What Amos Said…: Kevin H

From the ESV Study Bible, copyright 2008:

“The theme of Amos is the universal justice of God.  The Israelites clearly expected a “day of the Lord” when all their enemies would be judged.  What they were not prepared for was that the judgment of that day would fall on them as well.  Far from enjoying favored status, they would be held more accountable than their neighbors.”

“…..the two nations [Judah and Israel] were experiencing a time of wealth and prosperity unparalleled since the day of Solomon…..  As has tended to be true throughout history, the Israelites took this wealth and prosperity to be unmistakable signs of the blessing of God….. But in fact, their present wealth and power was not evidence of the blessing of God.  As Amos conclusively showed, they were actually under the curse of God because of their egregious breaches of their covenant with Him….. Their worship of God was little more than attempts at magical manipulation of Him, much like the religion of their pagan neighbors….. it was Amos’s unhappy task to disabuse them of their foolish expectations.”

Michael has many times expressed his frustrations here….. he brings awareness to wrongdoing that is occurring within the church body, yet the reaction from the majority of the church body so often is one of either ambivalence, irritation for having to hear about the problem, and/or even disdain towards Michael and other messengers for having brought it up.  He is left feeling disheartened and dismayed and wondering why he even bothers.  His efforts to “disabuse” the people of their “foolish expectations” feel futile and foolish themselves.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” – Philippians 2:3-4

Although my experiences have not been nearly as numerous nor as large, especially compared to the investigations and reporting from the early years of this blog, I have experienced similar reactions here, in person, and especially on social media in my efforts to “disabuse” the people of their “foolish expectations”.  As a result, I have come to believe that many in the Church, specifically within my own broad church body of  evangelical Christians, just don’t care enough about others when compared with how they care about themselves.  They count their own interests to be more significant than the interests of others.  Now, these are not bad people for the most part.  In general, I would even classify many of them on the whole as good people, as they do actually show that they care about others in many ways.  Yet when it comes to some particular issues and interests, their own interests consistently trump the interests of others (and yes, the trump pun does fit for some circumstances).

“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” – Proverbs 17:15

Some surely resist the message being given because they themselves are a measure guilty of the wrongdoing being described, or at least have been guilty of supporting and endorsing the described wrongdoing.  Thus, they reject the message because they want to defend themselves and their own honor and interests.  They defend the wrongdoing, actually even claiming it to be righteous, and in turn attack the messenger and the message of true righteousness.  In these scenarios, their interests of appearing righteous themselves are more important than the interests of those who are being harmed by the wrongdoing that is occurring.

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” – James 4:17

Some surely resist the message because it disturbs their comfort zone and preferred narrative.  They, themselves, may not be guilty of conducting much of any of the wrongdoing, but they also don’t want to know about the wrongdoing that is occurring right around them.  It doesn’t feel good to them to focus on the “negative”.  It may make their favored groups or admired humans (idols?) look bad.  It doesn’t fit well with their cherished yet convoluted and distorted stories of their wonderful home church, wonderful Christian culture, wonderful Christian celebrities, wonderful political party and politicians, and/or wonderful Christian nation.  So they resist the message by calling it needlessly negative and divisive.  They strain the gnat by critiquing the messenger and swallow the camel, which is the message, by placing it out of focus and sight in its swallowed state.  They accuse the messenger of giving them and the church a bad reputation.  (Now let’s be real here, who really is responsible for the tarnished reputation – the ones reporting on and naming the wrongdoing, or the ones who have actually committed the wrongdoing?)  They claim it is hurting the Gospel – i.e. people aren’t going to come to Jesus if they know these awful things about Christians.  (Ironically, a big part of the message of the Gospel is that we are all sinners and all do bad things, including Christians, and that is exactly why we need Jesus.)  In these things, their interests of not wanting to be disturbed by or having to deal with bad news, and to maintain their desired comfortable, happy narrative are more important than the interests of those who are being harmed by wrongdoing.

