“Lauren Daigle’s answer on homosexuality was obviously absurd, but the sheer hatred many Christians are heaping on this woman is even more absurd. I won’t be going to Daigle for my theology, was never tempted to, but that doesn’t make her Satan incarnate.” Matt Walsh
Right?? That poor woman, my goodness, some of the attacks being lodged at her are just crass, vulgar, and unreal. Coming from Christians. Like, I’ll tell you right now that homosexuality is clearly a sin, but so is the venom and bitterness coming out of people’s mouths all over Twitter.
So there are these abominations, these things God cannot abide, “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Homosexuality is actually not on that list, because apparently it is not God’s Number One Priority. Apparently we have far greater problems, other sins that He chose to highlight and remind us about.
One of the fastest and easiest ways to hit each note of that tune on the path to becoming a good and proper abomination, is to armchair quarter back other Christians who aren’t fulfilling your own needs, be they emotional, spiritual, or political needs.
That’s what the attacks on Lauren Daigle are all about, people’s feelings. She hurt some people’s feelings. You can tell because people are mocking her for her “feelings,” and whenever we point a finger at someone else, we always have four more pointing right back at us, identifying the actual root of the problem.
I get it, there can be such a stabbing feeling of betrayal when another Christian fails you. I was once dealing with this woman on some end of life issues and she had a lot of questions about faith, so she invited this pastor over. I watched that man tell her, among other things, there are many paths to the Father. She promptly announced, that’s not what she said, pointing to me, and that man actually said, she’s just the caregiver, I’m the pastor.
And Mr Soggy Plate of Over Cooked Pasta who couldn’t find his intestinal fortitude with two hands and a flashlight, told her that what she believed in didn’t really matter, that Buddhists go to heaven, that homosexuality is not a sin, and a bunch of other things that left me with some big feelings.
Believe it or not, my biggest obstacle in talking about faith, are actually other Christians. I’ll spare you the links, but there have been entire blog posts informing the world that I am a terrible, very bad, no good person. I’ve been blocked, banned, hacked, and attacked, and I’m just a tiny little voice in the blogosphere. I’m telling you, the wrath and venom of other Christians who think you’re doing it all wrong, is quite a sight to behold.
So we need to address our feelings, to learn how to cope with them and resolve them, because when we don’t, we become exactly as we so often are in the world, a bunch of spiritually immature believers suffering from resentment and relationship fractures, driven by the emotional heat of the moment.
And we need to be infinitely more merciful towards one another. Like, nobody’s perfect. Also, Christians need one another. There is strength in our numbers and in our unity. When we insist on always eating our own, we not only provide a really bad example of what our faith is all about, but we weaken our selves and lay waste to our own backup army.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Because of the attacks other Christians make on you, you can be sure that God will bless you and you will have a great reward in Heaven. I don’t always agree with what you say but I am certain you are faithfully serving God.
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Thanks Clyde, that’s the spirit! As Christians we can disagree about nearly everything, and yet still be united at the foot of the cross.
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“I’ll tell you right now that homosexuality is clearly a sin, but so is the venom and bitterness coming out of people’s mouths all over Twitter” = Bingo!
Christians who lambaste those who are lesbian or gay fail to understand the severity of God’s law and it’s indictment on all of mankind. We ALL fall short. God’s mercy and compassion are needed to save us all. Preach and teach with love and compassion.
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Amen! I often worry, where are our hearts? If we are aware of our own sin and truly know the grace of Christ, do we pour out venom from a clean mouth and washed heart? I think not.
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Can I say that I can appreciate both sides of the issue?
I would like my speech to be “seasoned with salt” and think you can get more clout with people using gracious words.
But at the same time…we have to follow the example of Scripture, and when it comes to Paul and bad theology, he minces no words. He obviously DOES feel betrayed by bad theology. Injured, even. There’s an urgency to his words when it comes to countering falsehoods – he obviously values the truth and wants the church to be undeceived, yesterday. This is Scripture. We can’t just ignore it; we have to take the right lesson from it.
Does that justify being a jerk?
I don’t know. Paul was.
That’s just…Scripture. Every word of his was inspired.
Now, Lauren Daigle does not fall into the category of Paul’s targets, who were blatant and knowing profiteers. Lauren is just waffling out of fear of others.
But the truth is, we have this argument over the profiteers, too. Where is the line? Heavy questions.
