There are some who get very frustrated at brothers in Christ assassinating other brothers. And, rightly so. But what bothers me far more is the fact that many will agree with the words of a man they do not know and cannot account for over people in their own lives, even their own families. We can have intimate knowledge of the affect the assassinated man had in the lives of family or friends….and it is all good. We can have friends for decades who vouch for the character of the man assassinated. But, we ignore all that because some person, some where on the globe, wrote a piece against the man…..which happens to agree with us.
So, I thought about putting the shoe on the other foot. I actually tried it by writing a fictitious blog post using actual sermon excerpts, comments and such. And while what I wrote was not what I believed, I cringed upon reading it and, fearing that it had far more potential to harm than help, deleted it.
Think about this for a moment: How would we react if we were in the crosshairs? What if someone came into our congregation, took words from our pastors out of context, mixed them with misconceptions of some in the congregation, threw in some mistaken theology of a couple members, sprinkled in a few cherry-picked verses then spread that out as truth about the Mennonite church. Then a few people, disgruntled with their experiences with the Mennonite church, posted it wherever they could and warned people about us. And, then, family and friends believed that blog post over what we have said to be true. Some couldn’t even talk to us for fear of others. How would we react?
If we are honest, there are a number of distorted views of the Mennonite church. Some of it is based on some truths. Some of it is completely ridiculous. One of the mindsets that most have of mennonites is that they are legalistic and live by a set of rules; that we are far more about religion than relationship. It would not be a far stretch for someone to produce a misleading article on it. Suppose someone were to attend our church, hear a few sermons and talk with a few people. Then, using excerpts of some sermons along with words of members past and present, they could represent a far more legalistic view of our church than matches reality. They could then bring in selected verses from Galatians, equating our rules with what the Judaizers were doing by trying to insist upon circumcision and accuse us of being false teachers. Added to that would be a “fact” that never was anything said about any security of the believer, either because they ignored/forgot it or because they weren’t there the times it was emphasized. Drop in a few names that make us guilty by association. Then, sprinkle in a few lies or inaccuracies. All mixed together with a “watchtower” mentality could produce a blog post that would be a scathing expose on our church, but false. Using these techniques, I doubt there is a single church that could escape such a scrutiny.
Most of us who attend a Mennonite church would see through everything that’s been stated and realize it’s misrepresented. We know to hold lightly some of what certain ones say. We know that what one or two espouse is not necessarily the position of all. We trust the sincerity of our fellow members and can agree to disagree where necessary. We know the sermon excerpts may not accurately represent the entire sermon or our theology. We know that some things the people “never hear” actually have been emphasized. We would know that any such blog post or article is not truly indicative of what is taught. We would see it as the rant of someone disgruntled with us.
But, what if this blog post spread like wildfire? What if people you knew swallowed this whole post-hook, line and sinker-without ever consulting with you? What if people in your own family believed you were deceived because of a post like this that was written by a stranger? What if that stranger’s opinion held more weight with them than yours, even though you’ve been friends for decades? Do you want your family members warning you, hounding you, and preying on others based on this type of post? Do you want the entire world viewing your church through it? What if your pastor were accused of being a false teacher based on it? What if you knew there were some who were afraid to talk with someone who believed some of what we taught for fear of reprisal and guilt by association?
It would bother me immensely if some would believe such a report is true of us. It would grieve me tremendously if people I knew, loved, trusted and respected believed this report over what I have said without any comment or question to me. It would be distressing to me that 3rd and 4th parties couldn’t even associate with anything that smacked of Mennonite for fear of rebuke, hostility and broken relationships. In the same way, it grieves me that people like and agree with a man whom they do not know over friends, children and family; that they believe slanderous things from an anonymous, unknown stranger about a brother in Christ they don’t know and haven’t listen to or read anything of his; that people are afraid to talk with someone who might agree with a portion of the teaching of an alleged false teacher because of reprisals.
We all know that anything can be found on the internet and cannot always be trusted. But, in our humanity, we often find things that support what we believe and we swallow it whole. When we read blogs, articles and such written by people we don’t know, can’t view their fruit, cannot account for their character or their lives, and it slanders another brother or sister, we need to simply file it away, preferably in the trash bin. It is not our responsibility to expose false prophets we know nothing about based on information from someone we know nothing about who is himself not intimately acquainted with the alleged false prophet. How do we know that the author of a blog post is not a false prophet?
Above all, follow the Golden Rule and respond to what you read the way you want others to respond to something they may read about you; extend the same amount of grace you want extended; give the same healthy dose of skepticism you want given; allow the same amount of benefit of doubt.