Sunday Sermons

Maintaining Credibility

Mark Dunagan
01/07/07 - Sunday Morning

Maintaining Credibility

There are many passages that exhort the believer to be honest in his or her dealings with others:

· “But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness” (2 Corinthians 4:2).

· “For we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2 Corinthians 8:21).

· “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things” (Hebrews 13:18).

If we are going to be effective in reaching others, not only does our example need to be truthful, but our information and claims need to be truthful as well.

Check your facts before you act

This is especially needful in our time when the Internet and culture is filled with hoaxes and various urban legends, including those that are religious in nature. Some of the more popular myths that refuse to die include:

· That atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair has petitioned the FCC to prohibit all religious broadcasting. As of 1993 over 21 million people had written to the FCC to voice their outrage, and yet the whole thing is a groundless rumor. One sad consequence is that this rumor only gave O’Hair more opportunities for press coverage and a chance to discredit Christians as being naïve and people who do not pay attention to the facts.

· Profits from Procter and Gamble go to Satanist organizations.

· Starbucks is not only against the war in Iraq, but does not support any people in the military as well.

Helpful resources in this area would be first talking to other Christians before you pass on something you have heard, and checking the following websites that specialize in researching various urban legends, including virus hoaxes, chain letters, and various appeals for money.

www.snopes.com www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org

www.truthorfriction.com

www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/threatexplorer/risks/hoaxes.jsp

Check and Double Check

· Take nothing for granted:

Bad information is more common that we think. Just because something sounds plausible does not mean that it is true.

· Check original sources:

If we are going to quote someone, then it is best to first find the actual quote. For example, if a magazine article is lambasting a textbook being used in your child’s school, it is best to actually get a copy of the textbook and read it first. Does it say what the article claims it says? This same principle holds for anything you hear by word-of-mouth. The reason for this caution is that at times quotations are taken out of context, while other quotations have been simply manufactured.

· More than one source:

Never trust any derogatory or unflattering information that comes from a single source especially when someone’s reputation is on the line. Marvin Olasky noted, “The Bible is very strong about not lying and not supplying derogatory information unless you have two witnesses. The Bible is real hard on libel” (Focus on the Family Citizen, May 17, 1993, p. 7). Compare this with 1 Timothy 5:19-22.

· Go to the source:

While checking your sources, make every possible effort to talk to the person you’re accusing. People should be given a chance to rebut any accusations leveled against them.

· Do not rely on anonymous sources:

That is, do not rely upon any information from those who wish to remain anonymous, especially if this information could hurt someone’s reputation. This equally means beware of flyers, booklets, tracks, articles, fact sheets and books that do not footnote their sources or back up their statistics and claims.

Stereotypes

“Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).

In order to be effective at reaching people, Christians need to be aware of negative light in which believers are often portrayed. There is a definite stereotype that our culture has for the zealous Christian. Philip Johnson notes, “If you fit into the other person’s stereotype, then they find it very easy to dismiss what you’re saying and not listen carefully”(Focus on the Family Citizen, March 15 1993, p. 5). To combat this he recommends that Christians make it a regular practice to imagine themselves in the worst possible way, to see themselves the way a hostile listener might see them. Then we want to act and speak in a way that is entirely different from their negative stereotype and make it as hard as possible for them to put us into the box that they have prepared for us. Here is a list of negative stereotypes that, when possible, you will want to avoid:

· Unwilling to listen to a different point of view.

· Boring and unable to have fun.

· Prone to extreme positions.

· Lacking compassion.

· Too emotional and not interested in facts.

· Ignorant and gullible.

· Dogmatic about everything.

· Talking a good talk but not living the life.

· Hypocritical.

· Going to church yet not cleaning up the messes in their finances, marriages, relationships and family life.

· Giving to a church but leaving many other debts unpaid.

· Preaching against material goods, yet actually being very greedy.

· Sexual sins, yet adamantly vocal against inwardly addicted to such things themselves.

What is at Stake

Admittedly credibility is a bigger issue for believers than for unbelievers. The reason for this is that we actually claim to have found the truth (John 17:17). Johnson notes “It may be that you speak to somebody for an hour, and you make one factual error, and everything else you’ve said in the entire hour was totally accurate, but you’ve lost every bit of it now” (March 15, 1993, p. 5). Unfortunately, some people are going to consider themselves home free if they catch us in relying upon even one bit of inaccurate information.

Guarding our Credibility

· Evaluating our arguments:

Johnson teaches his law students that people tend to be uncritical when they evaluate arguments for their own side. “It is very important to know the difference between good and bad arguments for your own position, so that you don’t make the bad ones” (March 15, 1993 p. 5). Weak arguments will only give people an “out” and an excuse to disregard what we are saying and thereby feel that they are “safe” from our conclusions. There is a temptation to use every bit of ammunition we can get our hands on to prove a particular biblical truth, yet we must resist the urge to use ammunition that is either inaccurate or very weak at best. Thus, when making an argument use only a couple of very strong points. Johnson further noted, “Most people are intellectually lazy. They don’t want to wrestle to get the truth”. By offering a weak argument, we are only making it easier for them to dismiss our entire position.

· Be Hospitable:

When we do present God’s position, let’s present it in an inviting and welcoming way (2 Timothy 2:24-26). In the 1960’s William F. Buckley Jr., said that conservatives have to keep open an alternative airfield, that is, we keep the runways clear and the lights on so that when some get tired of liberalism they will recognize that there is another place to land. The challenge then is to teach the truth in such a way that unbelievers who presently see things differently equally know that should they change they are always welcome among us.

· Do more than talk:

We need to make sure that our deeds match our words and that we avoid any hint of hypocrisy. Marvin Olasky notes that journalists are always looking for hypocrisy. “The basis of the occupation is suspicion. You’re always looking for people who are rhetorically incisive but personally bankrupt. Whenever you have a person giving a fine speech, there’s a tendency to think, ‘This is too good’” (March 15, 1993 p. 7).

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017