1/22/2025

For some, Monday’s inauguration was the beginning of a “golden age.” For others, it was the beginning of the dark ages. Some friends of mine were drinking champagne during the inauguration; others were sitting with their blinds drawn, watching reruns of Friends (at least that’s what they were saying on social media). 

When Trump signed the pardon for the people jailed for January 6th, one friend connected with it said that justice was finally served; another, who works with the capitol police, denounced it as gross injustice. 

It’s amazing how people, living in the same country, can view the same events – can experience the same events – and come to completely opposite conclusions about them. Polarizingly opposite. 

How is it possible? It’s a phenomenon that occurs in many areas of life, including in the church. I can sit in a service, listen to a sermon or a teaching, and marvel that it’s coming (supposedly) from the same Bible I read. 

Sometimes, it’s because of deliberate blindness. I heard a Camp Meeting sermon on Jeremiah 37:17. Jeremiah the prophet has been thrown into a pit, and the King who had him thrown there asked Jeremiah if there was a word from the Lord. “Yes,” said Jeremiah, “you will be delivered –” which sounds great. The entire sermon was on deliverance and the response to the sermon was huge. But there was a problem. Yes, Jeremiah does say, “you will be delivered,” but delivered how? The whole quote is  “you will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon!” 

This wasn’t a message of God’s rescue, but of God’s judgment. The preacher had completely and deliberately twisted the meaning of the passage to suit her will.  

That never happens in politics nor on the evening news [insert ironic eye roll here!]. 

Sometimes the deception is more innocent. Lazy, but innocent. Some preachers only preach what they read or hear from someone else. Jim Bakker, of the infamous PTL club scandal  back in the 80s, said that he never actually read the Bible until after he went to prison. Before, he simply preached only on the passages he had been taught. The result? The title of his 1996 book says it all: I Was Wrong. 

But even those who aren’t convicted felons can be just as guilty. They don’t do the work. They don’t read and study the scriptures on their own. One leader of a large Methodist church freely admitted to me that he preached what he heard in podcasts or read in books by people he admired. And he’s not alone. I have friends who did what they needed to do to get their degree and their work ended there. 

Frankly, that drives me NUTS! We have one job and that’s to feed the flock. And we have one book to interpret for the people. But instead of planting and working the garden themselves, instead of harvesting the produce, prepping the food themselves, they’re just going to Burger King! Burgers for everyone. And onion rings that have been under the heat lamp too long. Or limp, greasy fries.

And what’s the result of a diet of fast food? Sure it tastes good, but weight gain, heart disease, type II diabetes . . . and addiction! Fast food can hijack your brain's dopamine system, making you crave it.

There should be a lesson in that. 

That’s why Paul urges the church to “Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:20-22). 

Test everything. That’s good advice for anyone in any arena of life. 

But it’s easier to just go with what supports what we already think . . . and that’s a problem as well. It’s important to be able to recognize our presuppositions and lay them aside. And this is another good life practice for every situation in life. Often in politics or religion or SEC football, we don’t all begin in the same place  . . . and so we can’t end up in the same place. If I begin with a certain ideology that’s different from an ideology that you hold, it’ll be almost impossible for us to agree. 

I have to recognize my personal biases, and lay them aside.

I’ve quoted this before, but it illustrates my point so well, I’ll repeat it. I was in my car, listening to a prominent radio preacher, preaching from Romans. And he said (and I’ll never forget it), “It sounds like Paul is saying [whatever Paul was ACTUALLY saying], but we know the Westminster Confession says . . .” AND HE WENT WITH THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION!  

No, we have to look at the data and base our conclusions on that, not on our presuppositions or even our preferences or what grandma told us. 

In politics, we need to forget that we’re Blue Dog Democrats or Rockefeller Republicans (or whatever!) and look at the facts and decide what outcomes we want and what are best for our country. We can’t just make, on the one hand, Fox News and WVNN talk radio or, on the other hand, CNN and MSNBC, the only sources for our information.

To be “fair and balanced” takes honesty and it takes work, no matter what arena of life. 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry