people to care for their aging parents.
- Pastors told people to care for the lost.
- Pastors told people to avoid sinful behaviors.
Pastors who actually care also try to explain the details of each of those things… What does it look like to care for the poor, and how can we do it? What does it look like to avoid sinful behaviors and which behaviors would those be? Christianity has gone like this for a long time, and it hasn’t changed in our world today.
But in the past, it was encouragement to avoid alcohol, sexual immorality, etc.
Today, it just might be the belief in falsehoods and conspiracies, and a general, Christian ignorance.
Today, I think pastors need to start speaking out against the divisions in our world that exist because of lies and deceptions.
However, I am believing less and less that we can do that without clearly identifying which are the lies and deceptions, and we can’t do that without actually standing on one side or another of these public issues.
For years, I tried to have a sit-on-the-fence-but-ask-questions approach to the issues. I tried to create wholesome debate and healthy discussion.
However, when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I eventually took a stand on one aspect of the current world and shared publicly and emotionally what I thought of a specific political behavior done by our President.
The aftermath of that action has been beyond what I expected. A few of my closest friends have told me to no longer talk to them.
My heart was broken, and I spent a month in depression aggravated by a change in some medication, but mostly motivated by extreme sadness and regret over the whole chain of events.
I kept wondering if I could do something to change people’s minds to bring them back into my life.
But it’s now almost two months since my video, and I don’t think I have the power to bring people back into relationship with me.
But I do have a lingering dilemma. Do I go back to fence-sitting, or do I embrace the fact that for Christian unity to ever actually become a thing in this world, we have to be honest with each other?
Last Sunday, I was so overwhelmed by the inconsistency of Christians who divide themselves over earthly falsehoods when we have a Heavenly Dad whose glory is terrifying and whose grace is unfathomable, that I preached a double message as part of a worship experience that went almost two hours long. The second half of the message is where I began to go “practical” and I believe that we Christians have major things to change about ourselves and our interaction with each other and with the world around us.
The current times have brought these issues to the surface, and it’s probably time for us to actually deal with them.
So the rhetorical question that I’m asking is basically this? Should pastors hold opinions publicly that can be perceived as political (because in our world today, everything is perceived as political)?
I’m beginning to think I should.
If you want to see my video from Sunday, I’ll link it here starting at the point I began the “second half” of the message: