Saturday, August 08, 2020

2020 Strikes Again...

2020 has reached epic meme status in our culture, and it’s affecting not just our secular world but even Christianity itself.  So I guess it shouldn’t surprise me too much that after spending a portion of this evening laying some careful groundwork in evangelizing a friend, that after we were finished with our conversation I would discover that Jerry Falwell, Jr. has taken an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty University. 

That’s not too unusual.  People take leaves of absences all the time and—

Wait, this was actually demanded of him by the board of trustees?  Why would they…. Oh.

Ooooooh.

Falwell posted a picture on his Instagram—a picture that I cannot repost here.  It’s not overly graphic from the world’s standards.  It would barely get a PG rating. But there’s just something distasteful enough about it that I wish I hadn’t seen it.  To provide the bare minimum explanation needed, it involved Falwell with his pants unzipped and open to show his underpants while he is standing next to a woman—who is not his wife—similarly dressed with unzipped pants.

Set aside, for the moment, the strict rules that Liberty University has for their students.  This is something that Falwell decided to publish of his own accord on his own Instagram account, thinking that it would not raise eyebrows that he is taking such a suggestive picture with a woman who, again, is not his wife.  While all of us are sinners and I can easily foresee Christians falling into bad behaviors, I cannot understand how someone of Falwell’s experience with the media could have possibly thought for even a second that this was a good idea.  Someone would almost literally have to be drunk to think tha—

What’s that?  Oh, Falwell called into a radio station and “explained” what the picture was, saying that the woman was pregnant and couldn’t snap her pants, so “in good fun” he decided to join her.  And while providing this explanation, he was slurring his words and speaking with all the mannerisms of someone three sheets to the wind.

So 2020 strikes again.  And this leaves me with the realization that a bunch of the groundwork I just laid in presenting the gospel to a friend may have been obliterated by this news story coming out.  Because one thing I’m sure of is that it will get shared to all the skeptics out there.

Now obviously Christianity is not a religion that is predicated on perfect people never sinning.  I’ve had to go through this in the past with other failures of high profile Christians, and certainly we will all have to do so anew in the future.  For all I know, it might even involve me falling in some future calamity.  There but for the grace of God go I.

But even knowing that intellectually, and knowing that this does provide an opportunity for us to point to Christ as the necessary sinlessly perfect sacrifice, I cannot deny that there is a lot about this that is disheartening.  Not because it involves Liberty University or Jerry Falwell, neither topic of which has much relevance to my own beliefs and, in fact, whom I’ve had many disagreements with before.  But rather it’s the fact of knowing that once again we are going to have to put up with the flaming slings and arrows of people who will be launching this at us again, and a large part of me just wants to throw in the towel and be done with it.  Let the flames cleanse the Earth.

But then I remember my friend.  And the groundwork that has been built.  The hope that Christ will use it to bring another soul to Himself.  And yes, maybe our next conversation is going to be uncomfortable, annoying, aggravating, and completely frustrating because I’m going to have to go through all the reasons why Jerry Falwell isn’t Christianity.  But maybe my friend will be saved because of that conversation.  Only God knows what will happen, and there’s no reason for me to give up when only God knows.

Not even 2020 can disobey the will of God.

22 comments:

  1. The problem is not so much Falwell as the inference raised by his conduct, rightly or wrongly, that if a professing Christian of his stature, not a nominal church on Christmas and Easter type, but a prominent Evangelical, and Christian university President, etc. is a hypocrite - more Falstaff than Falwell, why should anyone not suspect that “rank and file” Christians are any less so? Out goes the baby with the bath water. And though we can rightly say that Christianity does not claim Christians are sinless, it does claim they are born again, regenerated, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and followers of Jesus Christ. Your point is well taken, Peter, this won’t make your efforts to evangelize your friend any easier. Nonetheless, I have read enough of your posts to know you are more than up to the challenge presented. As you said, “Jerry Falwell isn’t Christianity.” A religion should not be judged by the conduct of those who ignore its teachings. Despite the disappointment, the needle isn’t moved back by the Falwells who fall well, it’s moved forward by the Bonhoeffers and Kolbes who sacrifice their lives in imitation of the Alpha and Omega, who is and was and is to come.

