Don’t Tolerate Sin In Organizations You Support

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.’ (Proverbs 14:12); ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ (James 1:22)

There are several Christian organizations that find support in churches, including MBC, in their work on doing good for the community, especially those who have a need.  We have many examples of organizations who help those women (and men) who may be encountering an unwanted pregnancy, or assisting those who are homeless and living in one of the many tent settlements in the empty portions in Southwest Florida.  Others provide food to those who families who have more ‘month than money’, when the bills are due but the pantry is empty.  There are those who provide work for the unemployed, clothing for those who can’t afford to buy new ‘threads’.

Some of these Christian organizations, like many Christian churches, with good intentions, have tried to tune into modern society and have thus made policies to be more tolerant and ‘woke’.  They are now into social justice, LGBTQ and gender affirmation, and even supporting abortion though they state they are ‘pro-Christian’ because of their stance.  It is not for me to be the one to tell you which charitable organizations (whether Christian or secular) to support, but one should do their research and determine whether those organizations that claim to be pro-Christian are really supporting a Biblically-based philosophy of their charity or are they supporting a secular philosophy to attract more donations.  While more donations may be good for the intentions the organization provides, should they tie themselves to the name of Christ?

Any organization, Christian-based or secular, may need confronting with regard to their policies when it comes to being ‘woke’.  Sometimes this confrontation may be passive, such as a boycott.  There is a department store chain I have not entered in many years due to a gender-neutral bathroom policy.  While I have not actively stood in front of the store or wrote a letter stating my displeasure, I haven’t spent my money there, either.  Sometimes this confrontation may increase in action, where I have either called or wrote a letter to an organization repudiating their stance on having a woke policy; if I saw an act of sin that would affect another, I would stand up to protest the sin at that moment and if tolerated by the organization it occurred in, I would be voicing and writing my displeasure to them as well.

There are those organizations that are ‘in-between’; or those who we may agree with 87% of the time with, but the 13% may make us cringe.  In those circumstances, it may be better to voice concerns and pray for discernment in choosing to continue with a relationship or boycotting that person or organization.  What I may choose to boycott, with Godly discernment provided by prayer may be with Godly discernment for you acceptable.  Pray and determine what your relationship should be through the light of the Lord.

A common paraphrase of this verse is, ‘The road to Hell is paved with good intentions’, and it is very true.  ‘Good intentions’ result from feelings that are emotional reactions that are without either factual or spiritual foundations to hold them up, and thus bounding them to fail at best, or cause sinful actions at worst.  We humans often come up with good ideas that sound great at the time but when applied without factual or spiritual context crash and burn (sometimes literally). 

In many churches, in order to follow the ‘good intention’ of having more people attend, there were pastors who watered down the Gospel message and only talked of Jesus’ love without any consequences of rejecting it.  This led to people believing only in the Love of Jesus without the context of the consequences of sin; it also led to the false belief all are accepted by Jesus regardless of their sinful nature and whether or not there was repentance of their sin.  In turn if one does not have to repent of sin, then one does not have to accept Jesus as the only way to Heaven, thus Hell does not come into play. 

The One Unforgivable Sin is failure to accept Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior.  If a church or an organization allows good intentions without context, it allows willful and unrepentant sin to be its testimony.  The beginning of the good intention of preaching only the favorable parts of the Gospel (love) and not the hard-to-swallow parts (punishment of sin in Hell) has led to LGBTQ pastors, acceptance of abortion, and other ‘woke’ vices to flourish under the banner of ‘Christianity’.  What sounds good is often due to the conditioning our society provides to make us feel guilty if we don’t ‘go along to get along, or to ‘comply or be castigated’.    

James 1:22 has the answer to resolve this problem; read the Bible and do what it says.  Learn the Word, then apply it.  In academia, this is ‘theory and practice’.  Theory is the study of the subject (in this case, the Scriptures) to provide a basis of knowledge and allow one to hypothesize the application of understanding that knowledge.  Practice is the physical action of performing that understanding of knowledge, and learning factually with the application in play how it works and if any adjustments or corrections need to be made to your understanding.  The Scriptures do not change and do not need adjustments, but our understanding and application of them often do.  The more you practice the more you understand and can apply your knowledge without error, and the more things that ‘sound good’ will be found as not being good at all. 

If one uses James 1:22, the issues of Proverbs 14:12 disappear.  The Secular World uses feelings, the Spiritual World uses facts and Faith; don’t allow ‘it feels right’ to overcome the Gospel Truth.  Stand up for Truth, stand firm against sin, don’t be a bystander and be the Christian that Christ wants you to be.