The Words of Our Mouths
by Patrick R. Anderson
I sat cross-legged at a roadside restaurant in Indonesia a few years ago with an ethnic Chinese Christian brother. His family had emigrated from China five generations earlier. He and his family were leaders in the local community and the local church, having accepted Christ many years ago. The food was excellent and we enjoyed a cool breeze and playful birds chirping around us.
But my new friend was distraught and on the brink of tears as he said to me, “I must move my wife and children away from here, but to where?” Churches in a nearby area had been burned recently and he was scared to death, fearing the safety of his family. The urgency of his anxiety this Friday was a fiery sermon from the local imam against all Christians, those infidels under the influence of evil Americans and the hated Chinese who defiled the true religion of Islam. The rhetoric was not new, but this day the imam was responding with extreme fervor to the words of Jerry Vines, a big time Southern Baptist preacher from Florida who had called Mohammed “a pedophile.” Newspapers throughout the Islamic world had reported on Vines’ slanders of the Prophet, and the tensions which already existed were exacerbated.
All of us who have been around big time Fundamentalist preachers understand the context of Jerry Vines’ words. When he preached his bombastic denigrations of Islam, he was safely perched on a stage preaching to the faithful, the Southern Baptist preachers who gather each June to hear such words from the Fundamentalist former SBC presidents and wannabe SBC presidents who compete to see who can stir up the loudest applause, the most fervent shouts of “Amen!” They want to see who can bring the crowd to their feet to the sound of entertaining shouts like “Preach on!” and “Shake a bush!” and “Tell it! Tell it!” It is great theater. It is more like a pep rally than a worship service. Jerry was not engaging Islam in a serious way. He was not sharing thoughtful biblical reflections or attempting to express the Gospel or attract people to Christ. And far from being a courageous defender of the faith in the belly of the devil’s lair, he was surrounded by fellow Fundamentalists. He was just strutting his stuff in front of his people.
But on this occasion, his words caused suffering and danger to followers of Jesus half a world away. The meal and the breeze and the chirping birds could not assuage the deep sorrow and shame I felt as my brother talked with me about how a preacher’s words in America had affected his family and friends in Indonesia.
I thought of this recently as another Florida pastor, Terry Jones, a smalltime preacher with a faithful following of about a dozen friends and family in Gainesville, burned a copy of the Koran. The result, again half a world away, was death, anger, hatred, and heightened danger for followers of Christ.
We do not pay much attention to the nonsense of Fundamentalist preachers in America. Such idiocy is just a small part of the cultural scene in diverse America. We can turn on or turn off the Jerry Hagees and Jerry Vines and any number of small time preachers like Terry Jones.
But I reflect on what I learned anew that day in Indonesia– that all words have consequences. Words can inspire good and evil, love and hate, encouragement and discouragement, comfort and distress. Words spoken on behalf of Jesus, by followers of Jesus, must be carefully considered, prayerfully chosen, thoughtfully expressed.
There is a time and a place for fervor and passion in the Christian discourse. Jesus was known for using some pretty strong language, standing eye-to-eye and toe-to-toe with the Fundamentalists of His day, even calling them “snakes” and “children of your father the devil.” He could do that. He was among the people He had discourse with. He could look at people and say, “Here I am!” He was the Word who became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. The Florida preachers hide behind bodyguards half a world away from the danger they engender for innocent, unsuspecting followers of Jesus they have never met.
Carolyn reminds me often, and inspires me with her example, to pray daily, “May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” We all should close our eyes frequently, and reflect on those words of the Psalmist.
Patrick R. Anderson is Editor of Christian Ethics Today
