As a Christian I am awestruck at modern evangelicals. And more so at the so called leadership than actual evangelicals. Yes, this is about Falwell.
As a Christian I have to admit on the saint to sinner scale I tend to fall much farther on the sinner side than the saint side so not trying to throw stones from a glass house I still have to comment on Jerry Falwell Jr.’s recent fall from grace. If we can call it that. And really I do not want to even begin to say his name to give him credit. Yet the hypocrisy of the leadership of Evangelicals makes me worried about the future of Christianity in this country.
And I stress the leadership of evangelicals being the problem, not the people who practice their faith. And yes there is a big gap between the leaders and the people in regards to actually living a Christian life. I say this because I know many. I am not, nor claim to be an Evangelical, yet the people I do know amaze me sometimes at the dedication to their faith.
One issue I have with many Christians not just evangelicals is the over use of quoting Biblical scripture. Yes you need to know it, but I know people who just beat you up with it, completely forgetting your are suppose to live the teachings, not become obsessed with the words. To my point though as with many Christians I know Evangelicals that not only know their scripture so much more than I, but also live it as I believe we all should. And this causes me to become even more upset with people like Jerry Falwell. I cannot even call him Reverend because his public life is so far removed from Christianity it is a sin. And I am very serious in choosing the word sin because he is lying to the world when his actions say one thing and his words say another thing. I am not going to go into details but any study of what he does and what he says will make you nauseous to your core.
Going back to the rank and file evangelicals, I have witnessed many who truly live the life of Christianity so I wonder why people like Falwell become their leaders. What disconnect is going on that people do not throw back the curtain and find leaders that better represent their faith. I use to work with someone who would wear me out quoting scripture. Every conversation was peppered with scripture references, yet I was his supervisor and saw first hand he applied being a Christian into his work. So I never said anything about these references. I would discuss/debate application of teachings and our conversations on this level was very fruitful and enjoyable. Yet he would not flinch to support people that I thought were a living contradiction to who he is and what he did as a Christian. Drove me even more mad than the scripture quotes all the time. Again I do not understand this disconnect with supporting leadership that literally goes against the actual teachings of Jesus Christ.
This is one of the reasons I understand why so many people aren’t attracted to Christianity when they see these displays of hypocrisy in the media and in public action all the time.
Anyway we all fall and I have fallen more times than I can count, so I do not want to celebrate Jerry Falwell’s removal from his job in a vengeful way, just point out he does not represent Christianity in its truest form or even come close.
Cheers
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