The Church and Message Conveyance

I read a media post a couple weeks past arguing that if someone’s church didn't speak out against the murder in Charlottesville, Virginia, that this is evidence that they attend a white supremacist church. That might be true. Then, again, it might not. What happened in Charlottesville was appalling, and the culprit should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The white supremacists traipsing for bigotry certainly do not represent anything like middle-of-the-road America. Following weeks of contemplation, I choose to now deal with the idea that if a church doesn't immediately preach on this, or any other select social issue, that church should be branded and rejected.

Is not the Church already addressing the problem in congregations across America every time it teaches people to love one another, who they can see? Or else, is not evidence that they do not love God who they cannot see? Does the Church not address the problem in congregations across America every time it teaches that to embrace anger against your brother or sister is synonymous to murdering them? In the same way, does not the Church address sexual deviancy, promiscuity, abortion and like issues by teaching about self-restraint and intrinsic human value? Does not the Church address environmental issues by teaching about stewardship? Does not the Church teach about prevailing over divisions by bringing to light the reconciliation available through the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the forgiveness of the source of every human evil? And it teaches about the alternative to sin every single time it emboldens its congregants to follow Jesus.

Like others who have on occasion filled-in for a pastor, I have in the past delivered pro-life, anti-discrimination and appropriate, to the occasion, messages and sermons on these and other present-day issues. If others don’t, does that make them or the Church, pro-abortion, racist, less patriotic? What’s wrong with incorporating the sanctity of human life, equality of all and patriotism into Church sermons when the Bible text links with the issue? I dare say, each advocate/activist in every area of life yearns for the opportunity to seize the pulpits/lecterns of America but addressing the human condition is always greater than any lone issue. If the Church in America were mandated to preach on abortion every time an individual outside the womb purposefully killed an innocent living being inside the womb, the church would preach on nothing else. It happens over 3,000 times every day.

The problem is not that media types declare or brand a church as this, that, or the other, if it did not deal with an issue they wanted addressed that Sunday. If your church conveys the established reliable, historical faith passed down through the ages, it is already addressing the derivation of the moral calamities that plague mankind.