Yesterday was a little too productive here. The third post of churchian errors was driven by Captain Capitalism. His critiques of the current church are all too correct.
But I think he missed a tell. It is boasting. Saying that you are holier, more powerful, more righteous — or looking down your nose at those who are struggling. Consider, for a second, if this testimony would be tolerated by the modern church….
21bBut whatever anyone dares to boast of – I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast of that. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman – I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. 24Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; 27in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. 28And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie.
Look, I am glad, really glad, that you do not have a problem with the feminist narrative. That your wife is appropriately submissive, that you have never been tempted my Hugh Hefner and his thousand of internet disciples, or that liquor has never touched your lips.
I’m glad you are not a glutton, and have the same weight you had at high school. I’m glad that your daughter is marrying next week — and can truly wear white. Your house is wonderful, and you are rich and appear spiritually wise.
Great. (Have I missed anything from the Pentecostal Narrative?)
But I’m not you. I struggle. Daily. I work in an area where the feminist assumptions can not even be challenged by data: where these assumptions are taught to all, and at the schools we praise girls and diminish boys. I do not live in the land of the free, but in a town that has voted socialists and social democrat for two lifetimes. (Berkeley is to the right of Dunedin).
I am far more interested in how you deal with struggles. It is no good talking about your victory over things you are not interested in. Talk to me about how you deal with the times when your duty says one thing and your desire says the other. Because those are the times when you can choose to develop character, or not.
But boasting, particularly boasting using a spiritual jargon, is, frankly, nauseating.
