labeling

It is so easy to label someone isn't it? This past week, radio host Rush Limbaugh was labeled a racist because someone read something that someone said that Rush said, yet no source can be found. Of course that never happens in the church, right?

Today, we use the word liberal as someone we do not agree with. The first one to say "liberal" has successfully labeled another person. This poisons the well of discussion because now everything the labeled person says is suspect. It is meant by the labelor to cause this to happen so people will not listen to his point of view. Other words that have become useless by bad use are conservative, legalist, traditionalist, and progressive. With all the baggage found in these words, the only reason people use these labels is to raise questions of those labeled.

A friend and I were talking about this once. He said that he just wanted to be Biblical and go wherever that led. For some this is a good thought; wanting to study the Bible and realize that we might see things differently from our previous understandings and traditions. Others find this frightening for the same reasons.

I doubt that this will change but it is a sad state of affairs that good people now have to live with false labels all for the sake of maintaining control.

Power

Richard Horsley said this in his book, The Liberation of Christmas: "But biblical texts suggest that people in positions of relative power and privilege (kings, princes, priests, scribes, Pharisees) tend not to test their own prejudices and horizons but to use their power to impose them on others" (p. 148).

When I read that I thought that he could have included preachers and elders. Traditions and traditional views often become laws that cannot be broken because that will cause one to lose his soul. So only certain views are accepted and others rejected because those in power have the control, even though good brethren disagree on various texts. There can be no disagreement. Long gone are the days in which various views are found in brotherhood papers. Only those views that the editors accept are acceptable.

Read blogs by various brethren and you will see that many do not accept the traditional line. People have left churches because they have been criticized for questioning traditions or looking at texts in other ways.

What is forgotten is that Jesus is Lord and He alone has all authority. It is time for us to come to grips with this before we destroy ourselves through bitterness and anger.