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Christianity Today, July (Web-only), 2009 |

Soulwork

The Scandal of the Public Evangelical

What we really have to offer the world.

Mark Galli | posted 7/02/2009 09:10AM

It's been a tough couple of months for evangelical public figures. We discovered that Carrie Prejean, Miss California, sudden heroine in the gay marriage debate, posed nude for the cameras to kick-start ...

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johny

Posted: July 15, 2009 1:29 PM


Hebrews we are warned of rejecting the grace when we sin willfully.

juno	Posted: July 15, 2009 1:26 PM


http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/07/04/apalling-grace-a-respons e-to-mark-gallis-the-scandal-of-the-public-evangelical/

Conrade

Posted: July 14, 2009 5:13 PM

I must thank Mark Galli for highlighting this aspect of public perception. I agree with his conclusion that Christianity is about grace, and not more good works upon good. Yet I find his argument regarding 'role models' unconvincing (details at link below). Not only that, his article itself should at least exhibit the very same grace he talks about for the three unfortunate individuals he highlighted at the beginning. [http://yapdates.blogspot.com/2009/07/scandal-of-public-evangelical.htm l]

John	Posted: July 12, 2009 9:48 PM

A couple of thoughts: While it is discouraging to face the prospect of so many bad models of Christianity in public life (no less me than anyone else), we do always have Jesus Himself as our model and he is dependable at all times. His public image is hard for me to be sure about, and unfortunately so much of that seems to depend on us as believers. Nonetheless, I figure that if I keep desiring to grow to be more like Jesus, His Spirit will do his work, and I need not worry about what others think. Also, after 15 years of actively participating in the Evangelical movement I am convinced of one thing: Evangelicals should get on their knees daily and pray for substantially more humility.

Tmothy

Posted: July 12, 2009 12:56 AM

This sounds like another gospel-- like the pharisee who preans his image on the outside in trying to appear righteous while inwardly his real self reeks with putrid death. What shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid? Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. To glorify public figures who somehow have the label " Christian" and to thereby offer excuses for their fall and to associate this with the misnomer of "evangelical christianity" is media friendly, but capitualation insomuch as the original label " Christian" meant 'little Christ's" and was a term of ridicule. It appears that history repeats itself. The best example of a real Christian is what I heard a mother say of her daughter when she was 14 ( now 24). The daughter said that the mother would never know if she did a sexual no-no, but God would know and that would be reason enough to abstain. This is God-fearing. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Michael

Posted: July 10, 2009 12:51 PM

This article sets forward a false dichotomy on the basis of a selective reading of the evidence for holiness within Christianity. It just seems false to pit proclaimation of Christ against being conformed to Christ as though the church should not embody and has not embodied both in some respect. In her almost 2000-year history, one can find numerous examples of moral failures. However, there are also plenty of examples of saints. As Augustine suggested in his response to Donatist purists, the church will always be a mixed body, and so it is. This does not remove either the need for Christians to embody Christ nor does it remove the fact that many saints in the history of the church have done so and continue to do so. I share the author's lament about "high profile" failures, but disagree with his analysis on how to respond to them. We respond as the church has always responded: by attempting to remain faithful in word and deed.

Michael

Posted: July 10, 2009 10:59 AM


"Yes, we're a movement that preaches repentance and confession of sin as a chief means of grace." Do we not have it the wrong way round? It's grace that leads to repentance and confession of sin. The Gospel is that God loves us 'while we are yet sinners.' We don't have to clean up our act before God loves us. This is really Good News, but if we have to repent first, it's bad news.

Bev	Posted: July 09, 2009 9:36 PM

I give this a 5 star rating but for some reason it's not coming up that way...anyway...I loved it because I love the grace of God. I have discovered that the only people who get better are those who finally grasp the magnificent news that it's NOT ABOUT GETTING BETTER!! It's about living in the freedom and joy of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. I want to come to the place where I care more about Jesus than I care about TRYING TO LOOK LIKE JESUS. Whenever I am conscious of trying to look like Jesus, I get my eyes off him and on to myself. The delightful thing I've discovered is the people who I suspect love Jesus the most actually don't think about if they are looking like him and yet they do!

