Via Jim West:
According to former President Jimmy Draper, who said Monday “We have reached a place that our spiritual forefathers feared. We need to admit that the problem with America today is not the government or the politicians. It is not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain. It’s not the senators or representatives. The problem is not the educational system or the economy. It’s not the liberals or the abortionists. The problem lies with us.
“We conservatives claim to have the truth and we think we are rich in spiritual position and power, but yet we are cold, complacent, impotent and unattractive, and irrelevant to the world. I hate to say it, but we are not plateaued. We’re not even just declining. We’re in a free fall. You know why we don’t win the lost? Because we don’t like them. They are different from us. We don’t care for them. We have no real love for them. People just don’t touch eternity when they are around us. We’re too self-absorbed.”
Wow, talk about an “open” comment. I can’t comment specifically about the SBC, since I may never have met anybody in that group, however I have run into many many people who consider themselves belonging to a conservative branch of American Christianity who come across as judgmental. Judgmental seems to me to equal we/they. And the “They” are somehow always inferior, not possessing as much of the Truth, etc.
Yes, that would come across as not liking somebody, or at least, not liking them the way they currently believe.
I will say, however, that my denomination may not come across as judgmental, but there are statements about the True Religion or True Faith on the website (or at least there was 2 years ago. They’ve revamped the website.) And branches of my denomination will not serve communion to Christians who are not members of their group. That can easily be interpreted as You are Not Good Enough. Or your beliefs are not good enough. This, in spite of the basic theology that we aren’t saved by our beliefs or being good enough….we are saved by God’s grace.
I think Draper’s remarks could easily be applied to any Christian who starts to feel somehow better than others. Yes, this isn’t a way to welcome the stranger or feed the naked.
WHEW!