This is a snippet from reading of “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard.
Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right than it is to be Christ-like. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and, indeed, requires you to be mean – righteously mean, of course. You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership. They deserve nothing better. This is a part of what I have elsewhere called the practice of “condemnation engineering”.
Now I must say something you can be mad at me about. A fundamental mistake of the conservative side of the American church today, and much of the Western church, is that it takes as its basic goal to get as many people as possible ready to die and go to heaven. It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people. This of course requires that these people, who are going to be “in”, must be right on what is basic. You can’t really quarrel with that. But it turns out that to be right on “what is basic” is to be right in terms of the particular church tradition [or theology] in question, not in terms of Christlikeness.
Now, the project thus understood and practiced is self-defeating. It implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live.
Filed under: Christianity
This analysis is unfortunately SPOT ON. Sad sad sad indeed. Christians today are more focused on “being right” instead of being compassionate.
Sometimes i admit i struggle with this. Even when i seek out compassion from other people for my own wrongdoings, i often fail to offer compassion to others when they confess their own wrongdoings. I quote a friend of mine : “I wish my own sin disgusted me as much as my neighbours sin”.