Whose Disciples?

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Christ and the Apostles by Georges Rouault 

For a while now I’ve been bothered by much of what I’m witnessing in the Christian world.

From where I sit, a large chunk of the Church presents as meaner, colder, less compassionate, and less principled today than it was a handful of years ago.

I watch as people I’ve known to be kind, caring folk resort to name calling, hateful language, and even calls to violence. I watch as people dismiss gentleness or concern for neighbor as weakness. As people who claim to follow Truth spread falsehoods and deny reality even as it gasps for breath right in front of them.

The only explanation I can think of is not a comfortable one – we become like what we worship. I fear too many of us have fixed our eyes on political power and those who wield it rather than Jesus.

“We vote for a president not a pastor” has demonstrated itself a bankrupt idea. For many our conversations, online presence, and the way we treat each other has proven not just our votes are at stake, but also our very hearts and minds and souls.

It turns out that who we vote for and champion and the media we consume and the memes we share all shape us. They form us in their image. The word for this is discipleship.

I wonder whose disciples we have become? Whose message do we spread? Whose language do we adopt? Whose values do we carry? In my view we continue to look and sound less like Jesus (no matter how much lip service we give him) and more like our preferred politicians.

This is problematic. Scripture calls it idolatry.

It happens without us realizing it and I am beyond convinced it is happening throughout our country.

I say this from a place of contrition. I am a guilty party. I must be better. We must be better.

For the sake of Christ. For the sake of our witness to the world. For the sake of the healing we could be offering in these troubled times.

We have much work to do. We must relearn what it means to be Christlike. We must unlearn the stories of any competing narratives. We have much to ask forgiveness for and much realignment of priorities to get after.

It will start with humility and repentance. With taking seriously the call to knock it off and turn from the direction we are going (a direction that is leading to our destruction) and head back the way God intends, whatever the cost.

It will not be easy. It will not be fun. It won’t seat us in power or make us rich, but it is the only way we will find what we are most in need of and the only way the Church can continue to call herself Christian.

It is our most serious task.

God help us be faithful.

Hungry for a Better World

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Whatever happens Tuesday, you are invited to a meal at my house.

No matter who you vote for or where you come from. No matter the language you speak or your stance on the designated hitter. No matter who you love or who you worship. No matter if you cheer for the Dallas Cowboys or dip chicken nuggets in ketchup or are one of the many who have unfriended me because my political views annoy you.

You are invited.

Because I am hungry for a better world. At times I am starving for it.

I feel an ache in my gut, a gnawing sensation that I cannot shake.

My stomach knots as I watch the way we interact with people that we disagree with. My heart breaks as I watch how we form our opinions and tackle or dodge the unique challenges of our day. As I watch us avoid critical thinking to parrot tired, worn talking points that neglect both reason and truth. As we refuse to listen to information that challenges our preconceived ideas. As we draw lines around “those people” and do violence with our words, attitudes, and actions.

Our nation is suffering under the weight of hate, disease, death, apathy, prejudice, inequity, violence, fear, hypocrisy, deceit, and polarization.

There must be a world better than this.

We can to better. Love better. Think better. Form better conclusions. We can listen better. Vote better. Treat each other better.

We must.

So, you are invited over.

Not because our differences don’t matter. Not in some sort of hollow call to unity that avoids addressing hard topics. Not in an effort to ignore the deep pain much of our nation is experiencing or to put a Band-Aid over the yawning chasm that exists these days.

But in order to move towards a better world. In order to use my position (A position I understand not everyone has) to help bring healing amidst so much brokenness.

Maybe I’m naïve, but I imagine if we sit at the table together our walls will come down. If we turn off cable news and spend time listening to each other’s stories we will be much closer to the truth. If we stop forming opinions based on memes and instead based them on real life, flesh and blood people serving us green bean casserole we’d be much less hostile.

It is a lot harder to call a person names when they are sitting at our elbow. It is a lot harder to dismiss a person’s story or hardship as they play with our children on the floor. It is harder to retreat into the echo chamber when we fully see and know who is standing right in front of us.

When you are truly, genuinely, urgently important to me I cannot stick my fingers in my ears and ignore what you have to say. When you are important to me I will realize that my freedom and your freedom and my future and your future are wrapped up together.

I cannot disentangle myself from you when you are sitting at my table. Shedding your tears, sharing your laughs, hoping your hopes. At the table we level the playing field. We are invited into one another’s world and if we are willing to listen, if we are willing to learn, if we are willing to love each other more than we love our long held ideas or our power or our privilege – if we ever get to the place where we tangibly love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves – we might just find ourselves changed.

When I truly know and love my neighbor, I am forced to engage them, to hear them, to give them space.

When I truly know and love my neighbor, I can no longer hide behind, “I don’t have a racist/sexist/hateful bone in my body” and must be forced to reconcile any ideas, laws, or practices that harm people even when I’m unaffected or unaware.

When I truly know and love my neighbor, I cannot escape to my favorite talking head who is paid to enflame the base and must instead build relationship with the people right in front of me.

When I truly know and love my neighbor, I cannot support what is good for me if it ends up being harmful to you.

I am convinced that knowing each other well will fight against the destructive ideas that exist in our landscape. I am convinced that proximity will eventually, slowly perhaps, lead the way to truth and truth will move us toward love. And love will give birth to flourishing.

When we know each other, fully, we will be better. We will be more just, more peaceful, more joyous, more full of grace. More like the world God intends.

