In Praise of Facebook, Blogs, and “Bickering”
I recently read - as I’ve surfed about on the intertubes - a number of ACNA clergy lamenting the conflict and contention on Anglican blogs and Facebook. Why don’t we, they say, keep ourselves occupied with proclaiming “the gospel” and trust our godly leaders deal with error or sin. They don’t need our commentary.
I love our leaders. I love the ACNA. But what keeps godly leaders godly is accountability to the people they lead and most of all to the word of God. The idea that measuring the public words and deeds of ordained ministers of the gospel is somehow antithetical to the proclamation of the gospel is biblically repugnant. Paul clearly understood this. So did John. Jude writes:
Testing public leaders, measuring their words and deeds, identifying falsehood is not, as some would suggest, mean-spirited Pharisaical judgmentalism - it is the Christ-given duty of everyone who considers himself a disciple. How are we to obey the Lord’s command to “Beware of false prophets, who come…in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves…” if we refuse to measure the public words actions those who wear clerical garb simply because they wear clerical garb?
The appeals for quiet and the calls to “cease bickering” are not consistent with biblical peacemaking or true Christian unity since scripture grounds both concepts in apostolic truth. Apart from that one foundation there is no true peace nor any real unity.
My suspicion is that beneath many of the seemingly pious calls for blog silence lies a deep aversion to conflict. Conflict aversion - seeking “peace” over truth - is dangerous for obvious reasons and, it is unfortunately a common trait among pastors.
Aversion to conflict, often lurking underneath Christianesque slogans like “doctrine divides, the Spirit unites” is precisely what enabled the multiplication of error in The Episcopal Church and resulted in its demise. Ordained and lay leaders decided to hunker down in their safe parishes or quietly sit in unsafe parishes while the “new thing” spread like gangrene.
To fall back into the same kind of docile quietude now is nonsensical foolishness. Certainly arguments can get out of hand and descend to ugly levels. But zeal sometimes leading to less than edifying conflict is preferable to supine passivity that leads to a heresy-gutted hollow husk of an organization that used to be the Church.
I love our leaders. I love the ACNA. But what keeps godly leaders godly is accountability to the people they lead and most of all to the word of God. The idea that measuring the public words and deeds of ordained ministers of the gospel is somehow antithetical to the proclamation of the gospel is biblically repugnant. Paul clearly understood this. So did John. Jude writes:
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”(Jude 3)Notice that for Jude “contending for the faith” is not opposed to the proclamation of the gospel but goes together with it - the two are inextricable - because the message of salvation is obscured when error goes unchecked.
Testing public leaders, measuring their words and deeds, identifying falsehood is not, as some would suggest, mean-spirited Pharisaical judgmentalism - it is the Christ-given duty of everyone who considers himself a disciple. How are we to obey the Lord’s command to “Beware of false prophets, who come…in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves…” if we refuse to measure the public words actions those who wear clerical garb simply because they wear clerical garb?
The appeals for quiet and the calls to “cease bickering” are not consistent with biblical peacemaking or true Christian unity since scripture grounds both concepts in apostolic truth. Apart from that one foundation there is no true peace nor any real unity.
My suspicion is that beneath many of the seemingly pious calls for blog silence lies a deep aversion to conflict. Conflict aversion - seeking “peace” over truth - is dangerous for obvious reasons and, it is unfortunately a common trait among pastors.
Aversion to conflict, often lurking underneath Christianesque slogans like “doctrine divides, the Spirit unites” is precisely what enabled the multiplication of error in The Episcopal Church and resulted in its demise. Ordained and lay leaders decided to hunker down in their safe parishes or quietly sit in unsafe parishes while the “new thing” spread like gangrene.
To fall back into the same kind of docile quietude now is nonsensical foolishness. Certainly arguments can get out of hand and descend to ugly levels. But zeal sometimes leading to less than edifying conflict is preferable to supine passivity that leads to a heresy-gutted hollow husk of an organization that used to be the Church.
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