Carrie Prejean is NOT the Face of Christianity

Ok… the powers that be (namely “The Donald”) have stated that Carrie Prejean can keep her Miss California crown. While I am happy for her, I honestly don’t really care if she has it or not. To be honest, her having the spotlight right now (crown or not) is troubling for me as a Believer since it seems the media (and in some ways Carrie herself) are insistent on attaching the issues surrounding her to Christianity. Somehow she has become the spokesperson for Christianity and this is problematic in every way! It is a fallacy. Just because she speaks on behalf of Traditional Marriage, claims to be a Christian and mentions her faith as one of the defining reasons for her stance on marriage does not make her the spokesman/spokesmodel for Christianity!

Yes, I give her props for getting on the stage in front of a national audience (though I still don’t know anyone who actually watches the “beautiful on the inside and outside” contest) and a panel of judges with advocates for gay marriage (most notably Perez Hilton) and speaking up for traditional marriage when it is now the new taboo. BUT she is not (and should not be) the new face of Christianity. I think it is highly problematic to place any face (especially hers) on Christianity for several reasons…

1. It already has a face – Jesus Christ. Not for nothing, no one can match or surpass Him.
2. People are subject to fail. NO ONE can live up to the pressure of being the face of Christianity. Carrie’s life is an unfortunate example of this. Since her famous/infamous answer of Perez’s question the tabloid media has been scrambling to ruin her name (and they haven’t had to work that hard). In the last couple weeks several reports have surfaced about Christianity’s “new face”… topless photos, risqué photos, claims of her receiving a pageant-funded-boob-job, links to party-boy Olympian Michael Phelps, blah blah blah. People are by nature self-indulgent… to put any one as the face of Christianity in the media is problematic.
3. The Church (all Bible believing, God loving, Christ following churches, regardless of the name on the front) was created by Christ to be His memorial and voice in a Lost and seeking world. That task is far too big and grand for one individual. Even highly respected Christians such as Rick Warren, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, J.D. Greear, the late C.S. Lewis, and the late Paul (the Apostle) are not capable of serving as the poster child for Christianity (nor is that how Christ wanted it).
4. Just because Carrie speaks on behalf of traditional marriage does not mean she speaks on behalf of Christianity. She has never publicly stood for Christ (to my knowledge). She has said that she goes to church and that her faith is a major influencing factor for her pro-traditional marriage stance, but that does NOT mean that she has the desire to live for Christ. Matter of fact, it is her lifestyle and decisions to advance her career that are causing such an uprising and causing so many non-believers to question her faith.
   

My heart goes out to Carrie. I cannot begin to imagine the stress and pressure that is on her right now. Yes, it comes with the territory of seeking the national spotlight, but even one seeking such attention could never be prepared for this type of scrutiny.

TO THE CHURCH: This conversation is less about Carrie and more about us as the worldwide memorial for Christ. People look at the church and its congregants who (1) seek self pleasure above loving God, (2) stand behind their blind and uninformed faith and (3) blur the line of Christian distinctives (those things which make us Christian) and then wonder why they should waste their time with such a mindless, compassionless, judgmental faith. It’s time that we begin to look at the people in our cities with the same compassion that Christ did and seek to love them and be a voice in the darkness that champions justice, Truth, righteousness and above all love!

PARENTS: Much of the scrutiny Carrie faces is the result of her own desires and choices. The photos in question were all ones that she posed for professionally hoping to make it big. Forsaking her faith (or at least tabling it) she put her desire for fame first and took risks that are now backfiring on her. Instead of being respected for her craft, she is mocked as a hypocrite. I think it would do well for us to remind our children/teens (and ourselves) of the importance of loving and modeling Christ above all things. After all, “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul”? (Matt. 16:26)

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Image Credit: Associated Press

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It's Not About Being Good

In our do-good American culture, our love for God compels us to teach our kids that a major part of being a Christian is being a “good person”; however, this lesson is usually very misguided.

There are plenty of good people (though “good” is actually a relative term… but that’s a whole different entry for another day) who are not believers. So what distinguishes us (Christians) from the rest of the good people? What makes us distinctly Christian? Is it our good deeds? No, but this is the sort of thing we unintentionally teach our children when we tell them to be good people.

We are often do so well at focusing on being good, that we unintentionally camouflage our faith from the world! Then when people look at us and say “he/she is a good person” and their words of praise are all about us, not the One who changed our hearts.

Case in point: My wife and I were talking about her work place and discussing who might be followers of Christ. When it came down to it, she really did not know because of how incognito the believers seemed to be. Even many of those who she knew were Christians seemed to be in hiding, only revealing their faith in their good deeds. The only real way to know for sure was to ask them.

I'm not saying we should be people who do not do or teach good. However, when our "good" is the only measurable tool the public has to go on for determining our faith, it is DANGEROUS ground.

So What Should We Do/Teach?

There is a great part in the movie Fireproof that is a good illustration of how we ought to function in our work places and how people ought to know us. Kirk Cameron’s character (a non-Christian firefighter) is talking with another non-Christian firefighter about life and death. Without giving you the whole conversation, suffice it to say that Kirk’s character mentioned another firefighter in their unit who is a very strong believer and works hard to make that known by his words, actions, and lifestyle. He said (referencing the Christian firefighter) “what he believes may be hard to believe, but you got to admit - he’s the real deal.”

Our lessons to our kids and lifestyles ought to reflect the words of John Piper who states that believers ought to seek to “make much of Christ.” This doesn’t mean we go around saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…”, but what it does mean is that we intentionally seek to make MUCH of Him in our lives.

• When people come to us for advice, we share with them from Scripture.

• When we make decisions on life, we try to look at this life through the lens of Scripture (in other words, we develop a Biblical Worldview).

• We don’t live self righteous lives (“I’m less of a sinner than so-and-so” or “at least I go to church” or “I am a good person…”), but instead practice GRACE. We don’t seek to get “what’s mine” or “what’s due to me” but instead serve, love and give regardless of who notices (and do so with absolute joy)!

• We seek to be intentional in loving God! Too often we set out to love God only if it is convenient, then justify ourselves in front of the world when we fall short (“No one’s perfect”). As DC Talk once said on one of their albums… “that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Teaching good behavior alone is not Biblical. Teaching "do right", alone, is not Biblical. We do "good" things as a way of worshiping. We ought to be living daily to make much of Christ and teaching children to live the same way!

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16, emphasis mine)

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