Thursday, September 1

The Mask

Dan writes about evangelicalism from the inside, and boy, does he speak the truth.

Not long ago, I made the mistake of confessing my deepest, darkest sins to some "church friends", and it became immediately obvious that they didn't know what to do with such a depraved sinner as me. I'll be a lot less likely to confess my faults in the future.

A lot less likely.

1 comment:

Steve F. said...

I'm of two minds on this, my friend.

I've shared the stuff that got me into the community of recovery with a couple of trusted friends from church, and their reaction was very supportive, very uplifting, very affirming.

I've shared the same things with a pastor in the same congregation, who treated me like I was going to spread some STD to his Sunday school class.

The fact is that most people don't know how to handle real sinners, because they think, somehow, that they're NOT one themselves. "Oh, I'm not that bad" is the familiar refrain.

It's an old story - the ones who have been forgiven much are the ones who seem most forgiving, eh? That's the foundation of the 12-step movement - that we identify, rather than compare.

The fact is, I'm probably just as depraved a sinner as you are - if perhaps in different ways. And I'm more in need of God's amazing grace today than I ever was - because today I know how bad I need it. And I'm getting to see more of how bad I need it every single day.