Gold Star Christianity: Killing Your Witness

It’s irritating and at times repulsive. I think this one’s going to need two parts.

High school students at the public school where I taught were interested in studying world religions and an inquiry went out for a volunteer supervisor to provide a classroom and oversee their discussions. Students with these kinds of interests are very receptive to teacher input and ask a lot of questions, which frees the teacher to be candid about their own personal beliefs while still being protected by the law. I already had two clubs and a leadership position in my department but I was sure one of the other three Christian teachers in my department would step up for this opportunity.

Instead, the one teacher who did respond, let the entire school know that as a “disciple of Christ” s/he could not support such a meeting unless it was strictly a Christian club for the glory of God and would otherwise refuse. Because of course it can only be used for the glory of God if it has Christian in the title, right?

Instead, this opportunity to form relationships with students and talk with them about spiritual matters in a setting where spiritual matters are normally taboo became a moment for this teacher’s own personal social edification. Please, even Jesus wasn’t like this. Christians have made witnessing an indication of their own spiritual worth and devotion rather than forming relationships with/between people and Christ.

Enthusiastic church-goers urge each other on with “Are you getting the Word out? Are you representing Christ? Are you loving people? Are you making friends with people from all walks of life? We spend so much time asking, “Am I living so people can see Christ in me? How do I show them I’m different? How can I work an altar call into my lunch break?”

Who is the focus of the prompt? Seriously, with all these trees it’s so difficult to find the forest…

The question isn’t, “is there anyone”, the question is, “Am I?” and this may seem like the anal-retentive semantic misnomer of a bitter English teacher—which it is—but it’s not that…only.

It’s all about getting that Gold Star. We used to get them in first grade Sunday school and they were awesome and yet so symbolically tragic. Our sense of compassion, our ability to see and empathize with loss and hurt is swept over by our need to redeem ourselves by redeeming others. If you feel sympathy for how “unbelievers” are swept into sin instead of empathy for a fellow sinner, you’ve forgotten that you also need grace, which is harmful for your relationship with Christ (obviously) and it’s harmful for your relationship with others.

Reading “How People Grow” by Drs. Cloud and Townsend, concerning a Christian leader overcoming an addiction,

During a meeting with his leader group, one of the men asked me, “Can you guarantee me that he’ll never do this again?” I remember that a feeling of protectiveness came up inside me. I said, “I can’t guarantee that you nor I will ever do this, on the basis of God’s Word.” We talked about the problem of sin and weakness described in Romans 7 and how dependent we all are on God’s grace. The discussion worked out well. Yet I think that that sense of protectiveness was based on my identification with the pastor’s weakness. (91, italics mine)

And of course, that could totally jeopardize your Gold Star.

You CANNOT save people. You’re not called to save them. You’re called to love EVERYONE as Christ would love them because the balance of the Fall at this point is such that Christ is not physically present here. Stop trying to save them and live in the sphere where God has placed you and if God brings someone who needs caring (Christian, non-Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, First and a Half Baptist, Bahai, Catholic, Protestant, Zoroastrian, whatever) into your sphere, take the time to care.

Seriously, God’s not going to give you a Gold Star for each person you drag into church. When you meet a non-Christian (which, if this is a rare occurrence we have another problem), don’t look at them like a Gold Star. If you’re only interested in leading them to Christ, getting them into pews, they’re a Gold Star. And they will know it.