Bash Not

As we greet the new year, I would like to propose a moratorium: Stop bashing one another. Last year’s presidential election stooped to new lows of negative reporting. Lies, and outright character assassination severed the bond between family members, including the family of God. While at the same time it highlighted the great political divide within our nation.
Christians are not immune. In fact they continue to foolishly mimic the culture’s penchant for the bad, the ugly, and the perverse. They use Tik-Tok, YouTube, and other social media platforms to hang out the dirty laundry of leaders who have committed sins of all types. They castigate those with whom they disagree theologically. Even worship songs are on the radar of being judged. All this bad behavior has been platformed for the world to see.
Haven’t you read the words of Jesus in Matthew 18: which details how we are to handle people who have sinned?
“If a brother sins against you” (aka a fellow follower of Jesus, whether it’s a leader, or
someone in your life group) Our response should not be to go to a “Christian”
influencer so they can put it up on Youtube or Facebook. “Go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone.” Have you done that?
If there is no change, open the circle to a couple firsthand witnesses. If there is still no
repentance, share it with the congregation. And if after all this, there is no
acknowledgement of wrongdoing, then treat him/her as a tax collector and a Gentile.
While some take this to mean excommunication, bear in mind that it was Jesus who was
accused of being “a friend of sinners.” Even so, it is never to be brought into the court
of public opinion, where one is found guilty until proven innocent.
Yes, Paul instructed the church at Corinth to put the man who was having an illicit affair
out of the church. But he did not take a full page ad out in the Corinth Chronicle, or
post it in the Gospel Gossip Gazette. It was done within the confines of a local church.
Have we skipped over passages like Galatians 6 which tells us that if a fellow believer
has been overtaken by a fault, we who are spiritual should restore that person in a
spirit of gentleness? Blogs I have read and/or and the comment sections listed below
express anything but the spirit of restoration. Some almost gloat over the fact that they
have taken the perpetrator, their brother or sister in Christ to task. The exposure of their
sin is seen as spiritual gift to the body of Christ. I see it as pride and malice.

Do I condone the actions of fallen leaders? Absolutely not! Should victims seek justice,
whatever that may look like...Absolutely. But taking their sin public only serves to
humiliate, not to restore. Paul urges believers to settle matters not using the world
system. (I Cor 6) To ignore the hard work of in-house restoration by replacing it with
media-driven headlines, only satiates the cynic. It also provides fodder for those who
reject the Christian faith because of perceived hypocrisy. But the most damaging part of
this self-righteous, and often self-serving strategy is that it severs the accused and/or
condemned from their connection to the Body of Christ.
Let’s reinstitute the adage of old: “If you don’t have anything good to say about
someone, don’t say it at all.” And if public figure sins, those around him/her should take
the individual to task; alone at first, and then with witnesses...But let’s stop publicly
bashing fellow disciples.
 That the world may know,
NIcholas