So, I offer you Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday. I offer you breakfast for dinner and leftover night. We do driveway s’mores on Fridays and you are invited.

You can come. And sit and listen. I’ll listen too. And I’ll invite my neighbors and ask you to listen to them. The ones from different churches and religions, different skin colors and backgrounds, different relationships and yard signs.

And maybe, just maybe, the better world we are hungry for will slowly take root. Perhaps with each bite of cobbler and each relationship made we will move toward a world where we truly mean “liberty and justice for all.”

I believe one day all that is wrong in the world will be made right. I also believe that we can participate in that reality even now as we build the world of tomorrow.

I believe this world can be built on truth and love. That in the end, truth and love will conquer lies and hate, death and destruction, fear and division.

We need not continue like this *gestures broadly at all the things*.

A better world is possible. I’m hungry for it.

And, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” – Arundhati Roy

On my best days, I believe this. On my worst days, I need this.

So may we have the courage to sit at the table. May we have the awareness to make room at the table for others. May we have the boldness to invite those we don’t yet know and those we assume we do. May our proximity change our hearts, our ideas, our actions, and our world. And may we hunger no more.

Who to Believe Amongst all the Noise

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Who and what should we believe?

Are masks good or bad? Is Bill Gates benevolent or evil? Is there a deep state conspiracy to profit off fear? Is a shadow government pulling the strings? Or is big pharma? Can vaccines be trusted? Can scientists? Or are they intentionally hiding findings that could help us?

These are questions I’ve seen throughout my social media feeds. People, in an attempt to discover what is true, are sharing anything and everything that confirms their suspicions about *gestures widely*.

There is a lot of noise out here. A lot. Some of it is true, some of it has truth amongst opinion, some is flat out lies, and some is intentionally designed to sow discord and make us miserable. And based on my desire to stress eat an entire sleeve of Oreos, I think that part is working.

Social media has elevated every voice. This can be a good and beautiful thing, but can also quickly become problematic. Voices that are dishonest, hateful, and have less than healthy motivations have a chance to be heard and spread widely.

How do we tell the difference? How do we know who to believe? What can be trusted? And how to do we cut back on the constant chatter about what is true? I have some suggestions.

But before that we should know the damage all this noise is doing. Every debunked article we share makes us less trustworthy people. Every false narrative we push is bearing false witness. We hinder our influence in the world when we are quick to jump on each and every claim we come across.

We are becoming suspicious, fearful people who trust no one. We are being shaped by the media we consume. It forms our priorities, our worldview, and the way we love (or hate) our neighbor. This is not a healthy way to live.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t search for truth or ask hard questions. I think there are times when truth is covered up, when the popular opinion is wrong, and the lone voice is the one proclaiming what it is real. On our search for answers, though, we need to be careful, thoughtful, and consistent.

We could probably do without sharing every article or video that confirms our opinion. When we share what we think is true, rather than what we know is true, this adds to the confusion. If we don’t know the veracity of a claim, we shouldn’t share it. Even if we believe it. We shouldn’t say, “I don’t know if this is true, but…” By clicking share we are adding our weight to the argument. We can hold an opinion without proclaiming it as gospel truth to our social networks.

I’d suggest that we not believe everything we see or hear. Simply because someone made a video or podcast doesn’t make it true. Just because a website says it doesn’t make it so. Anyone can make content and upload it. You can find people on the internet who think the country of Finland doesn’t exist, Elvis is alive, and the Dallas Cowboys are a good football team. All these things are demonstrably untrue.

I’d suggest we ask for proof. Facts. Data. People should be able back up their claims, and that goes for the people sharing it as well. Before you share it, Google it. Or Ask Jeeves it. Or whatever the people are using these days. Fact check. This may mean crunching the numbers to see if they are good at math. I had a friend do this for a popular video going around recently and it turns out the math was bad, but it had already been shared by many of my friends as proof of a reality that doesn’t exist.

Look up who a person is and what things they are known for doing. If their claim is valid there should be evidence. Scientific evidence can be reproduced. Behavioral evidence repeats itself. People have histories and resumes that add to or take away from their credibility. If it can’t be verified, perhaps don’t share it?

In our rush to be right we often times share something that is wrong. I am guilty of doing this. Perhaps we should slow down. Take time to think it through and read about it. Ask the opinions of people we respect and trust to be honest. Being slow to speak (or click share) would cut down on a tremendous amount of noise in our world. We could always wait. We don’t need to be the first to champion every cause and, this one is hard for me, everyone doesn’t need to know our opinion about everything.

(I fact checked that last statement with my wife and she confirms its legitimacy)

Another thing we can do is ask questions. The more questions we ask the more we will discover what legs a claim stands on. Where do you get your information? How did you come up with these numbers? What’s your background? Do you think pineapple belongs on pizza? Questions help uncover reality. If someone won’t or can’t answer questions, they probably shouldn’t be trusted.

And we should ask questions of ourselves. Why do I believe this? Why do I want it shared? What are my motivations? Perhaps we aren’t always above board either.

We are living in troubled times. Our politics are polarized, our world is battling a pandemic, and most of us are out of our normal routines. Mix in news articles that contradict each other and we have a recipe for noise, confusion, and anxiety. We can rise above it. We can refuse to turn the volume up and can instead help turn it down.

I think it’s desperately needed for our health, for the good of our world, and for our reputations.

I’m going to try my best to think through my shares, my likes, my retweets. To filter my opinions more. To ensure what I share is real rather than imagined. I won’t get it all right, but I’d invite you to join me. We can do better than this.