From You Can’t Love Jesus and Hate His Wife (Catalyst):
But then, he starts verbally ripping on my wife like she’s not even standing there. She’s right there! He thinks my wife, who has been the love of my life and a partner in ministry for 25 years, is a drain on my ability to influence others. He says she’s obsolete and that the “old girl is a little faded.”
I’m in shock.
Suddenly, the cheesy Christian motto of the 1990s flashes through my mind: What would Jesus do? Turn the other cheek? Pray for His enemy? Hand this guy His cloak?
I’m about to go Jack Bauer on him.
…but Stetzer wouldn’t “go Jack Bauer on” his own wife if she were the one doing the ripping, right?
…so he’s not angry about Christians ripping on the Church, right?
…because it’s not just pastors who make up the Bride, right?
Nope. According to Stetzer, verbal criticism of what’s being done wrong in the Church is “abus[ing Jesus'] wife.” As in, “abusing another person.” As in, “this [organization that I and others administer] is his wife, and you’re other.”
Sounds like just another repackaging of the ol’ knee-slapper, “touch not the LORD’s anointed!” Because this article isn’t about Christians en masse (the Biblical definition of “the Bride of Christ”) being criticized; it’s about criticizing structures and organizations–or more to the point, the pastors behind them.
See, in many pastors’ minds, they are the church. You just attend and give them money (and occasionally trouble).
Alarmingly there is a significant group of men and women leaving the church but holding to a form of Christian devotion. Wrong answer!
We’re not leaving the Church, Mr. Stetzer. We’re leaving the artificial power structure that men like you have dedicated your lives to propping up. We’re leaving the State-sponsored clubs that you and other “pastors” insist we join. We’re leaving modern Pharisaism. But we’re not leaving the Church.
If anything, the Church abandons us because few Christians care about “fellowship” outside of structured meetings (and this includes small groups). We stop showing up at the clubhouse on Sunday morning, and strangely we stop getting invited to people’s houses, too (if we were ever invited in the first place). We stop attending a “Care Group” and all of a sudden the other people there get the impression that they aren’t under any obligation to care for us anymore.
And why is that? Because what you call “the church” isn’t the Bride of Christ–not in any meaningful sense. No, what you call “the church” is just a man-made system that the forces of Hades certainly could stand against–if they had any such inclination.
