Being a Christian is Not License to Be a Jerk

Chris —  August 18, 2010

In my retail gig, my culturally Jewish manager recently encountered a person who identified himself as a Youth Pastor for a well known parachurch organization.  The pastor wanted a discount that he did not qualify for, and rudely nagged his salesperson, until the manager was called in.

The pastor continuing to be push, became belligerent and insulting.  The manager calmingly told him no, but was so bothered by the man’s behavior, he added that he was surprised that a person with the title of “pastor” could be so rude.  The pastor’s response was “I have to be intense in my job.  It’s the only way to keep kids off drugs.”

There are so many problems with this, like the unloving way the pastor treated a non-christian, or a philosophy of ministry that shows that a pastor’s role is to keep kids of drugs.  It’s simpler than that:

There’s no way that following Jesus gives you license to be a jerk.

This is my struggle with two large and influential segments of Christian thought.

1) Christendom-Minded Christians.  Theses are the people that believe the church’s role is to enforce their morality.  Not satisfied with teaching and baptize in the name of Jesus, they create bumper stickers, picket abortion clinics and strip clubs, and become overly involved in politics.  Their righteous intentions lose ground and inevitably create an “us versus them” mentality. This is the first step to becoming a jerk.

2) Grumpy Calvinists, and Mean Spirited Liberals.  Calvinism, often appealing to heady thinkers with rigorous personal standards, can easily become an Us vs. Them religion.  When concepts like especially the Limited Atonement and Predestination become more central than grace, theology creates excuses to be mean to outsiders.  Liberals do this too, with their constant jabs at those who do not rally to their causes. They can be more known for who they are against than the good they want to see done in the world.

Jesus wasn’t a push over, and he wasn’t nice to everybody.  But he did love the world enough to die for it. He poured his life into cultural outsiders, and called the insiders to account for not living up to their beliefs.  Jesus wasn’t a jerk.

While there is much good to be done in developing our theology or making social change, here is an easy question to help us approach our thoughts and actions: Will doing this make me a jerk?

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