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Curious how you think Paul was being a jerk? It’s a bit funny, but I read his words and hear nothing in them but great love and affection? Perception is fascinating to me and indeed, many people seem to believe that Paul is being strident or ultra conservative or something, but for the life of me, I don’t see it or hear it or sense it.
There’s a really good point here, in the fact that Christians are sensitive to sin. We just are, our hearts are soft, keenly aware of it, and that can be really painful. I worry sometimes about how hard our hearts are here in the US, and then I wonder sometimes, are you even really a Christian when you can just gloss over sin?
So perhaps like Paul, I’m a bit of jerk too, and that’s why I don’t recognize it. But doggone it all, I’m not worried about the soul of some girl singer on TV saying the wrong thing, I’m worried about the hundreds of thousands holding her in condemnation right now, because when we hold others in condemnation, we are actually speaking the truth over our very own selves!
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He had his moments. Phil 3:18-19, Gal. 5:12 are a couple of examples. Those are pretty caustic comments.
When it comes to being condemning, the only relevant question is whether we are including ourselves among the sinful. THAT is how we call out sin – not by pretending it isn’t there, not by failing to call it out, but by lowering ourselves to the same level and then revealing God’s grace for it. But if we don’t call it out, there’s no entrance for grace, as the Romans road puts it.
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Do you think it is our job to sit back comfortably in our homes, hidden safely behind our keyboards, calling out sin every time some celebrity doesn’t represent our faith as we believe they should?
Of course you don’t, Brandon. That’s not calling out sin at all, that’s just called being self righteous.
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Venue is only relevant to a point. Besides, it’s easy for you to call “hidden safely” when you don’t have your first and last name attached to your blog like I do. 😉
If we can’t call out sin and theological error, our Scriptural mission is stunted. If Paul’s example is any indication, we must do it. The only question is how, where, and when, and if the online venue is the only way to do it, perhaps it should be used.
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So, the last sentence in Matt’s post sums it up well, “that doesn’t make her Satan incarnate.”
Daigle was actually subjected to thousands of violent and abusive comments that I can’t even put on this blog. If Christians believe that screaming, “you’re a whore and a heretic and satan is your father,” is somehow related to “calling out theological error,” I don’t know what to say, except I really don’t think God sees it that way.
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Well, Paul didn’t scream things like that.
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Right? But thousands of Christians on FB and twitter really ARE, right now, at this very moment. Not one of them is “correcting theological error,” they engaging in self righteous rage because a girl on their TV’s didn’t meet all their emotional and spiritual needs.
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I suppose I’ve been unclear from this post as to whether we’re discussing the appalling third-grade garbage you mentioned or the practice of strongly refuting bad theology.
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Heavy enough to leave them in God’s realm. We do, however, have God’s gift of discernment to call upon. But, I think, we our discernment can be flawed so we need to keep our opinions to ourselves unless scripture supports them. We do have a duty to warn, advise, and teach. Paul said something like this: “These are not God’s words to, but it is the way I see it.”
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I don’t know the issues you’re addressing, IB, but I think that “pastor” who was talking to the woman about end of life issues was a false teacher. Not a brother in Christ. Jude and Peter said some things about false teachers that would have been offensive to 21st century Americans. But ought we not stand against falsehood, when people are lying about God, His way, His plan?
Becky
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“But ought we not stand against falsehood, when people are lying about God, His way, His plan?”
Well actually, I think we should love people as we are called to do. That pastor was not loving that woman, he was loving the sound of his own voice and the glory of his own virtue. That said however, isn’t that precisely what we are guilty of when we send out angry tweets attacking Lauren? We don’t care about her at all, we care about signaling our vast moral superiority and trying to make ourselves look good in the process.
And so a bit like the pharisee, we sit home comfortably with a bag of rocks ready to hurl at any body and every body we perceive as promoting falsehoods, be it religion or politics. And that is what the world sees of us, sees of His church, a bunch of Christians so terrified of false teachings, we’ve almost gone on a hunting spree to find them all. But for what purpose? Is God glorified in any way by our words of condemnation?
