Comments on: Was Paul a Good Christian?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2005 07:18:00 +0000

Thanks guys.
It's important to remember in all of this that there is no perfect church. Where ever we go we will be dissapointed, this side of Judgement at least. Our responsbility it to be a light wherever we are, and sometimes that means finding a new place to be a light. Let's pray we can all be good representatives of Christ whereever we are.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 May 2005 00:38:00 +0000

“It seems that many would rather pretend that disagreements don

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:01:00 +0000

Brother, I'm really sorry about this. I pray for reconciliation, though I'm not sure what that would look like in this situation. I'm not the first person to make this statement, but humility is often grossly absent in our churches. (Is that a humble statement?) Stories such as what you've articulated make me sad. I'm really sorry that you've gone through this.
I think that it makes sense that people would take their beliefs personally. For all of us who are Christians, we have thrown our lot in with God's kingdom. It and our (limited) beliefs about the kingdom are the sources of our identity. If we feel some kind of threat is made upon that identity, we naturally become defensive. I'm not saying that this excuses anyone's actions, I'm just saying that it is what I observe about human behavior. Anyone familiar with the (in)famous Barth/Brunner debate knows how their friendship was ruined because of their disagreements regarding natural revelation. It probably would be beneficial for us all to learn to communicate and disagree better.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:12:00 +0000

Thanks Steve. Of course, it's hard to “not waste our time” with people who act this way when they're in leadership at our churches. There comes a time when it is just casting pearls before swine. The difficulty is deciding when that time has come.
(I don't mean to call anyone a swine here, just using a Biblical metaphor for wasting time)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:40:00 +0000

I wonder if the way to get back to the tolerance and vigorous debate exhibited by CS Lewis and his buddies is to simply not waste our time with folks who are so overly sensitive and proud-beyond-question. Sure, we are to bear with the weaknesses of our fellow Christians, but at some point our putting up with foolishness actually promotes it and keeps us from truly productive Christian action. I applaud you Roger, and the Spirit of Christ you are exhibiting, not only in interacting with your church leadership, but in leaving the church altogether. -S. Wagner

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 00:03:00 +0000

For those who know the church I'm talking about, the head pastor isn't guilty of what I've talked about here. I'll just say it was a couple of others in leadership. I met with the head pastor today and he was very willing to discuss the issues.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:48:00 +0000

Roger, I think this is a really good post. Somewhere along the line, we (the people in this society) have started taking our opinions too personally. You're right that disagreements are taken as personal insults and discouraged as “mean.” I remember reading once about C.S. Lewis and all his fellow professors. They got together and disagreed about everything, but they were all great friends. They just didn't take attacks on their ideas personally. They were able to separate their self-worth from their ideas. I have no idea how we can get back to this, but I hope it's possible.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:55:00 +0000

Man, I'm sorry that you had to go through all that. It's upsetting to me to read that they still won't have intelligent discourse over issues. And it's sad to see them turn it around and do a bit of character assassination. Gee, what deja vu.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:30:00 +0000

Ah, that does make it clearer. I think you are spot on. Thanks for the additional context!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:16:00 +0000

Thanks Micah, I suppose I wasn't really clear. There are two points here. The first is that none of us have it all together, so if we're going to faithfully follow Christ we need to be humble enough to listen to one another. The second is that if we don't do that we end up where many Christians are at (including the leaders of this church)- Anyone who doesn't fit what we believe and says we're wrong is obviously wrong and therefore a bad person. I give them the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to follow God's Word. If they are, and they refuse to listen to someone who disagrees, as they have, then they believe they're following it perfectly, and there's no chance I could be right. Either that, or they don't think a member of the church has the right to hold the church accountable to scripture. That's where the bit about Paul comes in. He held Peter and Barnabas accountable, judging them, not by his authority as an apostle, but by the authority of the gospel. We have a responsibility as Christians to hold each other accountable by that same authority. Instead, they've decided to question my character simply for claiming the'yre doing something wrong. They don't care what I have to say about what they're doing, that I would even claim they're wrong makes me a bad guy. For some reason I don't think Peter and Barabas responded to Paul that way. I suspect they were humble enough to at least listen to him.