The Church of Whataboutism
September 13, 2017 — Matthew 7:1–5
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
There has been a thought that has been making its rounds through the hallways of my mind for the past couple of years. Although, “thought” isn’t quite the right word for the amorphous angst that seemed to get triggered at random times when I would hear Christian leaders talk about certain hot-button topics.
The ongoing saga of trying to come to terms with just what is so frustrating about the way that leaders of my religious category is starting to come into clearer focus. I’ve mused before that there is a level of cognitive dissonance when Evangelicals are critical of the logic of other people’s reasoning, while being unwilling to apply the same level of critique to their own conclusions on what the truth of the matter is. I’ve also talked with people about the frustrating reality that people are able to dismiss different interpretations of Scripture by accusing anyone with a differing point of view as not believing what the Bible clearly says.
Yet while those things are certainly frustrating, and something that I would love to see change, and which, frankly, I believe will as the fruit of Humility is grown in believers through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is something that is more insidious that has been been causing me enough stress to literally be grinding my teeth in my sleep.
The thing is, I couldn’t understand why I would get so emotionally put off when other Jesus-loving people would say statements that, for the most part, I agreed with. By all textbook definitions I fit into the category of white, American, Evangelicalism. Yet over and over again I have been exposed to the fact that while the most prominent figureheads of Evangelicalism and I agree on what a faithful interpretation of Scripture looks like, we care about very different things.
One of my favorite stories that one of my friends told me about her nannying days was about the progression of thought that the child she was watching had one day while he was eating breakfast. While my friend was making her daily cup of coffee, the little boy looked at her, and with full sincerity said, “You make coffee. Cows make milk!” To him, this was a momentous mental exercise of connecting two different ideas under the same category. My friend laughed at the time, and when she was retelling the story to us she amended what she was thinking in her head to him, “Well, you’re not… wrong…” Or to put it in the words of Futurama, “You’re technically correct, the best kind of correct.”
This unexpected linking of statements that are correct on their own create a unique hurdle to understanding that wasn’t intended to be there in the first place. While the little boy was excited that he was able to apply the verb “make” to both the action of brewing coffee in the morning, and cow’s biological process of producing milk, the linking of the two created an implied connection that doesn’t actually exist.
This level of verbal ambiguity is what I find so frustrating about so much of what Christian media spends its time talking about. We both will be saying statements about what we agree is true, but the way that these statements are presented end up creating a narrative of what Christians actually care about.
As I said, Christian leaders and I both agree on the fact that we ought to read the Scriptures in the most clear and faithful way, by understanding the context and purpose of the texts being written in the first place. The problem arises when these Christian leaders start using these tactics to serve ends that may or may not be a value to the cause of Christ.
Many a think piece has been written on the culture wars and whether or not one side of the other is gaining ground, or if it is over, etc. But one thing that I constantly see from the conservative Evangelical camp is language like, “we live in a changing world that is hostile to Christianity.” Generally followed by an article on how some leftists want to ban prayer at football games, or force churches to provide coverages for abortions.
And while I certainly have my opinions about those things and the implications such actions would have on our civil society, I can’t help but think that believers are shifting focus away from really big ticket problems in our society to focus on how their once-held privileged spot as the moral compass of America is rotting away. While they might not be wrong about the implications of these stories on religious freedom, the fact that it is being highlighted in the first place shows, intended or not, that believer’s focuses are on their own perceived injustices.
When people like me want to talk about injustices in the world such as the largest recorded refugee crisis to date, ongoing systematic racial tensions within the church, or even the prevalence of unfaithfulness within Christian marriages, often the topic will be shifted to an issue that you need to take a side on, otherwise you are in or you are out.
This is why many Evangelical leaders today seem to be attending the Church of Whataboutism. Often the response that comes after any sort of question or critique about what the church is talking about is followed by deflection, more or less saying, “but what about ___.” For example, when I have talked about the impression people get of the pro-life movement being more of a pro-birth movement I have been met with the accusation that I am buying into the red herring argument that liberals want me to believe about the topic. My questions about the validity of the tactics weren’t answered, rather Christianity was painted as a victim.
Ultimately, the topics believers choose to speak into, while truly being something that the Bible might very well have something to say about, are often blown out of proportion, and seen as the major things they are known for. When we fill the airwaves and blogosphere with story after story about injustices towards a group that holds as one of its core beliefs that Christ will maintain and sustain the church, we create a connection that we might have not intended to be there.
I know from conversations with countless believers that they are not a hateful group who are secretly plotting to undermine race relations, or kick out people who are different from them from this country. But the fact of the matter is that when we spend more time talking about how it isn’t as cushy of a country to be a Christian, rather than talking about caring for the least of these among us, the tree will be seen for the fruit it bears.