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IB, as I said, I don’t know anything about the incident that stirred you to write this post. I’m thinking, however, when someone says there are many ways to God, but Jesus said, there’s one way to God, we should side with Him. I don’t think remaining silent does that. I don’t know how you handled the situation you were in. Definitely not a place I’d like to find myself. And of course, even as we stand for truth we are to do it in love. I guess I’m saying there’s a point where it’s clear that the person professing Christ really doesn’t know Him. Still doesn’t mean we can unload on them, but loving them doesn’t mean agreeing with them or ignoring the lies.
Becky
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Right? Loving people does not mean agreeing with lies. This post wasn’t really about that pastor it was about Matt Walsh and Daigle. I mentioned that pastor simply to point out that I do understand what that kind of betrayal feels like. At the time I couldn’t do anything about it at all. She liked his words better then mine and he was a pastor and I was just a caregiver.
But that is a very different thing then going on the internet and calling out the alleged sins of some celebrity you don’t even know and pretending this has something to do with false teachings and a desire to edify anyone.
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Guess I should have researched the incident before I commented, but I was pressed for time. Stone throwing is not a particularly loving action, that seems clear. So if someone is throwing stones, that’s another form of lying, I think–saying, I follow Christ but doing something that besmirches His name.
Becky
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Yes, we are so tempted again and again to pick up stones but then we must put them back down again.
I have only an inkling of this news story but I don’t understand why people who are famed for singing then get thrust into either a pulpit or a political podium. What would they know?
I would only ask a tap dancer to repair my car if he was a tap dancing mechanic.
If you’re going to ask Miss Daigle of the social mores of the day publicly then I guess she will echo the flavour of the day either to be civil and polite or to keep hold of her career.
Maybe she’s a baby Christian who is carried up by every wind or tide and doesn’t have a strong footing in sound doctrine. I would imagine she is not exactly surrounded by wise counsel being in a multi million dollar industry like that. Maybe she’s only a nominal Christian. Maybe she just slipped up. I’m glad I’m not in the public eye and am not dragged over the coals every time I get it wrong. I would never be off those coals!
Yes indeed one singer does not the whole of Christianity make but if many, many Christians are publicly picking up stones, this is the real problem.
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Amen!
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But I’d like to add if I may that I hope that the consternation has given Daigle pause.
I’m hoping she’s dusting off and cracking her bible as we speak…
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Well, it hasn’t been “consternation” at all, it has been outright contempt and condemnation. It has been uncharitable, unkind, and ungodly. So yes, it would be lovely if Daigle would get with the Lord, but I am far more concerned about the hundreds of thousands throwing stones at her because they all seem to believe they are without sin themselves.
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Whether the stone casters will humble themselves and then walk in the Spirit or not is a another, hugely different, ballgame.
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Yes! If you don’t have love, you have nothing! While I do get judgy at times, when we do it, it should be to shine a light on sin, and help lift others out of it. Treating people like filth only makes harder for them to ever hear the words of a Christian in a positive light.
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Don’t you think there are a few other players in this play that we haven’t mentioned?
Satan is playing the long game. He loves it when Christians and Christianity are given bad publicity to unbelievers. To get believers to do his work for him and also harden their hearts in the process must feel like killing two birds with one stone!
I don’t want to get too tinfoil hat over this but you have to wonder the motivation behind the radio host’s questions and why Daigle went on Ellen in the first place. She should shop around for another PR agent as it sent mixed messages to her fans.
Satan has pitted the ground around us with traps and he’ll use media and social media manipulation as a weapon in his arsenal. If he’s the current god of this world then he’ll definitely have most of the Christian music industry in his pockets just as sure as he has preachers too. As Christians we must never forget this and realise that we are always living in the enemy’s camp.
Remember to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves.
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I quite agree with everything you’ve said. It is just that whether Daigle made PR mistakes or the enemy is setting traps, the fact remains that Christians should be much more aware of what is coming out of their mouths towards their sister in Christ.
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I looked into this fiasco, and it’s nuts. But it boils down to mainstream media trying to destroy a popular Christian entertainer. Remember: the three litmus tests for Being A Good Person in post-America America are (1) do you approve abortion? (2) do you approve transgenderism? and (3) do you approve sodomy?
It’s a Kafka trap they ONLY ask Christians right when then they start to gain some traction. You either bend the knee or you’re blacklisted from the system, permanently.
In light of this, I can’t fault Daigle for her answer. She was clearly thinking of her career, which is understandable. She needs our support, I’d say, more than anything.
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Precisely. Thank you, well said.