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    1. Thanks, CWB. You touch on quite a bit of what prompted me to write the post. In one sense, I know that I can deal with the topic, as I've done so many times in the past. I just don't want to have to do it. It's like how I *can* do a math exam on differential equations, but it's way more fun to think about number theory than to grind those out. When it comes to Falwell, yes I'll discuss him with the skeptics who are going to bring him up, but I'd much rather talk about the philosophical underpinnings of their objections to Christianity itself.

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  2. I dunno, I can see John, James, Peter, or Paul partying on a yacht with their arm around a woman who is not their wife in a state of partial undress, partly exposing their undergarments as they were taking a break from laboring for the Gospel.

    Wait...no I can't.

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    1. "Because after all we are all fallen, hurting, and broken, and we have to be careful not to shoot our own wounded, and..."

      Never mind. Can't keep up the satire.

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  3. "Three sheets to the wind" is an expression I either never learned or had forgotten and must now be sure to find an opportunity to use. Good post. (Not just for that reason.)

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    1. A bit ironically, I'd heard the term all my life but never actually researched the etymology of where it came about. Since you posted that, I had to do research.
      Apparently, it's a nautical term. The "sheets" are actually the ropes or lines (sometimes chains) that held the corner of a sail, and if the ropes are not held tightly it will cause the boat to sway and stagger just like a drunk. Sailors invented a scale based off of that. "One sheet to the wind" meant someone was slightly tipsy, and the maximum was "four sheets to the wind" where the drunk had passed out.

      The More You Know™

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    2. Yes, my husband literally got up from supper this evening and went and looked it up so he could come back to the table and tell us the etymology.

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  4. I saw the title and thought someone else died here. Don't do this to me.

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    1. Some notable Christian leaders the church has lost in 2020 (there might be others I'm not aware of):

      March 11. Noel Weeks.
      May 19. Ravi Zacharias.
      June 6. Steve Hays.
      July 17. J.I. Packer.

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    2. Hello TFC,
      You can rest assured that, at least when it comes to death, I would set aside my normal sarcasm or any attempt at wry humor in such a scenario.

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    3. I had no idea Noel Weeks died. We email off and on and I never heard back this year.

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    4. But your name is at the bottom of the post.

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    5. And, seeing that my username has been reduced to an acronym, I'm reminded of the reason my mom gave us all short names.

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    6. TFC I refuse to believe that your mom named you The Flying Couch! :-)

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    7. I agree. We don't need acronyms. From now on, I will call you ╝. :-P

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    8. I was referring to my real name. We all got four-letter names so they couldn't be replaced by nicknames (no, not those four-letter words). Just watching what happens to a name with 4 syllables.

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    9. Oh no, does that mean I'll be referred to as the poster formerly known as TheFlyingCouch?

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    10. Well, ╝, that would be better than being referred to as the former poster known as TheFlyingCouch. :-D Honestly, I think that ╝ just means half of the Atari logo anyway.

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  5. A great opportunity to point ourselves and others to Galatians 2:11-21 and be reminded even the Apostles were capable of rank hypocrisy when desire for self over-powers submission to Christ. The Spirit likely gave us that passage for such a reason; in it, we can show the grace of God is not nullified by our disobedience, for righteousness does not come through the law. That’s a kind of freedom no one but Christians have, and that is good news worth sharing with unbelievers.

    As for those who shoot flaming arrows, I’m thankful for them. They remind us we can often find ourselves on the wrong side of 1 Peter 2:19-20. Fire leads the faithful to repentance, and false brothers into the light, so we can all see who is truly of God, and who is not. What they mean for evil, God means for good.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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  6. I am becoming somewhat convinced that Falwell did this intentionally in order to get himself relieved of duty.

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