I’m so thankful that we live in a time that is completely controversy free!
Obviously, that was sarcastic. The truth is I’m not sure I remember a season in my 32-plus years where we’ve had more to fight about. And boy, do we fight. About EVERYTHING.
Does that mean that we should never debate? I don’t think so. I think there are certainly issues that we should contend for. I think there will be things that come up in culture and in the church that we should hold to fiercely, realizing that as we do so those conversations may be very intense.
Which brings me to three things that are front-and-center in the controversy cycle right now: the requirement in North Carolina to wear a face mask, NASCAR banning the Confederate Flag, and the movement to remove statues and memorials honoring those who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
Each of these issues arouse some pretty intense emotions on all sides- and it seems like there is no room for middle ground. You most likely fall on one side or the other on each of these. And you can rest assured that, as soon as you pick a side, the other side labels you as the worst-and-most-evil-person in the world who only cares about themselves and hates everyone else.
So, as followers of Jesus, how are we to navigate these issues that draw out such intense emotion?
I think there are several passages that inform how we should think about these things:
On Face Masks
Romans 14:1-4: Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?
It’s not the point of this post to define who the “weak” is. The point, however, is this: don’t quarrel over matters that people have legitimate disagreements over if that issue is not a sin issue.
Someone thinks they should wear a mask and you disagree? Don’t judge them. Thinking a person should wear a mask isn’t a sin.
Someone thinks masks are not helpful and you shouldn’t wear them and you disagree? Don’t judge them. Thinking people shouldn’t wear masks isn’t a sin.
What I see happening so much, sadly, is the utter contempt poured on one side by those who hold to the opposite viewpoint. I see pride, arrogance, and self-righteousness. I see way too many people looking down on those who don’t agree with their viewpoint on masks.
Regardless of what you think about masks, that sort of attitude is not compatible with what Scripture commands.
Besides that…
Romans 13:1-2: Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Right now, in North Carolina, the law requires us to wear a face mask in public. And- regardless of what you think about masks- there is nothing in the Bible that tells us to not wear a mask. In other words, the government isn’t compelling us to sin. So with that being the case, as Christians, we are called to simply obey.
The bottom line? The issue of masks is not an issue to divide over. And it’s certainly not a hill to die on.
On the Confederate Flag
1 Corinthians 8:9- 13: 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
Again, the point here is not to say who is “weak.” What Paul does make clear, though, is something that is so important: we are to never, ever do something that will create a stumbling block for someone else if that thing is not wrapped up in the Gospel.
It’s one thing to offend someone by inviting them to church. It’s one thing offend someone because you go to church. It’s one thing to offend someone because you ask to pray for them. It’s one thing to believe that Jesus is the only way and that that the Bible is the Word of God and someone to be offended because of that.
It’s another thing to repel someone by holding on to something that is not Jesus, not Scripture, and not the Gospel.
How does that relate to the Confederate flag? Simply this: I could not care less about what NASCAR does (and, full disclosure, I couldn’t care less about NASCAR anyway!). What I do care about is what we make a big deal of as a church. I care about people far from God and them coming to know Jesus- people of all ethnic origins. That’s what Jesus’ heart beats for. It’s what our hearts should beat for as Christians.
And, as Christians, that should determine what we fight for. We should fight for the way to the Gospel being free of obstruction, offense, and distraction. We should not fight for anything that presents a potential stumbling block to a person of color far from God coming to Jesus.
We like to put it this way: The Gospel is offensive. Nothing else should be.
And the truth is the Confederate flag (specifically “The Stars and Bars”) represents an offense to many people of color. And, for me and our church, the stakes are just too high to fight for that flag to be flown. It’s not a hill to die on.
“But it’s not hate! It’s heritage!” is the argument that typically comes back. I get that’s what it means to a lot of people. And I say that as someone whose great-great grandfather fought for the Confederacy and was wounded in the Civil War. But, as followers of Jesus (and I’m not saying this to be snarky, just honest), I think we should be much more concerned with whether someone goes to heaven than celebrating our earthly heritage.
On Confederate Monuments
The Scripture that applies in the point about flags applies here as well. There’s no reason for us as followers of Jesus to fight to defend something that presents a potential stumbling block for our brothers and sisters in Christ that are people of color. But furthermore, I have to wonder this:
How can we call ourselves the United States of America when we celebrate our division?
