I just listened to a really interesting piece of journalism, interviewing and taking soundbites from pastors across the spectrum of the recent fracturing of American evangelicalism. The line that jumped out to me most was from far-right (vaccines are fake, Biden is a pedophile, etc.) pastor Greg Locke. He was giving evidence of why he didn’t need to provide proof for his wild claims and said that his audience was there because they already bought into his message. That they came because, “they like what I say, because I’m saying what they feel, I’m scratching their itch…”
I’ll be honest, I think Greg is a con-artist who found a story that sells and is running with it for all it is worth. I was actually shocked by how close his “scratching their itch” came to the 2 Timothy 4 “they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear”.
And while the negative lesson of “don’t be like Greg” is true, I think this is also a good chance for us to evaluate, am I listening to voices that challenge me, or just the ones that say what I want to hear? Voices that tell me that I am right and that I don’t need to listen to any points of view that disagree. That I can ignore the people who are different or think differently because they are wrong.
I’ll be honest, I used to live that life, assuming that the beliefs and ideas of those I disagreed with had no value. I’ve come to think that this pattern is not just unwise, but in fact morally wrong. Because God didn’t give us the bible through one person who is now the divine role model for every follower of his, who lays out a blueprint for who should be listened to. He gave us his words through shepherds and kings, the rich and the poor, zealots and tax collectors. And Jesus didn’t say, go and share the good news with everyone who is like you. He said to share it with the whole world, people who spoke different languages and had totally different cultures.
If we want the gospel to be heard, then we need to earn the right to speak it by first listening. To people who are like us, and to people who are not. We need to listen to their desires and their fears, their beliefs and ideas. And if we are really listening, sometimes that will change us. It will show us a new angle on the world. It will shift the way we look at life. And that’s not a bad thing. Only dead things don’t change. We are all incomplete, broken, sinful, why should we expect that our vantage point is infallible? Only God can claim that ground.
So, don’t be like Greg, but we self-aware in it. Go find people who aren’t like you, maybe start by following some of them on social media, or reading articles from a news source you know is slightly off from your point of view. Listen to them, not listening to try and find their weaknesses and beat them intellectually. But listening to empathize, to figure out where they are coming from, to expand your understanding of the motivations of others. And then, when you’ve earned the right to be heard, speak the gospel into that situation with humility.