To me, language is very important. Often, we have endless debates without first defining what we mean by our terms, not even considering all the nuances associated with our terms.
For many years, I’ve tried to take Pauls’ assessment of our fallen human nature to heart: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (Rom. 2:1).
While defrauding your employer of $5,000 is far worse than stealing a paperclip, the principle is the same: you unlawfully take something that belongs to someone else. It’s called stealing.
Before we consider the inconsistency and hypocrisy of Christians, including myself, let’s define “our” terms. According to the dictionary, inconsistent means “acting at variance with one’s own principles.” Hypocritical is defined as “behaving in a way that suggest that one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.”
If we’re honest with ourselves as Christians, there are many instances when we act inconsistent and even hypocritical, not living up to what we say we adhere to. This only highlight that our hope isn’t based on the quality of our Christian life but on the quality of Jesus’ life—saved by His righteousness. Nevertheless, we should be made aware of our inconsistencies and hypocrisy.
The title of this article was “suggested” when I received an email from a well-known ministry. The headline read: “Jan, YOU can free [name of ten-year old boy] from pain.” In writing, especially copywriting, a capitalized word is used for emphasis.
This ministry puts the entire emphasis of what I can do and, to me, implies how wrong it would be for ME not to do so. Obviously, who doesn’t want to free a ten-year old boy from his physical pain, right?
Here’s the inconsistency or hypocrisy (you decide) to me. This ministry has 1,800,000 Facebook followers. Furthermore, this ministry is related to a Christian media outlet that has quite a reach.
On at least three different occasions, I’ve reached out this ministry by phone and email about an affiliate program, which would give them 100% FREE money. Furthermore, this ministry has used an affiliate program before (the former AmazonSmile). In other words: they’re not opposed to using an affiliate program.
For example, if 1% of their 1,800,000 Facebook followers were to buy one $4.00 classic Christian book deal, they would gain $36,000, which is thirty times the amount needed for this ten-year old boy. In other words: [Name of Ministry] YOU can easily free [name of ten-year old boy] from pain” when you become an affiliate, which is without any cost or effort on your part.
The main question, to me, is whether or not this ministry is willing to use all the available resources in order to help people. As they also said in the email: “Help is available for children like [name of the ten-year old boy], but so many simply can’t access it without your help.”
What if your decision, as a ministry, to not use all the available resources resulted in “so many simply can’t access it without your help.” Would you agree? It’s one thing for you to write persuasive copy; it’s quite another thing for you to make sure you use all the available resources to help more people.
What has this to do with The Christian Experiment? As Christians, we all want to help others, right? What if our “help” was as easy and as simple as one social media share. Would we do so?
For all the info, please go to www.TheChristianExperiment.com
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