What we’re not looking for …

Sometimes I struggle with the title of our blog, “the best Christian journalism on the web,” simply because we are trying to highlight people sharing their faith more so than excellent writing. (We definitely take both faith and good writing when we can get it.)

Unfortunately, I run across the combination of bad faith and writing all the time. Let me share a sample I found today:

Many today are seeking fame and fortune. Remember the television show "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous"?

When you see these so called fortunate people, do you think that they are really peaceful, content and happy? Or are they always wanting more, bigger and better things for themselves?

Look at the bad young girls of Hollywood today. They have got the amenities, but are they content and happy? Their fame and fortune seems to be destroying them on every level.

Their debauchery and low lifestyles are pictured in magazines, on television and in the gossip rags at every grocery store checkout lanes. Their notorious living gets top billing and front-page coverage.

(There’s more … a little later in the 318-word opinion, the author calls “them” “losers.”)

What is so troubling is that this judgmental, angry rant clearly comes from someone with a Christian faith perspective. The writer even references—but doesn’t quote—scripture (I Timothy 1:12, which it doesn't fit) to support her rant against the evil she sees in the world.

While clearly I agree with the writer that the fame and fun pursued by the Hollywood set is fleeting and self-destructive, I question whether she considers her audience as she caustically shares her perspective on God's truth. How many people read to the very end to reach the author’s salient conclusion: “Which is the better choice -- fame or faith? Fortune or faithfulness to God? One is temporal and the other is eternal.”

What makes me frustrated as I read is the opportunities destroyed by carelessness when we through out insults like, "so called," "low life," "gossip rags," and a little later, "losers."

Too many times people are turned off to God’s Good News of grace and peace by our offensive and angry rhetoric. Jesus told us that “… the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10), not to offend them.

It is my hope that fellow Christian writers will see articles like this one and feel challenged to share the good news even more, knowing we have to overcome evil with good, good writing with bad, and good faith with what’s not so good.

Keep writing!