Boycotting Star Trek

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

I became a Star Trek fan in junior high and high school. I loved Star Trek. I even wrote a Star Trek novel during my sophomore year in high school (and then William Shatner wrote his own novel that was similar enough mine would never get published! But I'm not bitter or anything….ahem). I loved the science fiction and the vision of a future where humanity had overcome many of the evils of its past. But at one point, I became disillusioned with it, even deciding to boycott Star Trek. In several of the novels and television episodes a thread developed which ridiculed and mocked religious belief in general and which seemed to attack Christianity in particular. But after a while I realized something. Star Trek had always had those elements within it. Star Trek had never hidden those elements and never pretended to be anything other than what it was - a secular science fiction show. So, I ended my boycott of Star Trek and came back to it with a healthier understanding of both it and myself.

Many of us have experienced similar situations in life, where we decide to stay away from a particular group or product because of the things they support, the ideas they promote, or the lifestyles they live. And while there are certainly times when such "boycotts" are warranted, we often level them at the wrong people.  In 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, Paul wrote, "When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn't talking about unbelievers...What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people." (NLT)

See, both to protect the integrity of the faith and to help straying believers understand the severity of their sinful behavior, we are to avoid people who claim to be Christians but consistently live like they are not. But nowhere are we told to treat unbelievers badly because they act like unbelievers. How else would we expect unbelievers to behave? 

Rather than targeting secular or religiously-other people and organizations for their behavior, we should be more concerned about those who claim to be Christians while presenting an absolutely horrendous witness to the world. But notice, Paul did not say to avoid people whose theology is different than ours or who disagree with us about portions of the faith. He said to avoid those Christians whose behavior is poor. In another example, in 2 Thessalonians 3, Paul warns against associating with Christians who are irresponsible and make themselves a burden for everyone else. 

One of the reasons so many people are turning away from Christianity today is that we allow sin to fester in the Church. We tolerate people who are abusive and greedy and are swindlers. Even outsiders understand that the Church is filled with imperfect people, but they rightly expect us to take a stand when people within our own ranks behave in despicable ways.

We cannot expect people to take our claims of the transforming power of Christ seriously when we tolerate consistent sin from those who claim to follow Christ.  Don't stay away from the sinners. Stay away from the people who claim to follow Christ but don't live like it. 

Judging Believers More than Bombers

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

The 2013 Boston bombings stirred up a lot of feelings for people. The fact that those bombings were once again committed by Islamic Jihadists upset many people. More than once I heard people lament that, in their opinion, moderate Muslims had not spoken up enough to condemn acts of violence committed in the name of their religion, that their alleged silence not only condoned these heinous acts but encouraged future atrocities. Whether those complaints had much merit or were simply voiced by people who hadn't listened to Muslim condemnations of the violence is a matter that could be debated at length, but the issue itself points to a problem within the Christian community, especially in America.

American society, and much of the American church has taken Jesus' and James' call to refrain from judging people and applied it everywhere but in the appropriate context. Why do I say this? Because of what Paul also has to say in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13: I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? But God judges outsiders. Put away the evil person from among yourselves (HCSB).

Jesus and Paul had two different contexts as Paul makes clear in the opening verses of this passage. We are not supposed to judge the people of this world, no matter how sinful their behavior appears. We cannot hold outsiders to the same standards to which we would hold ourselves. We are supposed to provide loving witnesses to those people so that nothing we do will keep them from coming to God. But for believers, the standard is entirely different. We are supposed to hold believers (or those who claim to be) to a higher standard. When we see them living in ways that are consistently opposed to the teachings of Christ we are to let everyone know that they don't represent us and to have nothing to do with them until they get their acts straight. Not because we are better than them or above them, but because condoning their sinful behavior with our silence and acceptance provides a very bad witness to the people we are trying to reach.

We are not supposed to judge sinners. We are supposed to love them. Sometimes that means loving them enough to condemn the actions of those who should know better so that the damage to the Church's witness is minimized. Remember, even Jesus judged the religious people of his day for their hypocrisy.