How do you critique another man’s wife? Personally, it would take a lot for me to critique a man’s wife, whether friend or enemy. I could only imagine doing so in an extreme circumstance, and even then it would be with serious trepidation. We all know our spouses have flaws, but if a friend needed to critique my wife, I would expect any such critique to be delivered with the most careful, cautious, and gentle spirit imaginable. But too often, I don’t extend the same respect to Jesus’ wife, the Church.
It seems to me that there are some times when the Church needs critiqued. I don’t think that critiquing the Church can always be bad; after all, the Bible itself contains some such critiques. I'll admit upfront that I personally lean towards thinking (perhaps incorrectly) that Christians critique the Church too much. (And I recognize the irony of that statement – I’m critiquing Christians for critiquing the Church too much.) But maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps we don’t critique the Church too much. Perhaps we sometimes do so too harshly. I’m really not sure. Here are my jumbled thoughts on aspects of whether critiquing the Church is legitimate or not; please add or critique them, if you will.
Pro-critiquing:
1) Paul said judgment begins with the House of God. Sometimes Paul and other apostles and prophets critiqued the Church (or Israel) in ways that wouldn’t fit neatly into my interpretation of Church-as-Jesus’-bride model. I’m sure, for instance, that I would have wanted Amos and Jeremiah to add more disclaimers and moderating statements to their critiques.
2) Sometimes the Church really gets it really wrong. At various times and in various ways, the Church has probably been, as a group, inordinately selfish, racist, sexist, evil, and greedy, and those with an allegiance to truth probably need to point that out.
Anti-critiquing:
1) Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit. I suspect that this fruit is sometimes disclaimered away by excessive qualifications about what it’s not. Personally, I think more about gentleness not meaning “being a doormat” than I think about how I should be gentle. But it seems that gentleness is crucial when discussing the Church.
2) The Church is the Body of Christ. It seems to me that in some mysterious way the Church is part of Jesus. I guess that’s also supported by the Bride analogy, since the husband (Jesus) and the wife (Church) become one flesh.
3) Jesus promised that the Spirit would be at work in the Church, and insofar as we don’t see and praise His work, perhaps we’re neglecting praise of Him. In other words, I tend to think that critiques can often appear humble (after all, on the surface, we’re critiquing ourselves), but I wonder if at times they are a faithless way of failing to praise the real work that the Holy Spirit is doing among us.
4) Practically speaking, the Church has done tons of good in history, and she does tons of good even now. I know that my own city, Houston, benefits from a number of Christian ministries and not-from-profits that are heavily influenced by Christians.
5) I have a little bit of a soapbox about this point, so I may sound like cocky know-it-all. I don’t buy the stats about how Christians are no different than the culture at large in terms of giving, staying married, or serving the poor. I’m no sociologist or statistician, but I just don’t accept those stats because I find them anecdotally implausible. I know too many Christians doing too many good things.
Those are my initial thoughts. Let me add that I struggle with a critical spirit. I don’t pretend to be free from cynicism. I have my soapboxes against the Church. Also, I recognize that sometimes throughout history the Church has been in extreme circumstances where alarming rhetoric and broad-sweeping critiques are necessary. Maybe we’re in a time like that now, where the need of the hour is a heavy dose of strong critiques. My fear, though, is that perhaps American Christians are too slow to admire the Spirit’s work among us and too quick to think the Church is in dire conditions. But, as always, there is a very good chance that I’m wrong. What do you think?
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