Criticism and Balance
As major league baseball season winds down and professional ice hockey season begins, I am reminded of something that happened a few years ago. I was on sabbatical leave, teaching at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Alberta, Canada. The Canadian national newspaper carried an interesting editorial heavily criticizing the United States for stealing Canada’s game – Ice Hockey – and “neutering it” by giving the teams less than aggressive, fighting team names, like Ducks and Penguins. It was an honest opinion, and I tended to agree with it. However, that same year, the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series, and the Canadian newspaper was silent on who stole whose game. Criticism needs balance. On a lesser scale, I see a similar thing happening with churches. We are quick to criticize what other churches are doing, all the while being guilty of similar things. We need to be reminded that in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye” (Matthew 7:3)? Two verses later, He called those do did such things, “Hypocrites!”
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