The Tao of the Shunning Christian: Is it evil?
Apr 10, 2020 9:15:31 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Apr 10, 2020 9:15:31 GMT -5
The Tao of the Shunning Christian: Is it evil?
A shunning Christian is one who believes that it is OK to give other Christians the silent treatment as a gesture of disapproval .Such shunning ca be based on
1. The belief that such a person needs to be punished in order to induce repentance
2. A sense of duty to keep the church clean from immoral contamination.
Now, most denominations claiming Christianity don't shun members based on those two reasons while a few do. Of course, they are totally entitled to their opinion. However, as humans we do not live in vacuum and our behavior will be evaluated as either evil or righteous depending on the effects that it has on others.
What effect does shunning have on others? Well, it depends on who is being shunned. Some hardy individuals take the matter philosophically and go about live life normally. If their former close friends and family shun them-then to hell with them. However, others more sensitive souls become very emotionally distressed and extremely depressed under such relentless social isolation from persons who would normally be very close.
Such depression is known to have very serious effects. It leads to a nervous breakdowns, stomach ulcers, heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhages called strokes due to high blood pressure and a very premature death due to all the stress which the shunning viciously induces.
Yet others who are even more sensitive and have a predisposition towards mental illness might decide to commit suicide in order to put an end to what they consider an unbearable situation.
Those are some of the pernicious effects of this supposedly biblically-approved reaction to someone who was once following biblical or organizational rules and suddenly falters.
Based on that alone it can be concluded that the practice of shunning is evil. However, there is also a biblical basis which clearly identifies it as such. What basis? Simple, it blatantly ignores the exhortation for us to show compassion and patience and to go seek those sheep that have strayed from the path as Jesus told us to do.
Luke 15:4-7
"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' read more.
"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' read more.
Instead, shunning tells us to ignore such sheep, and to abandon them to the roaring lion.
1 Peter 5:8
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
That is definitely not a Christian thing to do and doing and only serves to please the Devil who pounces on such abandoned sheep the minute he spots one as those who are supposed to protect them turn smugly away in a gestures of self-righteous presumptuous unmerciful judgement which identifies them as unChristian.
Judging Others
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.