Wednesday, August 26, 2009

So often I see people entranced with someone's "niceness" that they make theological decisions about their correctness based on liking that person. This is preposterous. I am all for being nice. And friendly. And a good listener. And funny, even. But theological rightness or wrongness has little to do with nicencess. We need to develop a filter for gullibility. The apostles warned against the tactics of "niceness."

6 comments:

Unknown said...

hmmm it seems that this has happened recently for celebrities/politicians that have passed in 2009...

Scribe of Light said...

An interesting point. A truth that has gotten Fellowship into trouble when picking leaders more than once! We must be extra cautious to countert his natural reaction in our own minds.

Although, on the flip side, it works well when first meeting someone. It is a gracious thing indded osmetimes that we overlook the flaws of friends, no?

Unknown said...

Hi, Neil. To what warning by the apostles do you refer? Just wanting to clarify.

Unknown said...

You know, I've been thinking a little more about this, and doesn't it kind of run against Jesus' statements about the most important commandments? I mean, the Pharisees had their theology down pat, and His whole spiel with them was "Yes, but you've missed the point entirely." The parable of the sheep and the goats doesn't give much cred to "rightness", but does to kindness. Just sayin'.

Rev. Dr. Neil Damgaard said...

Peter, Paul and John would have bent over backwards to be nice. But they had 0 tolerance for compromise about core, theological truth. Each died for their faithfulness to core, theological truth. Pharisee-kind of rigidity and in fact, distortions about the Law of God, are not the kind of fortitude I'm advocating. I am, however, advocating NOT being gullible towards "leaders" just because they talk a sweet line.

Unknown said...

Well, heck yes. But leaders who talk a sweet line, as you say, are very often not really "nice" at all. If by "nice", we mean "kind", then I think we have to acknowledge it to be among the virtues, but like all virtues, it is not an end in itself. Yes?