Cliche Christians February 11, 2006
Posted by jwise in Theology.trackback
I’m struck more and more by the fact that Christians are becoming very good at memorizing cliches and very poor at memorizing Scripture. The sad effect is that Scripture is being replaced by those very cliches.
As an example, take “Love the sinner; hate the sin.” Though at face value this is a theologically correct statement, what it’s becoming is an excuse to overlook sin for the sake of not hurting a person. Where is truth? The truth is that if someone is caught in sin, he must be confronted, as sin has no place in the body of Christ, or in His Kingdom. It is better, after all, that a man lose an eye or a hand and enter the Kingdom maimed than to have his entire soul cast to hell because of sin. And that is Scripture.
Another example is the madly popular book, “A Purpose Driven Life.” There are several good points made in this book, but the overall goal seems to be: “Let’s take Scripture and use it to support the cliches that we enjoy using. Then Christianity will have a warm, fuzzy glow, and people will come by the thousands to our feel-good church and be ’saved’.” Should the Church be a safe haven for the hurting and needy? Absolutely! Should the Church be a safe place to hide from conviction and confrontation? May it never be!
Christian music has also become littered with common phrases and ideas, regardless of how biblically accurate those ideas are. Often I think the secular music is more honest and true-to-life than a lot of the music in Christian circles.
Lastly, what’s with the billboards? None of them are biblical, most are blasphemous and irreverent, and all of them are putting words into the mouth of God. Is Scripture so outdated that we now have to speak on His behalf? Is the Word of God no longer sharper than any two-edged sword? Are we now better than God at convicting? Has the Holy Spirit seen the end of His usefulness? I think not.
Be Christian 
As for Purpose Driven Life, I see your point, but I also say that in that case the good points outweigh the bad, for many do not realize that they are an essential part of Reality. Of course, we must go beyond this book, but realizing that each of us has been created with a distinct and learnable purpose for this life is an essential part of learning about God, and if a book can spark interest in living for God, I say He uses it. I mean, look at the projects the college/career class has been doing since the campaign a couple years ago, as well as the Friendship House outreach and other various projects that are still going, begun through the book.Amen to the billboards as well as the silly sayings many churches put on their signs. I always feel like apologizing to passers-by and telling the people who do it that they do more harm than good by using such trite and ridiculous ways to say something (often erroneous, and, as you say – blasphemous!) to catch attention. ‘CHCH. What’s missing? UR!’ That turns me off as a Christian; how much more it would as a non-believer? It would certainly add to my thought (as the hypothetical unbeliever) that this religion stuff really can’t be all that great if these people need to resort to their cliches to attract attention.
And this reminds me of something I read about a quote by Francis of Assisi. I can’t remember where it was or who was quoting him, but he said something along the lines of go and preach the gospel to everyone, and when necessary, even use words. Far too often we open our mouths and set ourselves much farther back than if we just lived what we profess.
:)
One other thing I forgot. I like your comment about cliche-y Christian music, and how ‘secular’ music is more real. That’s one reason I’ve taken to Switchfoot. I really like their lyrics, and they’re not the sugary sappy stuff (for lack of a more apt description) of some of the CCM out there. But I must also say there is some of that I like, too.
And with a combination influence of Stevens’s lit classes and the recent Grammy awards, I have now become a fan of the won’t-be-labeled-Christian U2. Fancy that.