On April 6, popular blogger/author Tim Challies―long-time friend and
associate of various Online Discernment Ministries (ODM)―posted a
fascinating and insightful article titled Evil As Entertainment.
This hard-hitting piece, both timely and necessary, discusses how too
many "watchblogs" and discernment websites (i.e., ODMs) have been
engaged in nothing less than a a prurient fascination with exposing
"evil"―much like tabloid newspapers, sensational/adult websites, and TV
shows indulge in exposing the details/photos/videos of lurid Hollywood
scandals, heinous crimes, or sexuality (e.g., porn). In the case of
ODMs, however, the nature of their stories/videos/photos are the
alleged evils of "Christians and churches and supposed Christians and
supposed churches."
Challies rightly observes that these Online
Discernment Ministry blogs/websites offer little more than "a steady
diet of negative content related to the church in general or perhaps
related to just one person or one ministry." Moreover, Challies
concludes that these websites/blogs are basically a kind of
"entertainment" for those enamored with negativity:
They are really just a spiritualized form of YouTube or any other site that entertains by sharing what is gross and base and negative and that does so for the sake of entertainment. There is really no value in watching boys do stupid things on skateboards and laughing when they crack their ankle bones in half; there is really no value in watching the worst pastors in America preach to the worst churches in America. Such sites offer evil as entertainment" (Tim Challies).
Challies hits the nail on the head with these comments. The Online Discernment Ministries (ODMs) that now litter cyberspace have become a quick fix for troubled hearts and minds seeking a daily dose of negative, rancid, hate-filled rhetoric that is fed to them under the guise of ministry, spirituality, godly correction, biblical rebukes, and being on fire for God. Challies offers two exquisite scripture and some godly words of advice:
I
think of Paul’s words near the close of the book of Romans where he
says, “I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what
is evil” (Romans 16:19b). He wants these Christians to invest their
time studying not what is evil, but what is good. When they have
confidence in all that is good, the evil will become ever-more apparent.
This is not the first or only time Paul has given this exhortation. In 1 Corinthians 14:20 he wrote “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” And in saying this he echoes the words of Jesus who exhorted His disciples and warned them of the persecution that would come, saying “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
Such advice goes hand-in-hand with my most recent posts about these accusers of the brethren and the division they are causing within the church (see Don't Believe Everything You Read...On the Internet, as well as ODM Update: Another Apologist Speaks Out, and ODMs: A Cult is Born?). We are in an era of great spiritual deception, and ironically, some of those dispensing the destructive deceptions are the very ones claiming for themselves the "We Are God's Defenders of the Faith" label.
