Current Events Monday: On Criticism
A cursory glance at today’s headlines, op-eds, and conversations among political pundits illustrates our culture’s obvious penchant for criticism. Consider how much criticism you ingest daily from just immersing yourself for a few minutes in the ocean of radio, television, and the internet. For every person who says, “The sky is blue,” there seem to be ten others who would respond with a litany of researched data suggesting that the sky may be some other color. Once the data is sufficiently shared, then those who claim the sky is blue may even be sluffed off as malcontents, crazy, or just plain dumb.
This is nothing new. You may recall the now rather humorous story of Nicholas Copernicus, a seventeenth century astronomer who theorized that the earth actually revolved around the sun. This was no laughing matter to his contemporaries. His books were banned for such a “dangerous theory,” and he received an onslaught of criticism that would make modern-day politicians give him a standing ovation of respect. He certainly would have been relentlessly battered by media outlets such as CNN, Fox News, talk radio hosts, and The View. I wonder what social media would have done to him.
Are we suggesting here that criticism is bad or unethical? Absolutely not! As a Baptist (and American), I would hasten to say that free speech and a free press are indispensable to those desirous of religious liberty. Your right to criticize my ideas is as valid and helpful as my right to yours. If you find fault with someone’s view of the sky color, then have a conversation about it. We are offering therefore not to reduce or ban criticism but to refrain from abusing it. Criticism is so valuable that we run the risk of losing our freedom to it by using it the wrong way.
Let’s detail here a few ways that criticism may be wrongfully abused or badly used.
- Slandering another person is not criticism, but it more closely resembles lying than much else. Is our intention either to harm or to help? If you aim a gun at someone and shoot the weapon, we can surmise that your intent is murder. The same goes for our words. We cannot shoot a loaded gun at someone and pretend that such an action is in the interest of the public good. Jesus would rather us pray for our enemies instead of lobbing verbal grenades at them, or worse. The late J.M. Gambrell said it like this: “A man seeking to burn a house is not a critic of the house.”
- There is a difference between true criticism and what we call “venting.” The Apostle James rightly admonished us when he said, “The tongue is a fire.” When we let loose with the flame thrower of heated, vengeful, and hurtful remarks we have forfeited our responsibility to criticism. Venting illustrates a rather unorganized mind and heart, for out of the heart the mouth speaks. One of the best ways to become a better critic is by asking this question: How can my criticism build up and add constructively to this conversation? In other words, there is a difference between super glue and a sledgehammer.
- An abusively critical Christian harms his/her witness for the Lord. Perhaps we ought to take a leaf from the John’s Third Epistle at this point. He spells out clearly the destructiveness of a bad critic. Notice his powerful words below.
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. (3 John 9-11).