As you might have heard, there was a recent scandal in the church when it was discovered that a prominent Christian figure was exposed as being a fraud, engaged in all sorts of terrible behavior behind the scenes.
The most important thing about the preceding sentence is that it could have been written at any point in the last two thousand years.
And yet, there are still people who are surprised every time it happens.
Perhaps it would be good if more people read Elmer Gantry. Sinclair Lewis’ novel is a tale of a guy with a wonderful resounding voice who stumbles his way into Christian ministry because it is sure a lot more lucrative and pleasant than being a travelling salesman. He is far from a paragon of virtue and his theological convictions are shaky at best, yet he just keeps going from successful ministry to successful ministry. It is an excellent novel, worth reading if for no other reason than its literary quality.
The question is what devout Christians should make of a book in which the clergy throughout range from outright frauds to bumbling idiots. One reaction is to castigate the book as a vile bit of trash, vulgarly defaming the souls who devote their lives to doing God’s work on earth. The novel is a perfect example of the work of those godless heathens who constantly sneer at religion and religious figures while joining hands in merry revels round bonfires every time a Christian falls.
The other option is to acknowledge that there are indeed a lot of Elmer Gantrys in this world. Indeed, it is hard to see how “There are no outright frauds like Elmer Gantry in the world of Christian ministry” is any more true than “Every person in Christian ministry is an outright fraud like Elmer Gantry.” Why is it so hard for people in the church to simply acknowledge that in the midst of a great many devout and godly Christian figures, there have been, continue to be, and always will be people who look great on the outside, but are veritable whitewashed tombs? You don’t have to take my word for it:
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13: 24-30, ESV)
Why then are so many Christians so surprised when Jerry Falwell Jr or Ravi Zacharias are revealed to have been leading double lives? Why the shock at the rampant problems in the Roman Catholic Church? Why did a great number of Southern Baptists see what happened in the Roman Catholic Church and take pride that it couldn’t happen in their denomination?
Of course there are people exactly like Elmer Gantry in Christian ministry. We may cherish the image of the Christian minister serving in poverty like St Francis of Assisi, but, truth be told, Christian ministry can be a very lucrative profession. Pastors in large Protestant churches average six figure salaries; the upper end of Christian ministry hits seven figures. Even if you don’t hit that upper end, however, Christian ministry can be a nice stable job, making a good solid income with a lot of flexibility in how you spend your time and no boss to whom you have to report. After all, most churches pay minsters and missionaries because they do not want their pastors or missionaries to have to lead the life of St Francis.
What Elmer Gantry does excellently well is present a portrait of Christian ministry purely as a career option. While Lewis has a merry time portraying every pastor as a dullard at best, it is not hard to realize that the novel can be illuminating even if not every person in Christian ministry is exactly like those portrayed in the book. Lewis himself mocks people who read his novels that way. One of the characters is Elmer Gantry complains about one of Sinclair Lewis’ earlier novels:
Lord, how that book of Lewis’, ‘Main Street,’ did bore me, as much of it as I read; it just rambled on forever, and all he could see was that some of the Gopher Prairie hicks didn’t go to literary teas quite as often as he does!—and that was all he could see among those splendid heroic pioneers.
So while some people outside the church may read Elmer Gantry as a description of all Christian ministers, that does not mean that thoughtful people need to read it that way. In fact, it is an excellent book for people inside the church to read to help disabuse them of the notion that all Christian ministers are paragons of virtue.
There is an extraordinary amount of vernation in Christian circles. At times, one wonders whether the first commandment has been broken. No pastor and no political figure is above reproach. At best, at the very best, they are godly individuals struggling with sin as they try to live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That is the very peak of human achievement. Yet the confusion of flawed individuals with Christ Himself, the sense that the people being venerated can be doing no wrong because “look at all the good they are doing,” that mindset is precisely what leads to the shock when a Christian figure is disgraced. You want a test of whether you venerate people too much? Ask how surprised you were there last time you heard of a prominent Christian figure who fell.
Why does this matter so much? There are hordes of devout people toiling in this world to share the gospel, to demonstrate the love of God to others. These people get no recognition for what they do. There people like this in your church right now. The pastors and priests and people on TV get all the glory and attention, but God is saying to that quiet person two rows behind you in church “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” A little less fanfare for the Glamorous Christians and a little more rolling up your sleeves to quietly do some good in this world would go a long way.
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