The Emperor's New Clothes

In the famous Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperor's New Clothes, a vain emperor is duped into paying large sums to a shyster for the finest clothing that can only be seen by the brightest and best in the land. "If you're stupid, you can't see it." Now, it's a tale, so wondering about the particulars is fairly pointless. Questions like, "But, if you're going to be seen by stupid people, wouldn't you want to wear something they can see?" are beside the point. So he bought the line and walked out naked in his "finery" and was called out by an innocent child who cried, "But ... he hasn't got anything on!"

What happened? Why did the emperor fall for it? Why did the crowds keep quiet and even cheer as their naked leader walked by? Why did this kid call it when no one else would?

There is a parallel in a story in the Gospels. The chief priests and elders were challenging Jesus's authority. He offered to answer their question. "I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?" (Matt 21:24-25) The account gives us insight into their thinking as they discussed their answer among themselves.

"If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From man,' we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." (Matt 21:25-27)

Notice the line of reasoning. It was never once "What is true?" It was always based on "How will our response make us look? What will make us look bad?"

That's the same concept in The Emperor's New Clothes. The emperor didn't want to be viewed as less than the brightest and best; nor did his advisors. On parade, the crowd didn't want to be seen as unpatriotic or stupid. It was only this child, unfettered by the fear of what others might think, that was able to offer the truth.

We're living there now in America. The truth is that the Bible clearly calls homosexual behavior a sin (Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9-10), but we're pretty much silent on it because people will diminish us for it.

The truth is that marriage is established by God and is between one man and one woman, not two people of the same gender (let alone multiple people of multiple genders) (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5; Eph 5:31), but we're told we're on the "wrong side of history" and to point to biblical truth as truth is backward, foolish, and hateful, so we hold our tongues.

The truth is that God made human beings in binary gender form (Gen 1:27), but we're told that its not true, that science has been wrong all this time, that "male and female" are a cultural construct, and anyone that says otherwise should be censured ... or worse, so we are quiet.

The truth is that human beings are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and, as such, have value applied by God so that a person who intentionally kills a human being "by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." (Gen 9:6) But that will never do. We've surrendered that truth to "My body, my choice" and "reproductive rights" language and need to be very, very quiet about defending the most vulnerable humans -- the unborn. "You woman-haters!"

The truth is Scripture calls on wives to submit to husbands "as to the Lord" and husbands to love their wives "as Christ loved the church" (Eph 5:22-33), but society so loudly protests it that the church questions it and we surely don't want to be accused of being bad people by our own kind, so we put our hands over our mouths while we proclaim that the Bible is wrong and feminists are right.

The truth is Jesus opposed divorce for any reason (Matt 19:3-6), but, oh, that will never do. We feel the need to add to His list of possibilities because people are problematic and holding ourselves to a biblical position can be perceived as mean-spirited and biased. "If we say Jesus is right, then they'll say, 'Well, why don't you practice that?' but if we say He's wrong, they'll say, 'They why do you follow Him?'" So we give no answer.

The truth is that people need Jesus, but we're often afraid to say so because "What will people think?"

Our society, to the inclusion of some of our own faith, is an emperor without clothes, parading around in absent magnificence. We, for a large part, are silent because, like the fabled emperor, his staff, and his people, we're scared of what others might think. Like the Pharisees, we're scared of the ramifications rather than committed to the Truth. We are not the child, unafraid of any threat, declaring the Truth as God sees it in His Word.