Through the Lips of Babes

The Importance of Being Honest Even at the Cost of Appearing Rude.

Anyone who has been around children for any length of time has probably experienced that awkward moment demonstrated in "The Emperor's New Clothes", when the whispered inward thoughts of everyone is said out loud, with the volume turned all the way up.

"Why is that fat lady's hair pink?!" shouts the 4-year-old in the grocery store checkout line. Part of you wants to duck into the next lane and justify that woman's poor decisions to your child while scolding them for being rude to point it out. But at the same time, deep down you were thinking the same thing, we're just no longer honest about it. We nod our heads, as our training in public manners have taught us, and through gritted teeth tell the morbidly obese lady that she looks good in those two sizes too small leggings that she poured her cellulite dimpled rolls into.

Where has the shame gone? It used to be an insult to be called a "Shameless Hussy", but now a days it's the encouraged fashion. There is no better motivator to discipline oneself, in order to do what is healthy or moral, than to be publicly shamed by one's peers, especially when it's done by those who truly care about your wellbeing.

I've seen pre-pubescent girls in public dressed like a five-dollar whore, accompanied by no less than her parents, but what tops the cake is that by public I mean Sunday morning worship service. Does anyone say anything? Oh no, we don't want to be rude. We don't want to upset anyone. Don't judge, lest we be judged, right? Well yeah, if your daughter is dressed like a 2-bit hooker maybe you shouldn't be casting stones, but for those who have their household's dress code in line with scripture, they shouldn't be afraid to say what everyone else in the congregation is thinking and saying behind their backs.

When cowardice to speak the truth in love entered the body of Christ, so did the major uptick in gossip and slander, one of the churches oldest problems that destroys relationships and divides the body.

"Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down." Proverbs 26:20

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:29-32

"Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." Titus 2:2-5

God calls us, especially older women, to be willing to step out of our comfort zone in order to guide the young women to follow scripture in every area of life. If you overhear a fellow sister in Christ talking with her friends about wanting to butch her hair you should step in and encourage her,

"It is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved"

1 Corinthians. 11:6.

But instead, we look the other way, not wanting to offend, and the following Sunday when she enters with her newly shaved head, we join in on the whispers. "Can you believe what she did?" "She had such beautiful hair! Now look at her!" All the while we tell her how cute her new look is, behind lying teeth.

Now one could argue that these are disputed positions, that the church doesn't have a firm statement on the subject of hair length or body weight. So, what about when you hear a brother or sister in Christ continually talk negatively about their spouse? Or when you see them flirting with another member of the church?

Or when they start talking about divorce? How many marriages could have been saved had someone been willing to say in love what the scriptures say on the matter, in the beginning at the first sign of problems. But instead we opt to stay out of it, convincing ourselves that it isn't our buisness, that we don't want to be involved in conflict, that we don't want to judge; thus we choose to watch a family crumble apart and suffer, because of our cowardice. And then we top it off with a steady stream of whispers. "I can't believe she cheated with the deacon!" "How could he run off with the pianist!" "Those poor kids, divorse is so hard on them." All the while saying to them, "I never liked him/her, you are better off."

The list of examples could fill a book on how the mis-interpretation of Matthew 7:1 has wrecked the church body, relationships, community, and unity. It has been an excuse to cover our laziness and cowardice for generations, and now we've reaped what we've sown. No one told the pudgy kid that he was going to end up obese and alone if he didn't cut back on the cookie crisp, poptarts, and donuts, nor were we brave enough to mention it to his parents, so 40, fat, and alone he became. No one said anything when the deacons daughter moved in with her unbelieving boyfriend, just to have 3 kids out of wedlock to many men and end up hooked on drugs. So now they just shake their heads and say "poor kids having to be raised by their grandparents, because their dad's took off and their mother is in jail." No one said anything when everyone stopped having a backbone to have close personal HONEST relationships, even to the point of being unable to tell someone they have a boogie hanging out of their nose. They will stare at it, be grossed out by it, and even tell someone else about it, but many refuse to save their fellow Christian an embarrassment as simple as, "Hey you need a tissue."

Now that society is filling up with rainbow haired, obese, gender-confused, drug addicted, coddled, adulterous apostates, the church will scratch its head and wonder where they went wrong. Maybe we don't have a loud enough band for our "7-11 praise songs"? Maybe we need to go to 5 words sung 20 times to really get the message through, that we just need to hate the sin, but love the sinner. Come as you are, no one will judge, and if you stay as you are Jesus will still love you, because you are you and you are special, all 350lbs of you/they/him/zer. No one is going to bring up the uncomfortable scriptures that would bring about guilt or conviction, someone might accuse us of judging or tell us to mind our own business.

The Gospel is Love and the Law is Rude.

The failure of the previous generation of meek and mild, limp-wristed, Jesus is a fairy in the sky, Love is Love, by no standard "Christians" has doomed many to a lonely, unfulfilled, unhealthy, miserable state of being, called "Modern Life". But hey, at least they didn't judge.

-Mrs. Johnson