I Don't Like That

I was talking to a friend of mine recently, and the phrase, "I don't like that," kept coming up. We talked about videotaping police interrogations, and he said, "I don't like that. They could turn the camera off, beat the crap out of the suspect, and then when he was ready to confess, turn the camera back on. I don't like that." My response was, of course, "As opposed to the old fashioned way, where they just the crap out of the suspect, and there was no videotape?" Then we got on the subject of Doctor Phil. "I don't like him. Sometimes he yells at people. I don't like that." Well, I'm sorry; sometimes people need to be yelled at. Now, I haven't seen that much of Doctor Phil, and I've never seen him yell at anybody, so I can't really judge whether he was justified or not when he did.

There are things that I don't like. I don't like paying income tax, for one thing, but, at the same time, I understand that our government needs funds in order to function. I don't like the fact that our government seems to be so dysfunctional. One thing in income tax law that I particularly don't like is that if I get a refund on the income tax that I paid last year, I am expected to include that in my earned income for this year, even though I actually earned that money last year, and the government just 'borrowed' that money for several months. I don't like that, but that's the law (The IRS actually sent me a 1099 for my refund last year).

My point is that just because you or I don't like something, that doesn't make it wrong. If I'm one of Doctor Phil's patients, and he yells at me, I probably won't like it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's wrong to yell at me. That may be the only way that he can get my attention, or it may be that I have frustrated him to the point where he loses his temper and starts yelling (that would make that yelling my fault, rather than his).

There are a lot of people that don't like what the Bible says, but that doesn't make the Bible any less right. If we tried to come up with a religious document that everybody agreed on, it would be real short--and it wouldn't mention God, because of the atheists. I've noticed that most people don't fault the Bible itself, but they will try to blame some person or organization: "The Catholic Church says that the Jews are going to Hell because they haven't accepted Jesus Christ. I don't like that." To be honest, I don't like it either; the Jews are God's chosen people and it seems to me that good Jews should have a place in Heaven, but, according to the Bible, Jesus said that He is the only way. There are some things in Roman Catholic doctrine that I believe should be questioned, but that particular point is Scripture: don't blame the Catholics for that. "I stopped going to that church, because they preach tithing." Again, tithing is Scriptural. Now, most of the references in the Bible about tithing are Old Testament, so some would say that we aren't required to tithe any more (we're under a New Covenant, we're not under the law, but under Grace, etc.), but it seems to me that if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will fulfill the works of the law (not because it's the law, but because the Spirit that's leading you is the same Spirit that dictated the law). In any case, the church depends on the tithes and offerings of its parishioners; just as our government needs tax dollars in order to function (or dysfunction), the church needs money to pay the mortgage, the phone bill, the light bill, and the salaries of the people who work for the church. Can you imagine trying to worship with a church that had no building (because there wasn't enough money in the collection plate to make the mortgage payment), no phones, no lights, no paid pastor? We want our church to have all these things, but we don't like having to pay for it.

There's an old story about a preacher who preached a sermon in which he said, "This church is going to crawl!" and the congregation cried out, "Amen, preacher, let it crawl!" He spent some time elaborating on that statement, describing the things that the church would do while it was crawling, and then went on, "This church is going to walk!" "Amen, preacher, let it walk!" He again elaborated, about how much more the church would do when it was walking, instead of crawling, and then went on, "This church is going to run!" "Amen, preacher, let it run!" He elaborated about how much more he felt the church was capable of, and then he said, "This church is going to fly!" The people were really excited, and cried out, "Amen, preacher, let it fly!" He elaborated some more about the great things that his church was capable of, and the he said, "But to do this, it's going to take money." "Amen, preacher, let it crawl!"