“Is Telling the Truth More Important than Selling the Truth?”
What I love about the Bible is its honesty. This is not a book in which authors tried to hide anything. If somebody got drunk and slept with their daughter, it’s in there. If the king of Israel had a man killed and slept with his wife, it’s in there. If somebody doubted God’s love, it’s right there in the book.
So why don’t Christian books read anything like the Bible? Can we handle the truth?
Part of the problem is ours is a religion of image. When the authors of scripture sat down to write, they weren’t writing for critics, and they didn’t care whether or not people approved, they were attempting to capture truth. And they believed telling the truth was more important than selling the truth.
So my question is, do we trust truth? Would it matter if your church shrunk because you presented the truth (in maturity and objectivity)? Would people stop [listening to what you had to say] if you were honest, like the writers of scripture? And at what point do we call a white-washed style of Scripture actually lies?
But another important question is can you handle the truth? If you knew about everything your ministers thought about, would you still go to church? If others knew everything about your darkest sins, would they stay away from you? How did a book filled with such brutal honesty create an image-sensitive culture?
What do you think would happen if we stopped “spinning” the gospel, and started telling the truth? My guess is, the church would shrink, and what you’d be left with is a small core that would grow through love, acceptance and honest commitment to each other. But perhaps not.
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