Roger

Posted: July 09, 2009 4:19 PM

When it comes to theological concepts when does the world's judgment of the church matter? The judgment faced by God is all that matters. God says to fear him and not man because he not only may kill the body but cast the soul into hell. Mark 16:15-18 tells of the commission technique if you would, go and preach and those who believe, the word believe is loaded and greatly misunderstood, it is an action taken by man or women and then the gifts of God flow in a believers life and his gift makes room for him. Jesus used power at the women at the well, power to feed the 5000, power to pay taxes, power when discussing theology with the scholars. God desires to also release his power to the believer, but it requires obedience. Then when the world sees God's glory they will envy us and not the other way around.

Rick	Posted: July 09, 2009 3:33 PM


Dr. Michael L. Brown pegged the fallacies of Mark's position. Please read his response. Mark has poorly missed Romans chapter 6 & 7. Mark sounds like he is just trying to passify his 'religious' failed experiment with the supernatural & holy God.

Basil

Posted: July 09, 2009 9:59 AM

Maybe part of this is issue relates to the surrender of many Evangelicals to the culture. We want so desperately to be liked and respected but we can't count the cost. What's happening here is much like the frog in the kettle analogy. Drop a frog into boiling water and it hops right out. Put it in a kettle filled with cool water and it stays put. Then slowly turn up the heat to the boiling point and soon you have a dead frog. Perhaps this is what is happening to Evangelicals today?

Mikluz

Posted: July 08, 2009 11:20 PM

What is more sad than Christian thinking they can be good if they just work at it hard enough? Thinking that their leaders can be even better at it? Yet do, do, do is so much a part of the preaching. Yet we are saved by grace. Good is not something that we can do. The best we can do is cooperate with what God would do through us. (let it be done to me according to your will?) It is only in seeking to know God that one can arrive at this faith. We are safest (from pride) when we properly attribute the good people see in us to God. The superior attitude that is now seen in evangelicals would be replaced with love and understanding (not tolerance). That is the difference that will make a difference.

kostya

Posted: July 08, 2009 9:54 PM

I think Mark should be congratulated for his openness, and the fact that he probably speaks for many evangelicals. But isn't it obvious that the problem is self. We have not heard the gospel. Americans and those in my country of Australia are obsessed with self and individualism and preach a gospel that does not challenge that. I believe in the gospel. That makes me an evangelical. Unfortunately the reverse is not true.

Don	Posted: July 08, 2009 4:04 PM


It's amazing to see these supposedly sanctified, Spirit-filled Christians write with such animus to Mark. I just see their remarkable witness and want to run (not walk) to their church.

Rosa	Posted: July 08, 2009 3:38 PM

I don't know...I kind of do think that if we're going to be very publically Christian and in any position of leadership, we should live at the highest standard possible. We do represent Christ to the world, and although not perfect, should certainly be able to stay committed in our marriage, or choose to not take semi-nude pictures, or choose not to commit adultery. It is possible to choose to do the right thing, especially with the power of Christ. I think Christianity these days just doesn't go deep enough into people's hearts and we don't take Christ's admonitions seriously enough. Certainly there is grace and forgiveness, but I do think God holds Christian leaders/public figures to a higher standard.

RuthAnn

Posted: July 08, 2009 2:55 PM

quote: "Then, and only then, will Christians have something to offer the world." ... It isn't really what WE have to offer the world at all - What we have to offer the world is not OUR OWN perfection, but Christ's perfect love and forgiveness. We are going down the wrong path when we make it about what WE do, every time. It's only about what God has done for us, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Awake!!!

Posted: July 08, 2009 12:38 PM

hmm, i seem to recall Jesus saying you will know them by their fruits… As a matter of fact that’s a pretty frequent occurrence in the bible.. Does no one wonder nowdays why the angel said His name shall be Jesus and he will save his people from their sins!!!? Thats what he came to do, if you are in sin, REPENT, and he will cleanse you, that you should live a holy, pure life!!! People, believe the word of God, don’t listen to wolfs with four letters behind their name who have hardened their own hearts.. Go after the Bible to find out what it says about what happened to those who live in sin.. The Gospel is this, LOOK TO JESUS, And he will set you FREE!!! If you need good literature to help you go after the writings of men like AW Tozer, Leonard Ravinhill, Paris Reidhead, CH Spurgin,,, these are all men who’s lifes matched up to the Word of God, not this guy who wrote this articular.