Personally, I don’t think that posture is healthy. You can’t have a healthy marriage when you build a monument to the time you were separated and constantly fighting and viewing that season as a good thing. Why would we think that building monuments to Confederate heroes (and please don’t misunderstand, this is no disrespect to those Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War and their memories) and celebrating their actions to defend the dividing of our nation is going to foster national unity?
Truthfully, I don’t see defending the continued existence of these monuments as something we should fight tooth and nail for as followers of Jesus. It’s just not the right hill to die on.
That being said…let’s look at another passage from above that bears on this:
Romans 13:1-2: Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
It is against the law to deface to destroy public property. It’s kind of hard to dispute that. And- for those who are followers of Jesus who think these monuments should be removed- vandalism of public property isn’t respect for the governing authorities. It is breaking the law. And it damages our witness when we become party to them.
How can we call on the authorities to obey the moral law of God when it comes to equal treatment of all people when we’re going to die on the hill of tearing down a statue?
I think Jesus would far rather see us change hearts by leveraging the existence of those statues to point to one simple fact: we celebrate the wrong things.
Paul did this exact thing in Acts 17. In Athens, idols were everywhere, and their existence distressed Paul. Their very existence was sinful, in violating of the second commandment to not build idols.
Yet Paul didn’t go around tearing down the idols. Instead, he pointed to their existence as proof that the Athenians needed to repent of their sin and turn to God. And some actually responded to his message.
I’m not saying I think the monuments should stay. There may be good reason for them to go. But the disappearance of monuments to the Confederacy is only as effective as the hearts changed by Jesus. Otherwise it’s just symbolic, sideways change that grabs headlines but doesn’t result in changed hearts.
It would be far more effective to point to these monuments use them to point to the fact that division still exists in our nation. In fact, we celebrate it. But this is not God’s plan. God desires we all dwell together in unity, not division. God desires we love each other, not fight each other. But this peace is only found, not in the removal of a monument, but through Jesus Christ. This unity is only found in recognizing that we are all sinners, and the ground at the foot of the cross is level. This peace is only found in realizing that our only hope is not celebrating the past, but in coming broken and humble to Jesus, recognizing that we worship the wrong things- and recognizing those very things we often celebrate put Him on the cross. Yet He didn’t condemn us for it; He gave His life for that very thing, and became that very thing so that we could step out of division, step out of hate, step out of SIN and be made right with God, and through the new life we have in Christ become the peace-loving and unified people we are called to be.
I think that’s a better way.
Plus- I would encourage you to read 2 Chronicles 23:16-17 & 2 Chronicles 24:17-18. Idols and temples torn down in the emotion of the moment, but not torn down through a genuine change of heart, only leads to similar idols being erected by the next generation. I fear the lie believed by at least some of those pulling down old Confederate monuments is that the outward removal of these things equals a change of heart in the nation, when reality is that a change in heart can only come about when people turn to God. Otherwise any supposed change is superficial and will only result in worse actions in the next generation.
Either way: whether you want the monuments pulled down or want them to stay up, it’s not a hill to die on.
The bottom line is this: as followers of Jesus, we must be very wise in which hill we choose to die on. There are many areas that we could argue over. But, just because we can doesn’t mean we should. In fact, I’m convinced many of the things we argue about are the wrong thing to spend our energy on. We have a world to reach and people’s eternities are at stake. Let’s not waste our lives fighting for or over things that won’t matter a hill of beans in eternity or that don’t actually change the heart right now.
Instead, let’s spend our energy loving people. Let’s spend our energy speaking up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Let’s spend our energy on helping those far from God- no matter what their sin is- encounter Jesus, because, as we say all the time, when people meet Jesus, Jesus changes lives, and when Jesus changes lives He uses those people to change their communities because the Gospel isn’t just about bringing people back to God. The Gospel also reconciles people with each other.
And I don’t want us to spend our energy arguing over something that works against the reconciliation of people with each other, because to do that and yet still believe we can preach the horizontal application of the Gospel isn’t just unwise. It’s self-deception. And truthfully, a Gospel that saves people spiritually but allows us to contend for division among people is no Gospel at all.