pointing fingers at our self-righteousness…

I ran across a Christian blog taking apart a young but wildly popular celebrity in a recent post. This celebrity was an easy target based on some of her recently immature actions, her poorly articulated theology in a recent interview, and the fact that anyone her age would undoubtedly be in over their head attempting to navigate the tumultuous waters of stardom. Expectedly, numerous other Christians piled on in the comment section praising the negative assessment with some even taking the opportunity to brag that they hadn’t let their children become fans of this celebrity while so many other parents naively held her up as a “good one”.

It is undeniable that there is virtually no celebrity whom I would want to point to as a role model. They all have faults, imagine that, and some more than others. It is also undeniable that kids and adults are going to look at them and be shaped to some degree by their style, attitude, and actions. So, yes, we need to talk about these things with our kids and help them find their way through positive and negative influences, Even so, something about this article and those who jumped on its’ bandwagon frustrated me.

Years ago I remember hearing Dennis Miller during a stand up gig on tv make remarks about how he thought “God had bigger concerns than his [Dennis’] personal use of curse words.” I disagreed with the sentiment remembering verses on “unwholesome, obscene and foolish talk”, yet maybe Dennis Miller was partly right. Again, it does matter if we choose to curse rather than bless, tear down rather than build up. I’m not giving a green light to drop the f bomb. But, is that what Christianity has become primarily? Not cussing and dressing modestly? I mean does Luke 4:18 read "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to shut the mouth of the cursers. He has sent me to clothe the immodestly dressed and to turn off the pop-rock station and turn on K-Love…” No. No it doesn’t. Yet again, I feel the need to clarify. Should we cuss? No. Should we dress modestly? Yes. Should we carefully consider what media we are putting into our minds? Undoubtedly.

The problem I have is that so many of us Christians get so angry and offended when it comes to a cussword, a short skirt or even a difference in theology and we will go to great lengths to defend our spiritual and moral purity and the principles they are built on. But, we seem to care so little about the self-sacrificing responsibilities that we have to our fellow man. I’ve grown tired of the overwhelming amount of self righteous, finger pointing rants against “the sin of the world” in our Christian circles when the need to point our fingers at ourselves continues, at least to me, to increase.

Let me tell you a short story about myself to illustrate. While working as a minister in North San Diego County, I took a trip with friends to Tijuana, Mexico. I knew that in the city we would encounter beggars. Some with fake wounds others in wheel chairs when they didn’t need them and many of them children who would undoubtedly and very insistently pull on your heart in order to get some cash from you. I went resolved not to give in and I didn’t. Most gave up easily as I ignored them and went about my shopping, but one little girl I vividly remember followed me a long way down a block pulling on my shirt trying to get me to buy some chiclets. I barely looked at her and she got no money from me. Sure, I was just another guy on another day whose $2 wouldn’t have changed much. The thing that bothers me was my heart. The next day I was back in the saddle talking to my teens about morality and purity “waging war against the evils of this world.”

My framing story didn’t really mention to me the challenging verses about not forsaking justice and mercy (Matthew 23:23) or the ones about not denying someone who asks from you because I am to act like a son of God (Matthew 5:42-45). It spent more time on verses that pointed the finger out there and blamed the ungodly for the mess we were in. My framing story turned the words Jesus read in Luke 4:18 about “preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, recovering sight for the blind and releasing the oppressed” into purely spiritual proclamations that spoke directly to my struggle to stay holy in this evil world until He returns to take me to heaven. I guess in this post, I am lamenting the fact that we so often sound so self-righteous when the incompleteness of our righteousness would be staring us in the face if we were only humble enough to kneel down to embrace it.

Part of me wonders if when I get to heaven, that little girl will be sitting in Jesus’ lap waiting for me. I would expect him to still let me in with grace, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he made me buy some chiclets from her first.