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Do you think there’s a place for being disappointed without sinning? I have been let down since I just heard her music recently but it led me to pray for her. The pressure is hard for most Christians too in her shoe.
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That’s a really good question, Slim! I think we can be disappointed and let down without sinning.
The bible says “be angry…but don’t sin” and “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” So disappointment must be very much the same, not a sin…but what are we doing with our disappointment and how long is it going to last? I know that un dealt with disappointment can soon lead to a root of bitterness and that would probably be sin.
But of course, I am not worried about you at all, nor others who might write a sensible response to Daigle. 🙂
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Ah got it. Agreed here.
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I confess my ignorance not having cared to see the Ellen interview, but i do know enough of scripture to have an opinion.
She has gift for singing. If she felt ‘on the spot and embarrassed to answer re. same sex stuff,’ that’s understandable, heck there’s even precedence. Remember the men who believed the Lord but were afraid to confess Him lest they put out of the synagogue?’
I would have turned it around on Ellen, but Ms Daigle is not me, and I can’t sing like her….
‘People since time began
Ellen have enjoyed various kinds of sin, and have become quite good at practicing it as a fine art. The better question is not what Ifewl or think about it, but what God and scripture say about it, and for your sake, it may be better to have this conversation in private. I came here to sing, not to debate theology.’
This response would no doubt have derailed her dilemma and put the sin issues square back in Ellen’s lap.
But who knows, maybe Lauren is a baby Christian, or one unlearned, but the bottom line is as you have said msb, put down the d_mn rocks. Maybe she was afraid, maybe not, or maybe she knows a bit about fishing, and the slow quiet draw………
For the love of God why we punish our own!
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Thank you for understanding and for adding some depth to this conversation. Your answer and your ability to turn things around is wise and experienced. As you said, “and Daigle can sing.” That’s it. She’s not a pastor or even a politician or a great theologian. She’s just a girl doing her best to express her faith in front of an unforgiving world.
I also loved that, “I came here to sing, not to debate theology.” Exactly! Dolly Parton recently said something very similar that I enjoyed, because it was obvious she was keen to how the game is played and wasn’t going to step in it. They always bait you,in the hopes that you will say something and alienate your fan base or fuel their outrage.
And of course these kind of trick questions are exactly what our Lord faced when the pharisee often tried to trap Him or set Him up. Jesus of course, does a beautiful job of it, each and every time.
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Btw, how many believers do you know who have been fine students of scripture so to speak, and cannot satisfactorily explain the difference between justification by faith, and through works.
Not all can teach, yet even a babe can be more spiritual having a lesser skill set.
Volume is no guarantee for discernment or maturity. It helps of course, but there are many solid believers who go on their way rejoicing with just a little bread. Truth is, they can be closer to the Bread of life, much to the chagrin of the short of sight. 😃
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You make another really good point, Colorstorm. The beauty of our faith is actually in it’s simplicity. Much like the woman at the well who simply says to the town folk, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” Or the others who say, “So, this man healed me….” That’s really the whole essence of evangelism. Some will testify, some will sing, and some will paint the glory of God.
I learned that truth long ago, guy with a degree, a professor who knew theology inside and out, but a total atheist. He could quote all the right confessions, bible verses, knew history extensively, but he did not believe. At 3 yr old child with some faith can still trump the greatest theologian.
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I’m laughing about the good reference to the lady who said ‘come and see,’ a guileless Nathaniel type.
Today, those two would be dragged before the Christian courts: ‘do tell us, the five spiritual laws,’ or ‘give a review of Romans before we can judge your spirituality.’ Lol
Much can be said in ‘less is sometimes more.’
Maybe our friend Daigle actually inspired people to ‘come and see.’ Maybe her non combative nature got the attention some believers can’t see.
Anyway, good post and commentary, but I will say brother Paul was no jerk. 😉
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“Soggy plate of overcooked pasta.” Love it, may steal it for my blog. My favorite expression for people like that comes from Jack Reacher: “you couldn’t find your butt with a flashlight and a mirror on a stick.”
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I’ve never met anyone who became interested in pursuing a relationship with Christ after being hit with a self-righteous list of do’s and dont’s. God changes the hearts of believers, not hate.
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Amen.
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Good post IB. For the record, getting lessons in theology from Matt Walsh is just as bad as getting them from a CCM singer. I agree with him here though.
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