COMMENTARY: The impotence of the church

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.) UNDATED _ An incident in the prison where I am a chaplain underscores the reason many people no longer respect the […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

UNDATED _ An incident in the prison where I am a chaplain underscores the reason many people no longer respect the Christian faith.


After a recent Sunday morning worship service, a minor disagreement between two choir members escalated into a brief and bloody fistfight. While such incidents are common in prison, they are rarely connected with religious services and, at least where I work, almost never involve church leaders.

No matter. News of the episode spread like wildfire throughout the prison, with officers and inmates alike offering their opinions: “What are you preaching to those guys, Rev.?””They’re nothing but hypocrites, anyway.””Who does Rev. Sam think he is, preaching to us? He can’t keep his own house in order.” The point is not that this particular event occurred in prison. Comments like these are painfully familiar to pastors everywhere.

For years, Christian clergy _ myself included _ have waxed eloquent about the good old days when people honored the church and its authority. Evoking rose-colored memories, we speak wistfully of the days when loud-talking teens grew silent in the shadow of the church building and drunkards straightened up as the pastor walked by.

Where, we wonder, has the respect gone? The answer can be found partially in the church itself.

True, the increasingly secular society and attempts by theological liberals to”demythologize”Scripture have helped erode respect for the church.

But the church itself has contributed to its fall and has been exposed, in many cases, as a paper tiger.

Pause for a moment and consider some of its leaders. Granted, most pastors are persons of moral integrity and prayer. Following Jesus’ model of the Good Shepherd, they daily seek to lay down their lives for their sheep.


Not all, however, are so scrupulous. Indeed, it seems hardly a month goes by without some new disgrace being uncovered about a Christian leader.

While names like Bakker, Swaggart, and now Lyons titillate the country’s imagination, scandals of lesser magnitude are disclosed all the time. And it’s not just church leaders who are to blame.

In truth, many churches are identified more with sin than with righteousness. Adultery, gossip and sloth, to name but a few examples, when exposed in congregations rarely make headlines but rarely miss the phone lines.

Is it any wonder that many of the unchurched remain so? Don’t they have enough problems without impotent, hypocritical Christians adding to their problems?

When we who claim to have the solution prove to be part of the problem, we erode our own credibility. In so doing, we undermine the message and witness of the church.

In every congregation _ even my jailhouse church _ there are men whose lives exemplify the spiritual power and moral authority of the Christian gospel. Such men continue to command the respect of many who observe them because their lives are consistent with their message.


Would that the rest of us behave the same way.

MJP END ATCHISON

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