What Newsweek Got Right

I'm sure you've seen the kerfuffle over Newsweek's Christmas article, The Bible: So Misunderstood It's a Sin by Kurt Eichenwald. Lots and lots of good responses explaining not only his faulty information, but his poor reasoning. I linked to some and even (if you know where to look) offered a very brief rebuttal myself. But, that's not this. This is about what he got right.

Cafeteria Christians

Right out of the blocks Kurt accuses people of being "cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch." It happens. He's right. I think he overplayed his hand with assuming it is "fundamentalists" who form the core of this group, but I do agree that there are Christians, at least in name, who make it their business to complain about homosexuals while indulging in their own sexual immorality or rally against abortion while killing with hate (Matt 5:21-22). Let's not do that. Find out what God says and follow it. All of it. Even if it violates your personal preferences, your feelings, or your current beliefs.

Know Your Bible

Kurt suggests that no one can read the Bible. "No television preacher has ever read the Bible. Neither has any evangelical politician. Neither has the pope. Neither have I. And neither have you." That's because, in his view, no such thing exists and what we have today is a poor and unreliable copy. Oddly enough, then, he says later, "If Christians truly want to treat the New Testament as the foundation of the religion, they have to know it." And I have to say, "Amen!" If you want to avoid being that cafeteria Christian, you have to know what it says. If you're supposed to be "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt 28:20), you have to know all that is commanded. Look, just from a human, practical viewpoint, if God took the time to express His thoughts to us, it seems like we would desperately wish to read, consume, examine, and understand what He intended to say. Picking up pithy lines from pleasant preachers is not studying God's Word. Good teachers are good--necessary, even--but they are no substitute for knowing God's Word. Eichenwald says we should know our Bibles, and I agree.

Right Belief, Wrong Response

The article in Newsweek made multiple references to bad actions from supposed Christians. Now, to be fair, some of it was misleading and even false, but it is still true that lots of stuff is done in the name of Christ that violates the Word. One of his examples was Christian parents who banish their homosexual child. We know that "the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10) So, if you're going to banish your homosexual son, you'll also need to kick out his sister who is fornicating with her boyfriend and their younger brother who is stealing from kids at school. Right belief--homosexual behavior is a sin--but wrong response--"Kick them out." We do that kind of thing. Christendom experienced wars over doctrine. Some of that doctrine was true; killing over it was the wrong response. Eichenwald was right. It happens. It shouldn't.

Judge Not

Kurt ends with "Jesus said, Don’t judge. He condemned those who pointed out the faults of others while ignoring their own." As a matter of fact that is exactly what Jesus was condemning in the famous "Judge not" passage (Matt 7:1-5). Not "Don't pass judgment" because He says, "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matt 7:5), so taking the speck out of your brother's eye (judging) is a good thing as long as it's preceded with recognition and treatment of your own faults. Of course, Kurt redefines a "hypocrite" to mean "people obsessed with the sins of others", but there is a human tendency to be genuine hypocrites, pointing out sin in someone else while suffering from it ourselves. I remember a well-known Pentecostal preacher who routinely railed against sexual immorality and was arrested for spending time with prostitutes. That's a hypocrite. "You've got a problem with this and need to fix it; I don't." I cannot imagine how many Christians condemn the sexual immorality of homosexual behavior while not dealing well with their own brand of sexual immorality. That's a hypocrite. And Jesus did not have warm words for hypocrites.

Truthfully, most of the article was bunk. False facts, faulty thinking, convoluted logic, lies. But even a stopped watch gets the time right twice a day. And these are some of his points with which I agreed. We cannot afford to pick and choose what we will follow in God's Word. In order to avoid that, we need to know God's Word. Having acquired the truth, we need to be careful to respond correctly. And we really cannot afford to simply be tossing the truth over the wall at "them" before applying it to ourselves. And when you think of it, all of that ties together nicely. Know the Word, follow it all, respond to it correctly, and apply it to yourself. In that, Newsweek got it right. Do you suppose they meant to say that?