Discernment

I work with a large number of fundamentalist Christians. In fact, I believe that my workplace is rather unique because I think that it is populated by a much higher percentage of fundamentalists than is society at large.

Most closely I work with people who call themselves charismatic Christians. I must confess that I have no understanding of the differences between fundamentalists and charismatics, the beliefs, the leaders, and the heroes seem to be the same, and I must confess that I’m just not interested enough to try and learn what the differences might be. I do suspect though that the main difference might be a desire to escape the negative connotations associated with the term “fundamentalist Christian.”

What I have noticed about these particular folks I work with, and indeed the point of this post, is a shocking lack of discernment.

They understand that in our world there is good and bad, black and white, even grey. They understand that people can be good or evil, be good but do an evil thing, or be evil and do a good thing. They understand that most people live between these extremes.

There does not seem to be any serious breakdown in their ability to reason, to understand people, or the world around us.

They do however suffer a very serious breakdown in these abilities when the focus of discussion is someone who calls him or herself a Christian.

They have a knee jerk reaction towards wanting to help the child rapist who calls himself a Christian. A need to help the defrauder who calls herself a Christian.

They accept such people at their word. They believe that such people are Christian based upon professed belief instead of observed actions.

The child rapist is not a Christian, he is evil. He has declared himself a Christian while in prison because doing so results in certain privileges for himself. The fraud is not a Christian, she has declared herself such because by doing so her tricks on the unsuspecting are less easily discovered. Those fundamentalist Christians I work with seem utterly unable to understand this.

Their lack of discernment, their immediate desire to have faith in anyone who professes a strong and fundamentalist Christian faith is disturbing. Luckily it is not the only influence upon those with whom I work, so it does not affect the work we do, rationality always prevails after the initial reaction fades.

I am not a man of faith, but I am rational enough to understand that Christian faith without Christian works is dead. That being a Christian must be defined not only by ones professions of faith, but also by ones actions for the good as inspired by that faith.