Of Coarse

Just because we are currently in this world, citizens of this planet, we can recognize, as believers in Christ, that this is not our home - we're here for a purpose, but it is short-term. 1st John 2 relates:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

So, we have to take great care not to adopt the ways of this world.  Our desires must be aligned with God's desires, and we have to embrace the righteousness and holiness of Christ so that we can reject sin. We should not seek to emulate the behaviors of this world, with all its corruption, but rely on the strength of the Lord from within so that we might be living examples of Jesus Christ and His presence flowing through us. 

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In John 17, Jesus prayed for you and me - His Church, His body, His bride, reminding us that even though we dwell on this earth, we are not of this world; He said:
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

The New York Times featured an article by Ruth Graham - not a member of the late Billy Graham's family that set out to identify and analyze a sense of coarseness that has made its way into the evangelical Church.  It offered this analysis regarding a new "generation of evangelical leaders:" It said that the generation "was easily teased for its puritanism, and, whenever a sexual scandal erupted, for its hypocrisy. But they were trying to thread a difficult needle, maintaining high community standards without withdrawing from an ever-coarsening mainstream American culture."  The analysis continues:

It was a complex balancing act between an acknowledgment of basic human urges and the dictates of their faith, whose strictures around language and sexual behavior they saw reflecting deeper theological commitments.

But shared fears can make some vices look like virtues.

In other words, perhaps people are thinking, erroneously, that to win the world you have to please the world. Denny Burk of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote a piece for WORLD Magazine, stating that "...Christians need to discern the times in which they live lest they be carried away by them." He notes that...

...it isn’t just the left showing evidence of a godless and debauched vision of the world. Increasingly, the post-Christian right seems to be following close behind. It would be foolish for serious Christians to make the mistake of thinking that errors can only come from one side of the political spectrum when in reality they may come from both. In some cases, “barstool conservatism” is just as unmoored from the permanent things as wokesters on the left.

But, a sexually-charged display at a recent men's conference in Springfield, Missouri was even a bridge too far for one of the speakers, a noted former megachurch pastor who lost his church due to his own toxic behavior.  A Newsweek article stated that the pastor, one of the speakers for the event, which was quite telling...

...was onstage when he began criticizing an earlier performance at the conference by sword-swallower Alex Magala. During the performance, Magala took off his shirt, climbed a pole on stage and swallowed a sword.

The pastor said: "The Jezebel Spirit opened our event. This is a rebuke and a correction of no one. This is an observation. Before the word of God was open, there was a platform. It was a high place. On it was a pole, an Asherah, the same thing that's used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel spirit to seduce men.

The pastor of the host church removed the speaker from the stage, saying he was "out of line."

So, a debauched display even made a disgraced pastor blush. 

Then there's the unfortunate story of a Texas pastor who got into some trouble for what was regarded as an off-color joke. The Christian Post said that "After expressing gratitude to the 'hundreds and hundreds of you that provided context for people who were posting that,', the pastor "acknowledged that some members of his congregation told him that the joke 'may have just landed on you wrong.'" The article relates information about his apology:

He summarized a passage from the Book of Proverbs stating, "careless words can stab like a sword but that wise words lead to healing."

"What that means is that … sometimes even jokes can be a careless word," he declared. "I like to have fun around here. I want this to be a place where you have a little fun. I like to do that. At the same time … I never wanted to … toss something out there that feels like a careless word."

I think we're seeing this all-too-often. An unwise comment here, an inappropriate text message there. A. megachurch pastor going on leave for three months because he was involved in inappropriate texting with a woman who was not his wife.  What are we thinking?  And I would dare say that it's not just the leaders.

We are living in a coarse society, and the Church seems all-too-willing to play along. Even though we are in the world but not of it, we have to consider if we are allowing the world to corrupt our holiness. And, then we fail to repent and be cleansed.  

God is calling us to a distinctive life, shining a light into the darkness. We have to be willing to be clean before the Lord - and only the Holy Spirit can enable us to do that. And, we have to come clean when we miss the mark, but not minimize what we have done. Repentance involves going in the other direction and then to take the steps necessary to change the conditions so it doesn't happen again.