Should Christians Publicly Criticize Other Christians?

(Credit: the rik pics, Flickr Creative Commons)

What will the world think if they see us fighting like this?

You’re driving people away from the Church.

Tearing down our brothers and sisters makes people want nothing do with with the church.

As they say, if I had a dollar for every time one these shame bombs was dropped in the comment section of a Christian blog or tweeted out or left in a Facebook thread, I’d have enough money to finally fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming Batman.

Alas, I have not yet discovered a way to monetized the ubiquitous appearance of Christian clichés. So saving the world from cartoon villainy will have to wait for another day.

That’s not to say the folks who employ these cliches are cartoon villains. I’m sure some of them are coming from a genuine place of concern for the Church. But ultimately, whether intentionally or not, these sorts of attacks are nothing more than an attempt shame dissidents and critics into silence. They’re employed by Christians either angry or disappointed that their fellow Christians are criticizing and questioning leaders or institutions they believe deserve unwavering support from the faithful. It may be spun as a call to unity, but ultimately rhetoric like this is the last defense of those who have little to no evidence or facts to defend their beloved. So, rather than demonstrating why the criticism directed at their beloved is wrong, these folks result to holy shaming in the name of “unity” and potentially lost converts.

The ironic thing about all of this concern over what the world will think is I’ve never once heard non-Christians list “publicly criticizing each other” among the reasons why they don’t come to church or why they don’t believe in God to begin with.

Science, hypocrisy, philosophical doubts, abuse at the hands of church folks? Check, check, check, and double check.

But I’ve never encountered anyone who said they weren’t a Christian because public disagreement between Christians destroyed their faith in the existence of God. Nor have I heard any of my fellow millennials list public criticizing each other among the reasons they so famously are fleeing the Church.

Clearly, that is all anecdotal, but in the midst of a never-ending flow of think pieces, books, polls, and studies meant to explain why so many people are leaving the Church, I can’t recall a single instance in which either a non-Christian and/or former church goer listed public criticism among the reasons they stopped going to church or never showed up in the first place.

Maybe somebody somewhere made that claim in a poll I have yet to see or a think piece I have yet to read, but without exception I have only ever heard the aforementioned concerns from my fellow Christians.

Never from people outside the Church.

If anything my non-Christian friends and neighbors care far more about the Church hiding her problems behind closed doors instead of openly confessing her sins and answering her critics.

Need proof?

Look no further than the infamous Catholic priest abuse scandal and the ever-increasing list of Protestant child and sex abuse scandals that have followed in its wake. The churches involved went out of their way to their flaws and failures in order to maintain public appearances, to keep up the illusion that they were one big happy, functional, and perfect family that always got along, never fought, and certainly never did anything sinful.

The result of trying to hide the Church’s problems behind closed doors while silencing anyone and everyone who dared to speak out was and still is a mass exodus of the faithful and the assurance that countless others who never attended church in the past would almost certainly never darken the doors of a church in the future.

Obviously, the abuse alone was enough to drive people away from the Church, but the coverup that followed and the ongoing attempt to silence dissent and quash criticism in the name of unity, sent a clear message to those on the outside that public image was more important to the Church than integrity, faithfulness, and the truth.

Sex abuse scandals are an extreme example to be sure, but it’s a important precedent in the digital age when every church scandal or public disagreement is met by online holy warriors who believe it their divinely ordained responsibility to maintain the Church’s public image. In the shadow of such heinous coverups, theses attempts to shame and silence fellow Christians merely serve to reinforce the idea that the Church cares only about its grip on power and nothing about injustices done in its name.

If Jesus was starting off his teaching ministry today, he would almost certainly be condemned by the very people claiming to carry his banner. I mean, look at the gospels. So much of Jesus’ teaching ministry is spent debating, rebuffing, and rebuking religious leaders – his fellow Jews. For example, when Jesus says “You have heard it said…but I say…,” he’s directly rebuking the teaching of other religious leaders and sometimes even correcting scripture itself.

His own disciples didn’t escape public criticism either. It seems like you can’t go a chapter without Jesus having to put them in their place for the dumb things they said and did, like the time branded Peter as “Satan.” Not exactly the sort of warm fuzzy, constantly affirming schtick we demand of our Christian leaders today.

And then there’s Matthew 23.

Remember that chapter of Matthew’s gospel?

In it Jesus goes off on the religious leaders of his day, denouncing them as blind guides, hypocrites, white-washed tombs, and children of hell among many other not so warm and fuzzy criticisms. Can you imagine the reaction to such a diatribe today? The holy warriors would come out in force to shame Jesus into silence by condemning him for “tearing down his brothers” and “sowing disunity” that will “do nothing but drive people away from the Church.”

Don’t get me wrong.

The pursuit of unity is a noble goal.

But unity simply for the sake of unity is not only pointless, it’s dangerous.

When unity is elevated above all else, the practice of silencing those who disrupt that unity and shaming critics who reveal the Church’s failures becomes a sort of perverse spiritual discipline, a holy calling thrust on those who very well may have good intentions, but who fail to see the vital importance public debate and even criticism play in the life of the Church.

For without transparency and public accountability, abuse and corruption thrive.

This, I think, is a big reason why God inspired the writing of scripture.

Rather than sacred propaganda, the Bible is a living testament to the constant failures and flaws, infighting and disagreements that shape the story of God’s people. It’s a bold exercise in transparency that does little to cover up centuries worth of egregious sins and fierce disagreements of men and women we now consider saints. Murder, rape, slavery, exploitation, and condemnation. It’s all there for all to see.

As if God wanted it that way.

Not that God wanted murder or rape or slavery or any of that to happen.

Of course God didn’t.

Rather, it seems God wanted those stories recorded and left in scripture to remind us how important honesty, transparency, and accountability are to our identity as the people of God.

And how much more important it is maintain those virtues rather than pursue a quixotic quest to keep up a perfect public image.