Anyone who lives in the public sphere has experienced the challenge that their words and actions can leave them as hostages to fortune. Preachers, politicians and podcasters can be misheard, misinterpreted, and misused.
I found out early in my ministry that it can be a dangerous business speaking about anyone who is in the public eye. I highlighted a few politicians who appeared to be advocated “Christian values,” only to find that they were all cheating on their wives.
Those were the days before the internet, when we got to know most famous people by what they said in the newspaper or on radio or television news. We now live at a time when it is possible to live almost the whole of our lives “on camera!”
The online world allows so-called influencers to have a constant presence. The social media machine requires a continuous 24/7 feed and is never satisfied. The knock-on effect is that rather than always having something to say, some people always have to say something. This means that some of those words are instant statements that can lack clarity and nuance.
I have been fascinated to observe the online conversations about the tragic death of Charlie Kirk. I was saddened to hear of his callous murder, moved by the dignified mourning of his young family, and touched by the compassion of his grieving widow toward her husband’s killer. Yet have been disturbed by the way that the online community feels it needs to cast Kirk either as a “good” or “bad” guy.
For a wise and nuanced response to Kirk’s death I recommend the following reflection by my friend Andrew Roycroft.
https://andrewroycroft.substack.com/p/the-value-of-holy-hesitation
I was thinking this morning of how Paul addresses two situations in his life where highly respected people have taken missteps in their lives. In both cases he speaks of them as brothers and sisters but also calls out the behaviour that is out of step with their Christian profession.
The first is the case of two sisters in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche, who had “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel’, (maybe they were present at the prayer meeting for women that was the birthplace of the church there) who were now estranged. Paul does not take sides but urges them both to be of one mind in the Lord (Philippians 4:2-3).
The second case has even higher stakes, as it concerns Peter, one of the founding apostles of the church. In Galatians 2:10-21 Paul takes issue with Peter and his own friend Barabas for backpedalling on the issue of the grounds by which gentiles were to be admitted into the church. Here is a reminder that men and women who are good, who have done great things for the cause of Christ, can be wrong. These wrongs do not negate the genuineness of their Christian testimony, but they do need to be called out.
We do no one a favour if we present a selective airbrushed picture of the life of a fellow Christian. To quote another “Marmite” figure, Oliver Cromwell: “Paint me warts and all.”