The New Fundamentalists
This evening, we watched a programme called Dispatches - The New Fundamentalists. The presenter investigates evangelical Christians in England saying of them: “things are either black or white, right or wrong, with no room for the grey areas most of us are used to”
“There is no room for doubt, only the ‘right’ beliefs”
Put together a cynical presenter talking about homosexuality, creation, ‘Jerry Springer - The Opera’, sex before marriage and the Silver Ring Thing and a carefully edited programme of “we are right, you are wrong” Christians and you have a programme that makes me squirm! Even people who are shown serving drug addicts on the streets are shown with a guitar saying “hallelujah, we’re here to share the gospel of Jesus” which shows that they are ’serving’ with another agenda.
The man behind a Christian School in England, in his defence of a Christian curriculum, said “this is Christian England”. That’s not the England I live in. Life isn’t black and white. People have questions, real events that try and test us and people don’t just accept what they’re told anymore.
The presenter described evangelical Christians as having “an unbending adherence to the Bible”. The Christians interviewed didn’t like probing questions.
I believe that God inspired the Bible. I think it’s an amazing book of real stuff that puts me in touch with the God who created and loves me. It shapes my faith and shows me how Jesus wants me to live and how He has the best possible life for me. But I can’t explain it all. If you won’t let people question what you believe to be true and life-giving and real, then do you really think it’s real and has something to offer?
The presenter annoyed me and so did some of the Christians. I don’t want to annoy people because of my rejection of anyone who doesn’t think the same as me. I want to see God’s will done on earth. I want to love people like Jesus did. When I say I have compassion on people, I want to mean it with all my heart and actions. I want to stand for something that matters and love adventurously trusting that Jesus really wants people to know him and that they have potential beyond what they can see. I don’t want to focus on a discussion on the rights and wrongs of ‘Jerry Springer - The opera’ at the expense of people experiencing God’s awesome Kingdom.
Was that a rant?! I’m not sure! It’s just a raw reaction to what I just watched! It makes me think about the kind of Jesus-follower I want to be. I don’t want to compromise, neither do I want to make Jesus inaccessible. Hmmm.. still thinking all this through. Especially in light of launching ‘Mosaic Sheffield’. Any thoughts?
March 6th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
It completely irks me as well. I can’t talk to much about it, or i’ll explode.
March 7th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
I think about these things alot, the balance between not compromising Truth but making Jesus accessible. It’s such a sweet balance. It must be possible to attain too, I mean, Jesus did it, right? Great thoughts!
March 7th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
You know that the British media are never going to give us as Christians a fair hearing, whatever we say or do will be misrepresented, they would never dare to characterure other faiths in the same way, I guess we just have to live with it and undermine it with our lives and churches
March 20th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Yeah, when I was in London a couple of weeks, I saw the previews for that programme and thought “oh my, here’s another attempt by non christians to portray evangelicals as a bunch of narrow minded freaks.”
I’m sure that phenomenon is worse in the UK but it’s also growing in the US. I cringe whenever I see news programmes titled something like “Who are the Evangelicals?” It makes it seem like we’re a bunch of wackos. I guess we kinda are but it’s just a strange realization that even though most Americans profess to be Christian, the idea that actually believing in what the Bible says and trying to live by it is a foreign concept to many.