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.'” – I Corinthians 5:12-13

Others surely resist the message because it is getting in the way of their plans and desires to defeat the enemy.  Yeah, they will grudgingly admit that there is some wrong stuff going on on their side, but surely the enemy (usually the liberals – political and/or theological) they say is far, far worse.  Therefore, any time and energy spent dealing with problems on our own side is wasted time and energy that instead should be spent trying to defeat the other side.  Thus the heart of the message is cast aside and the messenger is castigated as deceived and a traitor.  Their interests of defeating the enemy and claiming victory and power and control for their side (the “good guys”, even if they have a few problems) take precedence over the interests of those who are being harmed by the wrongdoing that is occurring on their side.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” – Matthew 23:23

There is much good done by the people of the popular American Christian church culture.  Yet when push comes to shove on some issues of justice, mercy, and faithfulness, these weightier matters have often been neglected by many Christians in interest of their own comfort, reputation, and loyalty to a tribe.  As we see the rotten fruits of scandal after scandal that are being exposed today in the American church, and the strangely audacious pride that is being displayed by many Christians in justifying wrongdoing committed by themselves, their favored political leaders, and/or favored Christian leaders and organizations, we see that a large segment of the popular American (evangelical) church is quite committed to acting on behalf of their own interests at the expense of the interests of those who are being harmed by injustice, mercilessness, and faithlessness.

Of course, we cannot and should not expect every Christian in every instance to jump into action whenever they hear a story of wrongdoing and injustice.  Such an expectation is unfair and unrealistic.  However, we would hope at the very least, that one’s posture when hearing stories and details of wrongdoing would be one that primarily reacted in care and concern for those being harmed and in indignation toward those committing the wrongdoing and injustice.  Rather, what we tend to see far more often is a penchant by many Christians to first, if not exclusively, defend themselves, their tribes, and their admired leaders and organizations.  There are many times actions taken to attack the messenger and place the focus of scrutiny upon the messenger, consequently losing focus of the message.  In reaction to hearing stories of wrongdoing and seeing harmful actions and attitudes being pointed out, human desires to preserve comforts and reputations often win out over caring for the wellbeing of others.

We all often fail, even the best of us, at putting the needs and interests of others before our own….. I know I am certainly guilty.  It is human nature to look out for Number One.  However, I offer that we are approaching a point of crisis in the popular American church culture where scandal, injustice, and unrighteousness are growing like weeds and have become widespread across the landscape.  And much of this is because our culture is increasingly influenced and controlled by manipulative, unaccountable, powerful, charismatic, authoritative figures, is filled with consumeristic and selfish desires for comfort, control, and certainty, and many Christians choose to either defend or ignore these realities.  This defending of wrongdoing and/or choosing to look away from it, only allows the snowball of immorality and injustice to keep rolling and continually grow in size.  Like in Amos’ time, God’s people in this country of ours have experienced a long period of general acceptance, control, and prosperity, and many have mistaken this as God’s blessing and approval upon all of our ways and customs.  Our priority has become to preserve these ways within our comfortable bubble and to preserve our “righteous” reputation, at the expense of the wellbeing of others.  Also like in Amos’ time, much worship, in our case in the form of music and the preaching of God’s Word, is used to manipulate the perspective that God must be for us and all our ways.  We love to feel good about ourselves and our tribe and our culture and correspondingly look down upon others who don’t do it right like us.  All the more, worship music and preaching are adulterated and used to fight political and cultural wars (hello the likes of Jack Hibbs and Sean Feucht).

Our breaches in our covenant with God have become egregious, but we don’t want to hear about them.  When the Amos-like figures of our time come along and take on the unhappy task of trying to disabuse us of our foolish ways and expectations, we find ways to discredit them and dismiss their message.  We do so at our own peril, and unfortunately even more so, at the peril of those who are being harmed by our foolish ways and expectations.  Yet all along the way, the true Answer sits right before us and waits for us far more patiently than we deserve.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – I John 1:9

“If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” – I John 1:10

May we not make Him out to be a liar by continuing to defend or deflect from our sin.  May we not bring judgment upon ourselves like in the days of Amos, where we will be held even more accountable than those whom we love to denounce.