Good morning. Some years back, as Pam and I would gather for one of the large family gatherings that her side of the family were famous for, I would be greeted by the husband of one of her cousins. He was an avowed atheist, and he would always greet me the same way: “So, how is the religion business?” I would respond back in the same way each time we met: “I wouldn’t know. My work is in the area of faith and building a good relationship with our creator God.” He would sneer, I would smile, and then we would go our separate ways, or on occasion continue speaking about Christian faith.
One topic that he was fond of was telling me all about whatever tele-evangelists were most recently being outed as scoundrels. This was in the hay-day of the likes of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and others like them, so the atheist had plenty of ammunition. He would share whatever gossip/news stories had come out most recently to reveal these high profile “Christians” as charlatans, with the implication being that all of Christianity was a hoax to rob naïve people of their funds.
It was a difficult argument to engage in, because history is filled with evidence that shows that religion is too often used and abused for profit and prestige. Of this I am quite sure: when people do fall prey to such abuse, they are being exploited while God is infuriated. Do you think I may be overstating God’s reaction to such exploitation in His name? Consider this from Mark 11:15-19 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
As we read these verses it seems clear that Jesus was angry. He was witnessing unscrupulous persons exploiting the faithful, and all the while doing so in the name of God. Jesus’ reaction was one of anger, but it was also one of action. He went on the offensive, and in God’s name He purged the house of worship from the grip of evil.
Today, such abuse in the name of Christ continues. Thieves masquerade as the righteous in the name of Jesus. For instance, consider a charity such as the one once known as “Christian Children’s Fund.” They now go by “ChildFund,” which may mean that someone called them out for their hypocrisy, since nothing that they did was related to Christ or the mission of His church in this world. A former board member has made quite a stink lately about that particular group, as he revealed that the charity’s claims about the percentage of their over 122 million dollar annual income going to care for children is grossly exaggerated. An unsavory percentage of the monies they raise go for huge salaries, etc. Unfortunately, they are not alone. There are many such organizations that try to capitalize on the name of Christ and the title of Christian to exploit people of faith.
The other tragic result of this kind of falsehood is that the name of Jesus and the reputation of His Body, the Christian church, takes a beating. Genuine Christian people, and genuine Christian missions and charities, are too often lumped together with the thieves in the minds of the lost. There is no doubt in my mind that it is our greater enemy who is at work to taint God’s message of salvation.
Did I ever convince or convert the husband of Pam’s cousin? No. He was never interested in listening to the truth of Christ, he just wanted to argue. But I will say that his feelings of justification for his closed mind could be attributed to what he was hearing regarding the oxymoron that is “Christian fraud.”
For us, I would suggest that we need to be careful to never encourage or enable the thieves. Let’s be as certain as we can be of all the facts before we put the resources the Lord has entrusted to us into a stranger’s hands. Not all who want to bear the name of Christ Jesus are Christian!
God bless us with wisdom!
Vern