James MacDonald on Proving His Orthodoxy
Posted by Todd Rhoades in Leadership on Jan 30th, 2012 | 7 commentsGreat quote by James MacDonald:
I don’t need to prove my orthodoxy in every conversation or press every dialogue to the breaking point, in fear of failing to evidence my own fidelity to Scripture.
Why is it that some feel the need to frame every single discussion around the need to tell people that we don’t agree with them on something?
We automatically assume the worst… about the other person… and we assume the worst about what other people will think of us.
That’s redonkulous.
I’m sure glad that God shows grace when our Christian brothers do not.
7 Responses to “ “James MacDonald on Proving His Orthodoxy”
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Amen. We use so many of our words to make sure people have the right impression of us. The great fear is that someone may think that we actually “watch” Oprah instead of letting them know that we were scanning the channels and just happened to see something while we passing by! Why do we need to always paint the right picture of ourselves?
If there is a wrong way to take something I say…. Someone — or a group of someone’s will do so. What drives me nuts is when they don’t follow Matthew 18 and come talk to me about it. Instead, the assumptions and misperceptions are spread around as truth. These experiences make me sympathetic to high profile Christian leaders — because the “devil sniffers” are always waiting with bait on their breath.
Too many consider everything said to be a “statement” that must stand alone rather than part of a “dialogue” where each thing said is nuanced by earlier and later things that are communicated in context.
When I visit a grieving individual I don’t dump all my opinions about life and death. I say very little at that time and open the door for continuing to speak truth into the individual’s life.
But if we don’t press forward with proving to everyone our fidelity to Scripture, and won’t we be waisting five years of Seminary education? How else can we prove we are properly educated and on top of life’s issues?
MacDonald is spot on. A few observations from my neck of the woods. This will continue as long as –
We keep mixing up being discerning with being critical. (one makes me feel right, the other makes me feel humble)
We keep blaming Jesus for being harsh to justify our harshness.
We keep thinking everyone is entitled to our opinion.
We keep pitting grace and truth against each other. (jesus mastered having both fully.)
We keep believing that truth is a weapon, has to be hard, needs to be wielded. (Sometimes the truth just affirms and encourages too but what fun is that to tell…)
That is all for now,thanks for indulging my opinion from my neck of the woods.
Well, Todd, will you now be blogging same to MacDonald and his new video where peoples’ motives are judged and they are accused of white idolatry?
BTW, MacDonald’s sentence quoted is a nice exercise in reductio. “Every” conversation and “every” dialogue to the “breaking point?” This sentence assumes the worst in other while at the same time dismissing any valid concerns.
Excellent quote. We live in a very critical society…and the cowardly anonymity of many on the Internet make it far worse. The voice of critism may seem louder and may even beg if not demand undeserved response from those with a public voice.
Anyone wanna disagree with me…