Prominent Figures and Ourselves in Perspective

Often we find critiques of ministers or prominent religious figures. I think we should always look at the golden rule and judge any critique we read or write by the golden rule.

"Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself."

Often the teaching of Jesus is clearly broken in the critique of ministers and leaders in the church by other ministers and leaders in the church. They would cry foul if they where pressed on many issues on which they press others.

Maybe the feeling is that the spotlight on more prominent figures means that they are held to a higher standard. The bible does say that ministers are held to a higher standard but I do not think prominent ministers should be held to a severely higher standard than average pastors.

Maybe a good question for any critique of a prominent figure would be: would I feel uncomfortable if the pastor of my small local churches in my area were critiqued this way. Often the answer would be "no."

Too often the critique of prominent religious figures goes past reason. We need to always doubt ourselves and the motives of others who wish to critique any figure. It is not that critique is wrong but that it must always be done with care and thought.

3 Tips on Offering a Critique or Suggestion

When considering if it's the right time to offer a critique or suggestion to someone or about someone, keep in mind the following three things in order to have a profitable and loving discussion:

1. Be sure you truly understand what you disagree with or want to suggest needs to be changed. "You often see prolonged discussions or arguments that could be avoided by simply explaining what we mean by a term," writes Danny in "Charity in Communication." "Getting others' views right is a part of love. Disagreeing in the proper spirit is Christian.

"Disagreeing in the improper spirit is not Christian even if we are correct. You see truth and love must go together. Truth without love is not Christian."

2. Is there a solution to the problem that you're pointing out? If not, "it is quite disheartening to be told that you are 'on the wrong path' career wise or in another way but to not be told what the right path is," says Danny in "Unloving Advice." "A critique with no superior solution is a worthless critique.

"To say a solution is poor but to not have any idea of a better solution is at best a waste of breath and in fact more likely unloving. To criticize without giving hope is completely un-Christian in spirit.

"We should build up others. If we cannot be building up and offering a better approach than it is best that we say nothing at all."

3. Is there something that you can do to help the problem that you're pointing out? It's easy to critique others and other cultures but not ourselves and our own culture. Read more in "Critique of the Other."

Unloving Advice

Often I see people give advice and tell another person that they are on the wrong path in this or that way. It is often that a person criticizes another's career path or direction they are taking, but offer no alternate path.

It is quite disheartening to be told that you are "on the wrong path" career wise or in another way but to not be told what the right path is. A critique with no superior solution is a worthless critique.

To say a solution is poor but to not have any idea of a better solution is at best a waste of breath and in fact more likely unloving. To criticize without giving hope is completely un-Christian in spirit.

We should build up others. If we cannot be building up and offering a better approach than it is best that we say nothing at all.

The church needs to lift its members up. For its members who struggle and seem to lack direction the church needs to be conscious to only provide uplifting support.

It is of no use for the church to tell members struggling with direction that their career path is suspect but offer no assistance. But in many churches today this is exactly what happens. No real help is offered to membership, but rather only judgement.

Theological Virtue (poem)

To understand first.
To listen with charity.
To critique only when we have understood.
To take the time to do dialogue.
Or to have the patience to not speak at all.

Critique of the Other

Often it is common to see bloggers and many of them theological bloggers involved in frequent critiques of other cultures which are not their own, but rarely critiquing their own culture.  Personally I fail to see the use of critiquing a culture which exists a thousand miles away if we cannot understand and critique the issues which are prevalent in the area and country in which we live.

Certainly we can learn from the critiques of others cultures (or our own culture from the viewpoint of other cultures), but it really misses the point.   We should have the great concern about our neighborhood before we can begin to have concern about other lands.

It is the flaw of many people whose work is entirely theoretical, but fail to live out the theoretical in their lives.  But the issue is the theoretical concern is completely trumped by the practical negligence of those people often times.  It rarely is of much good to simply think of what is good in a theoretical sense.

You see we cannot think ethics theoretically in much of an ethical sense if we are not willing to think ethics in a sense which has practical implications.   It is easy to do ethics in the theoretical only because it does not have implications on us.  We will not in the purely theoretical discover implications which we should do.

You see it is very easy to pretend to have concern for the world, but to move the concern outside of our sphere of influence.  In affect to go tell others to go do the good that we should do.

We must always be open to doing good and not seek to have others do good for us.  We are God's hands and feet in the world, not another voice who tells others to be God's hands and feet and does nothing ourselves.

Strength of Claims

One aspect of argumentation with those we disagree with is balancing strength of arguments. A strong claim requires strong evidence and a weak claim requires less evidence.

An example of a very strong claim might be, "[insert name] views on Paul's letters are very dangerous." This is a very strong claim which should be used very cautiously and requires great evidence.

A weaker version might be, "[insert same name] views on Paul's letters seem somewhat doubtful." This is a far weaker claim which requires less evidence and could be used less cautiously.

You see the second version has more charity and if the claim is wrong the dangerousness of it is low. The first claim is actually itself very dangerous if the claim fails the accuracy test.

And the issue with a critique is if the critique itself is wrong then the critique is dangerous. Often this is why I prefer to critique ideas rather than people.

You can find hundreds, thousands, or millions of people who hold an idea you critique. But the second I critique a certain person's views I must have great accuracy in understanding their views.

Sometimes I might write and be thinking of a certain thinker when I write a critique of a view. But if I have misunderstood that speaker and I have not named the thinker there are many other thinkers who the critique fits. If only one person in the whole world held the view it would not be worth the effort to write about in general anyway.

Listening, Getting Things Right, and Rest

It is always of great use to listen to the implications others see in their positions which they hold. Often we might guess what the implications should be in their positions and we may or may not be wrong.

Is it that other people are inconsistent and they might not have implications in their system that should be there? I suppose this is always possible however often we see mystery in things.

It is not common to see logical thinkers have views which have an interesting tension. This is not simply in a field such as theology: it carries in many fields.

You see large systems of thought often have many nuances. Often a position is not fully rejected but partially affirmed with qualifications.

And this is the great issue in communication; it is that often others attempt to carry out the implications of the thought of others. In doing so they often create positions which the author of the ideas does not hold.

It is interesting to see many great theologians or great thinkers get others' positions in their field so completely wrong. Often, I suppose, many people try to do too much.

Maybe they have a critique in mind of a figure and they have a few months to write a book. In those few months they produce a book of some value which gets the other thinker wildly wrong.

It is often the case that many positions which we disagree with are not so easy to critique as we would think. We might undertake a nuanced critique but that would take a very long time.

Often you will see too many people in fields taking short cuts to try to prove their point. The reality is we often accomplish so little because we do too much.

We try to do ten things and do all ten in a mediocre way and very little good results. If we had simply done one or two things we might have had better results.

Billy Graham near the end of his ministry was asked of his deepest regret. He said that he preached too much and spent too little time in the Word and prayer.

You see sometimes we can accomplish more by doing less. This is why Jesus so frequently withdrew into solitude in the wilderness.

Keeping the Sabbath is having faith that we can do more in six days with God than seven without God.