McChurch and OPS – “Other People’s Sins”

I am sick to death of this running debate over whether homosexuality is a sin. Who cares?  Isn't there enough sin to go around for everybody?

I am sick to death of this running
argument as to whether or not homosexuality is a sin…Who cares?  Isn't there enough sin to go around for
everybody?  It has become a favorite pastime
of some to grade sins by the number of times they are mentioned in the Bible…In
that case, I guess that self-righteousness ranks at the top…

The Church of Jesus Christ has
lost its theology of sin…If McChurch
were to preach the Gospel, there would be
no issue with "sins," as we all are infected…The doctrine of OPS
(other people's sins) comes to the forefront when we have glossed over our
own…This is almost too elemental to mention…

Homosexuality and abortion, being
closet "sins" among Evangelicals, become attractive targets because
of the illusion that they are rampant only outside the church…Notice that
divorce and TV addiction fly beneath the radar these days…That is because the
church is infected with both to the same degree as is the rest of our culture
but knows it…

If anyone wants to find
homosexuality in the church, you need go no further than the Gospel music
industry (an oxymoron of infinite proportions)…"Rife" would not be
too strong a word…

While McChurch is in denial about
its own sin, it focuses on the sins of those thought to be uniquely outside the
church…This follows a pattern of church culture – from legalism, to
self-righteousness, to liberalism…

You might be inclined to protest
at this point by saying that the evangelical church is not liberal but that it
has "merged" with the Republican Party…My response would be,
"How much more liberal could the church become than to replace the Gospel
with a fake political ideology?"

I speak from training and experience
– an evangelical theologian and pastor who has been elected three times to
public office, both as a Republican and a Democrat…

I have been around long enough to
know that McChurch is a self-imposed ghetto culture that finds its security,
not in the Christ of the Gospel, but in its own reinforcement, the latest of
which is numbers of attendees…Tell someone that you are a pastor, and the
first thing out of their mouths is, "How many people in your congregation?" 

A little-discussed Christian
principle is ignored:  "If they are
all going in that direction, it has to be wrong!"  Remember that old message, "Broad is the
way that leads to destruction/narrow is the way that leads to life?"

Get off the "God Bless America" kick and its idolatry of prosperity
and worldly success and get onto the dynamic presence of the Kingdom of God
in the life of the believer and the community of the faithful…

(Stan Moody, an
evangelical Baptist minister and founder of the Christian Policy Institute http://www.christianpolicyinstitute.org/,
 has served in the Maine House of
Representatives as both a Republican and a Democrat. Dr. Moody is the author of
several provocative books, including Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship and McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry.  Pastor of a rural country church in Central Maine, Moody has enjoyed a long and productive
career in small business development and management.)