"a 'true' church"

Check this website out!

Here is a site that offers a brief glimpse into the extremities of “right-wing” Christendom. I dare not call the viewpoint offered as conservative.

This guy believes that almost every well-known preacher is an anti-Christ. Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Tony Evans, Rick Warren, Pat Robertson, even John MacArthur, are all wolves and false prophets.

And check out his essay topics! Polygamy is okay, Slavery is okay, and executing homosexuals is okay. But drinking alcohol is bad.

Also something else is okay… uh, … I want use the word but it involves “fiddling”. This may explain a lot of the website’s contents. In fact, all those who say that one shouldn’t “fiddle”, according to this bloke, is a Pharisee. Yes, THOSE are Pharisees!

Normally I would not post a link to such a website, let alone make such a notice of it, but I felt that a casual perusal of such a site would be beneficial to all. Yes, I would normally be quite hesitant to highlight such a brand of Christianity. A good number of non-believers visit my site and I would certainly not want them to confuse such “ravings” as authentic Christianity or as part of the mainstream of conservative orthodoxy. But I will risk such a potentiality in this one case for four reasons.

1) To those of you who are non-believers, let it be known that the website linked to is not a reflection of authentic Christianity as it is experienced by the overwhelming majority of Christian believers. The fact that I should highlight such a website as a focus of disapproval should prove that what I say is so.

2) To those of you who are more towards the liberal or moderate side of Christendom, let it be known that the majority of conservative Christians are in no such way people who approve of such things. May you thank God that the SBC leaders are not as bad as they could be.

3) To those of you who are more towards the conservative side of Christendom, please be aware that you should not slip in such a direction as the linked-to website. It would be a terrible thing if conservative Christianity would slide so far to the right that the majority of conservative parishioners isolated themselves from the rest of Christendom and the world.

4) And to those who agree with much of the arguments of the highlighted website, well … I do not think you at all mind isolating yourselves from the rest of Christendom and the world. So good luck.

You know, coming out of conservative Christianity, one is occasionally confronted with legalistic believers who, well, never seem to think anything is okay or fun. I am sure that those from liberal Christianity must sometimes deal with libertine Christians who think everything is okay and everything is fun. I am sure that is the case, but I am not from that side of Christendom and I do not want to discuss it anyway. Rather, I’d like to make mention of legalistic believers.

I mean, to some believers everything is evil. Science fiction/fantasy is evil, all non-Christian music is evil, alcohol is evil, TV is evil, public education is evil, vegetarianism is evil, interracial dating is evil, dancing is evil, bands leading worship instead of pianos and organs is evil, casual dress is evil, any translation other than the King James Version is evil, ecumenicalism is evil, Catholics are evil, non-Baptists are evil, neo-orthodoxy is evil, non-inerrancy is evil, liberal Christians are evil … well, I may be moving away from the fringe and more towards the mainstream but I hope I have given a brief example of what I am talking about.

My question is this: Do these people ever have any fun?

Now don’t think this is a slight question. It is very serious. As I moved from more conservative, legalistic churches to conservative, non-legalistic churches, I began to notice that those believers who advocated a more legalistic approach to the faith always seemed unhappy and devoid of joy. To them, all secular culture was evil and all moderate to liberal Christians needed to be shut up. Not argued with or defeated in the realm of ideas but silenced. You know, you can always get a good glimpse into the certainty of another movement’s position and how much the adherents of the movement trust their ideas by how they deal with those who disagree with them. If they welcome debate, then they are pretty secure in their beliefs. If they rather silence their opponents and squash all debate, then one starts to suspect that they do not feel too secure with their position.

Here is an example. In many liberal colleges, the administration does not provide their students with a balance of conservative and liberal professors. Many of the liberal professors claim that they want a free exchange of ideas but do not want conservative professors offering students a different, conservative interpretation. If they were so secure in their beliefs one would think they would not mind another position being spoken.

Here is another example. In most conservative seminaries and colleges, the administration does not provide their students with a balance of conservative and liberal professors. When the conservatives are on the outside looking in, they claim to only want balance. But when the conservatives become the majority they shut out their ideological opponents just the same as the liberals. When I was on the outside looking in I advocated the balanced approach and supported conservative leaders who claimed only to want balance at Christian colleges and seminaries. Well, that now appears to not have been the case. Today they want to push out other beliefs just as much as the liberals wanted. If they were so secure in their beliefs one would think they would not mind another position being spoken.

These people are always fighting against liberals and other straw men that they concoct to answer why their ministries suffer. These people seem to be against more than they are for. I heard Rick Warren say something similar to this recently, he said, “The world knows what Christians are against, but they don’t know what we are for.” True words. Needless to say, on the linked to website, he is regarded as a wolf.

I mean really. No alcohol, no rock music, no neo-orthodoxy – how do these people have fun? I’ll tell you. I think they get their kicks getting mad at others. I think they have fun being upset about liberals and modern culture. They are miserably happy. These guys do not walk around with happy expressions of Christian joy and peace. Rather, there is always something to be upset about. So they must then speak about against modern culture and modern liberals and keep modern culture and modern liberals away from the children. And certainly keep them out of our colleges.

You know, somewhere there is a child who is growing up to think that Billy Graham is a liberal and false prophet and must be silenced. My God!

Here are a five Biblical lessons that I hope will help all those out there who feel that life is not worth living unless you are attacking the latest Harry Potter book.

1) Have faith. God is in control and all things work toward good. So if you see another person or group out there whether liberal or conservative or just wacko claiming the name of Jesus: LEAVE THEM ALONE! It is not your business. As long as they are not persecuting others then don’t try to stop them from proclaiming the name of Jesus. Trust God to deal with them.
2) Have peace. It’s not your mission to wage the culture wars. Your waging it wrong anyway.
3) Have joy. This life is a wonderful gift and we need to have joy in it. Fantasy fiction is just that: fantasy and fiction. Leave Rowling and Lucas and Spielberg alone. They have enough problems of their own than to have to deal with whiny Christians. And alcohol is for our joy [Editorial note: the writer of Panis Circenses is not currently imbibing alcohol while he is in seminary].
4) Have patience. God will deal with those whom He wishes to deal with, including you.
5) Don’t try to separate the wheat from the tares. It is not your responsibility, it is God’s. Leave the tares there and let God deal with them. He may want them there so he can turn the tares into wheat. Who knows, you might be a tare.

With these points in mind, go out and have a beer [preferably a Guinness so I can enjoy it vicariously], watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and read Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community.

If not, at least watch Are You Being Served? this weekend and lighten up.