Repent

Posted: July 08, 2009 12:15 PM

"Appalling grace, how bleak the sound, that teased a wretch like me. I still am lost, though almost found, am bound and still not free. I was moved to pen these lines after reading Mark Galli’s recent article, “The Scandal of the Public Evangelical: What we really have to have to offer the world,” published July 2, 2009, in Christianity Today online. (Galli is the Senior Managing Editor for Christianity Today.)" by Michael L. Brown http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/07/04/apalling-grace- a-response-to-mark-gallis-the-scandal-of-the-public-evangelical/

MA	Posted: July 08, 2009 10:46 AM

I think it is sad. I personally think these people just use Christianity for their public purposes. Neither I nor any of my friends do these kind of things. For one thing, that Gosselin thing- it was very obvious from the beginning that she was not Biblically respecting her husband. If she had been, the whole thing never would have happened. Her treatment of him was totally unBiblical but Christians are so eager to follow after people who claim that name and not look more closely. Poltiically we also tend to run after every prolife person and fail to look deeply at people who don't follow the whole Bible. My husband is not even a Christian, and he was disgusted with the whole Sanford thing. His main concern was how the husband's behavior, and his extra confessions afterwards would affect his children. Somehow Sanford states he believes this is "his prerogative?" My husband believes, and I agree, that when he had kids and got a wife, it was no longer his prerogative!

tsm	Posted: July 08, 2009 10:29 AM


This article is the swift kick in the butt that's needed for self-righteous and legalistic emergents and evangelicals alike...

Torben

Posted: July 08, 2009 10:29 AM

There is a key to the lack of difference between Christians and non-Christians that this article does not touch on. The truth is that most Christians are just like non-Christians, because so many of us simply don't know who we are anymore than our non-believing neighbor does. The article suggests the common lie among evangelicals that we are "just sinners saved by grace". That is simply not true about us as believers! We are holy, righteous, and God's chosen people whether we look like it or not. We can end up living in the flesh-misery of Romans 7, if we don't know who we are, but the reality is that we don't need more do's and dont's, we need a conviction of our righteousness - and that will start changing our behavior from within so we "smell more like Christ". http://abrokencup.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/how-to-reach-people-with-the-gos pel/ http://abrokencup.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/not-just-a-sinner-saved-by -grace/ Torben - www.abrokencup.wordpress.com

maryjanemowers

Posted: July 08, 2009 3:17 AM

As far as I am concerned it is all a matter of selfishness. Do I love God more or myself more. Am I willing to run the race according to the scriptures or my own agenda. I am speaking from personal experience as a single mom for 37 years. It wasn't easy but it was possible to live according to the Word. There were daily struggles , but God kept His promises not to give a temptation or burden I could not bear. Was it easy NO, but it was always the marvelous grace of my loving Lord that never failed even when I did. Don't these people relize how they grieve the very heart of the One who loves them by the life style they live. What has happened to the desire to hear well done thou good and faithful servant.

Anonymous

Posted: July 08, 2009 1:51 AM

While Gali correctly reminds us that the core of the gospel is grace for sinners, my gut tells me something is missing from this message (and several Scriptures spring to mind supporting this hunch). It is indeed an error to believe we have something more to offer others than Christ himself, but the cliche that "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" rings hollow in a world desperate for true redemption. Scandalous behavior by public Christians may reinforce the doctrine of original sin, but it also can turn others away from Christ, who must appear an unreliable savior. Perhaps the error behind many scandals is the belief that having and proclaiming "correct beliefs" makes one an example. This is hubris, not faith. One doesn't become an example by public proclamation; we become examples by walking humbly with our God, knowing it's His grace alone that allows us to kick addictions, keep commitments, and love our neighbors. We can't be witnesses unless we have seen something happen.

Chris Gnanakaran

Posted: July 08, 2009 1:11 AM


Check out this response: its important http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/07/04/apalling-grac e-a-response-to-mark-gallis-the-scandal-of-the-public-evangelical/

Vivek Paul

Posted: July 08, 2009 12:57 AM

Salvation means being saved from sin, not being saved in sin. We are saved so that our lives are no longer bound by sin. Paul says that we have to die to our flesh, so that we are raised, and live in newness of life, being raised with Jesus our Lord. Sin is no longer an option. If we sin any time we immediately repent and ask God to cleanse us, like washing our feet when our feet get dirty. Also in Hebrews we are warned of rejecting the grace when we sin willfully.

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