Thoughts on the Charles Barkley interview
Feb. 17th, 2008 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreSeveral of my LJ friends have linked to a video of Charles Barkley describing conservative Christians as "fake Christians." (See the video, a transcript, and a response from a conservative Christian group here, if you don't know what I'm talking about. And care.) Barkley asserts that those people are wrong to oppose gay marriage because the Bible says to not judge. This delights many of my friends (and to some extent, me). But wait a minute-- aren't we applauding him for passing judgment on a group of people?
"But that's different!" Yes, it is. Read on for my thoughts about how and why it is different.
So, Barkley passes judgment on folks for passing judgment-- and we applaud him and condemn them. What's going on? Fact is, despite the clear-cut sound of "judge not, that ye be not judged"-- leading a Christian life does call for judgment. Folks want "good Christians" to pass judgment on the "fake Christians", as well as on others who do harm. Would it be Christian to not pass judgment on a rapist? An abuser? Of course not. A look at the text in context (Matthew 7 and Luke 6) shows that the point is to judge fairly, the way one wants to be judged. In a Biblical context, there are always two things necessary to fair judgment-- justice and mercy. (And yes, Christians ARE called to judgment, in Scripture-- take a look at 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, or Matthew 18, for starters.)
So we applaud Barkley, because we believe his judgment is fair (too short a clip to say whether it's merciful, I think) and condemn the "fake Christians" because we believe their judgments are both unjust and unmerciful. That's fair judgment. How can Christians work against injustice and unmerciful behavior without judging that they exist?
So Barkley is right to make the judgment, but there's a problem with his argument. He used a snippet of Scripture in an oversimplified manner. Many of the uncompassionate judgments by "fake Christians" are based on exactly this kind of practice (often called 'prooftexting). Rip one phrase out of Leviticus and another from St. Paul and you arrive at the claim that homosexuality is an abomination. Throwing "judge not" around out of context may make a point, but it also validates prooftexting. It may take longer to deal with the complex realities, but sometimes that's what has to be done. (I'm not necessarily faulting Barkley here; he was under time limitations. I'd love to hear him answer some of the points I'm trying to raise.
So basically I think Barkley is right, but I have problems with how he made his point, so the applause for this paradoxical display makes me uneasy.
"But that's different!" Yes, it is. Read on for my thoughts about how and why it is different.
So, Barkley passes judgment on folks for passing judgment-- and we applaud him and condemn them. What's going on? Fact is, despite the clear-cut sound of "judge not, that ye be not judged"-- leading a Christian life does call for judgment. Folks want "good Christians" to pass judgment on the "fake Christians", as well as on others who do harm. Would it be Christian to not pass judgment on a rapist? An abuser? Of course not. A look at the text in context (Matthew 7 and Luke 6) shows that the point is to judge fairly, the way one wants to be judged. In a Biblical context, there are always two things necessary to fair judgment-- justice and mercy. (And yes, Christians ARE called to judgment, in Scripture-- take a look at 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, or Matthew 18, for starters.)
So we applaud Barkley, because we believe his judgment is fair (too short a clip to say whether it's merciful, I think) and condemn the "fake Christians" because we believe their judgments are both unjust and unmerciful. That's fair judgment. How can Christians work against injustice and unmerciful behavior without judging that they exist?
So Barkley is right to make the judgment, but there's a problem with his argument. He used a snippet of Scripture in an oversimplified manner. Many of the uncompassionate judgments by "fake Christians" are based on exactly this kind of practice (often called 'prooftexting). Rip one phrase out of Leviticus and another from St. Paul and you arrive at the claim that homosexuality is an abomination. Throwing "judge not" around out of context may make a point, but it also validates prooftexting. It may take longer to deal with the complex realities, but sometimes that's what has to be done. (I'm not necessarily faulting Barkley here; he was under time limitations. I'd love to hear him answer some of the points I'm trying to raise.
So basically I think Barkley is right, but I have problems with how he made his point, so the applause for this paradoxical display makes me uneasy.
