Understanding Conservative Christianity, Part 8

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.0, Part 7.5, Part 7.75, and Part 7.9.

Christian Charity

This series of essays has not been a sermon, and I have not been preaching. Nevertheless, I am about to begin meddling. I want to discuss for a moment the attitudes that must characterize a conservative Christianity. Please understand that these remarks are addressed to those who have already accepted conservative principles. If you are not a conservative, you may find that this essay helps you to understand how conservative Christians perceive themselves within the larger world of professing Christianity.

Scripture requires that our speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. This sort of speech ought to typify the everyday communication of any Christian. When it comes to the articulation of conservative principles, however, we need to be especially careful about what we say and how we say it. We must display a characteristic commitment to charity and civility, even if that commitment is occasionally interrupted by pungency.

The issues that define conservative Christianity are important, and the days are evil. Once we grasp even a modicum of biblical Christianity, it is easy to spot where things have gone wrong—often outrageously wrong. We may react by becoming impatient with people who, as we see it, ought to know better.

Once we begin to voice our concerns, we quickly make another discovery. Most professing Christians—even most fundamentalists—do not welcome our message. They have been comfortable in the indulgence of their appetites. Indeed, they have succeeded in redefining their indulgence so that it appears to them as piety. When we express conservative principles, we are literally threatening to overturn their world. We are telling them that what they thought was godliness is really a deep spiritual offense and deception.

When non-conservatives hear this message, their initial reaction is typically amusement. If we persist in stating our convictions, their amusement quickly turns to incredulity, and then to defensive indignation. They will almost invariably trot out the accusation of “elitism,” though how this word applies to conservatism is anything but clear. They will seek to dismiss us. If they cannot dismiss us, then they will rebuke us, often harshly, and they will attempt to limit our influence. In the name of Christian (or evangelical, or fundamentalist) unity they will insist that we must be silent with respect to matters that we find quite important. Often they will invite us to leave their churches, their organizations, and their movements. Ironically, the more fundamentalistic our critics are, the more aggressive their reaction is likely to be.

When our message is rejected and our persons are despised, it is easy and natural for us to respond with harshness. Sometimes that response is appropriate. We must remember that Jesus rebuked not only His enemies, but sometimes also His disciples. The apostle Paul was willing to engage in occasional sarcastic denunciations of the churches to which he wrote. Sarcasm and even excoriation are sometimes warranted.

Nonetheless, vitriol in any form is a dangerous plaything. If we are not careful it can become our characteristic mode of expression. We need to remember that, even though Jesus and the apostles did use sarcasm, they employed it rarely and only under extreme circumstances. Though they could and did address believers harshly, they always bathed their censure in an atmosphere of love and personal commitment.

Let me put it a different way. One aspect of any conservatism is an emphasis upon the importance of forms, customs, prescriptions, and manners. Conservatives are all about manners. They are all about civility. To abandon manners and civility in the name of conservatism would be like abandoning bathing in the name of hygiene.

We must never place ourselves in the position of ecclesiastical buccaneers. Granted, it may be great fun to swashbuckle across the deck of the good ship Ecclesia, stabbing here and there at the evils we perceive. It is also reckless. The innocent are often wounded, the ignorant are often perplexed, and the guilty often find reason for offense. Brigandage does not show people what we love. It does not draw people toward the good, the true, and the beautiful. To the extent that it attracts them at all, it draws the wrong people to the wrong things for the wrong reasons.

A destructive conservatism is a contradiction in terms. More than anything, a conservative is a realist who recognizes that he must begin with what he is given. While we cannot avoid the duty of rebuke, our most important duty is to expound the things that are true and good and beautiful. In all of that exposition, we must comport ourselves as ladies and gentlemen, for our manners are an aspect of the very conservatism for which we stand.

Most importantly, we must maintain an attitude of respect and deference toward God-ordained authority. Those of us who are church members must bear in mind that pastors bear special responsibility for the spiritual well-being of their flocks. Elders are to rule, and their rule must involve some real exercise of authority. There are certain decisions that pastors have to be able to make.

We may not always agree the decisions that our bishops make. This is where the distinction between a tolerable evil and an intolerable one must be remembered. Every pastor and every church makes some wrong choices. Some pastors and churches are wrong more often and in worse ways than others. At some point, a pastor’s decisions may be so bad that he must be rebuked before all—but administering that rebuke is not the prerogative of the individual church member.

Some evils are tolerable. We may live with them even if we do not approve them or participate in them. If the evil becomes intolerable, then we may rightly leave a decadent church. Indeed, at some point we must do so.

In the meanwhile, our best approach is patient articulation and careful appeal. We must try not to leave the impression that we are out to divide the church. If we do create that impression, then a godly pastor has no choice but to perceive us as a threat.

Few evangelicals or fundamentalists grow up with consistently conservative principles. Most of us learned these principles after we reached adulthood. Most are converts to conservatism, and we did not grasp and accept its insights overnight. We passed through a process (in my case, a years-long process) of learning before we understood what was at stake. If it took us months or years to come to conservative convictions, then we need to allow others the time they need to think through the issues. Some ideas just have to percolate before they are ready to be swallowed.

Remember that one of the marks of a conservative Christian is reliance upon the sovereignty of God. Conservatives reject the crisis mentality. That being so, we must exhibit patience in the presentation and propagation of our views. Nothing is less persuasive than a conservatism that goes shrill. Nothing is more comically counterproductive than the spectacle of conservatives who panic while they defend the permanent things. Nothing could be sadder than to become ugly in the defense of beauty, twisted in the propagation of truth, or evil in the advocacy of the good.

Rebuke, sarcasm, and censure have their place, just as catsup and mustard do. Yet we would not make a meal of catsup and mustard. By the same token, rebuke and sarcasm must never be the staples of Christian speech. Conservatives of all people should know that.

Never Weather-Beaten Sail

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore.
Never tired pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast:
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.

Ever blooming are the joys of Heaven’s high Paradise.
Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:
Glory there the sun outshines whose beams the blessed only see:
O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to thee!

This essay is by Dr. Kevin T. Bauder, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN). Not every professor, student, or alumnus of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.