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{"id":2440,"date":"2011-11-09T13:37:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T19:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeljmiller.com\/?p=2440"},"modified":"2011-11-09T13:37:01","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T19:37:01","slug":"the-cult-of-agreeableness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2011\/11\/the-cult-of-agreeableness\/","title":{"rendered":"The cult of agreeableness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Joel Osteen\u2019s disturbing inability to say that Mormonism<\/a> is something other than Christian reflects a particular affliction from which our culture suffers. I\u2019m not sure what to call it other than the cult of agreeableness<\/em>, a widespread tendency to avoid disagreement, conflict, and contradiction whenever possible, a disposition to never draw hard lines for fear that we\u2019ll upset or make ourselves unattractive by the action. <\/p>\n

But Christians must be willing to upset and be unattractive. After all, we believe things that are upsetting and unattractive. When Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow, he\u2019s bidding us to do something that many others will avoid because laying down one\u2019s life is hardly appealing. Dying to our ego, ambitions, passions, and delusions is undesirable for most of us; I don\u2019t even want to do it most of the time that I\u2019m aware of the choice. So when we ask those people to join us, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that they say no. Further, when they do say no, we shouldn\u2019t say, \u201cI understand. Your position is quite reasonable. By not picking up the cross you\u2019re really pretty much doing what I\u2019m doing when I pick up mine, so it\u2019s all good.\u201d Real differences exist and cannot be papered (or smiled) over. <\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t seek to be disagreeable for its own sake, but we have to be willing to be disagreeable from time to time if for no other reason than that the world disagrees with God and we\u2019re on his side, or trying to be. No truth is harder to swallow than God\u2019s truth.<\/p>\n

When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn addressed Harvard University in 1978<\/a>, he said, \u201c[T]ruth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter.\u201d This is particularly true when someone has to call out failings, sins, perversions, and the like, as Solzhenitsyn did in part at Harvard. He talked about the \u201cspiritual exhaustion\u201d of the West and our disordered priorities and values. That hurt, but it was (and is) necessary to hear, and the only way for Solzhenitsyn to say it was to apostatize from the cult of agreeableness, to be willing to oppose, confront, point a finger, and contradict. We need more people willing to so apostatize. The pay is bad; just ask the prophets. But that\u2019s part of picking up our cross.<\/p>\n

Our spiritual exhaustion is worse as a culture, and our priorities and values are more out of whack now than in 1978. Perhaps nothing makes this so obvious as a Christian minister unwilling to defend the traditional, creedal, biblical understanding of Christ and the Father vis-a-vis Mormonism. But of course it isn\u2019t just Mormonism. What about our materialism, our political subservience (on the right and left), our sanctioned immorality, our alienation from suffering, our doctrinal infidelity? The list can go on just as long as we\u2019re wiling to be disagreeable. But too many of us are unwilling, and so we stifle the conversation and abort the argument like an importune fetus. We should let the kid come to term and scream a little. It might clear the air of all the insufferable apologies for simply confessing the truths of the gospel. <\/p>\n

Christians face intense cultural pressure to conform and agree with the world. That\u2019s normal and natural, and it should be opposed at every possible turn. It\u2019s part of picking up the cross and laying down our life to ease, self-deception, and false peace. It\u2019s just disappointing that it has to be opposed in the church too. But it must be because the cult of agreeableness has adherents warming many a pew.<\/p>\n

Question: How do you think the cult of agreeableness affects the Christian witness in the world?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"