Can Benny Blush?

The vast majority of people in our country are traditional Catholics.  Protestants, in the local view, are cult-like and get lumped together with Mormons and JW's; this is not unusual in this part of the world.  By "traditional Catholics", I do not mean the majority holds traditional Catholic views.  Maybe be a better description is that the vast majority are cultural Catholics.  Their national and family identity includes being Catholic.  To not be, is to reject both family and country.  Imagine your son or daughter renouncing their American (or whatever) citizenship, immigrating to Saudi Arabia and converting to Islam and you begin to get the idea.

You would think that such a setting would lead to great unity among the few Protestants there are.  You would be, with a few exceptions, wrong.  I can work with almost anyone at some level or another.  However, we have several charismatic preachers who really push the envelope.  When I am charitable I like to say, "They would make Benny Hinn blush."  When not being so kind, words like "snake oil salesmen" come to mind.

It is unfortunate, because there are some very solid Pentecostal and Assembly of God folks that love the Lord and are doing wonderful work.  They tend to get tainted by the extremes.  Pray for us to have wisdom in working with others in Croatia and pray that we would develop meaningful partnerships, working relationships, and friendships with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

John Piper's blog has a video by Mark Driscoll, which I found to be helpful when thinking about false teaching and our response to it.

Comments

[David Rogers]

Trey,

I hear you. There are some groups in Spain that I feel do more harm than good in their presentation of the Gospel, and I often blush to be associated with. However, I think it is crucial that we ask whether or not they are true believers and true churches. If the answer is yes, then, no matter their particular idiosyncracies, we must accept them as our brothers and sisters, and as partners in the Great Commission. If the answer is no, we must be very careful, even if we agree with them on certain moral or political views, to not give the impression they are our brothers and sisters, or that they are our partners in the Great Commission. Also, if they are truly our brothers and sisters, we should feel free to confront them about their teachings and behavior that harms the proclamation of the Gospel, even an obligation to do so, as long as we do it in love, and not just out of a motive to judge them and criticize their flaws.

At the same time, I agree with you that we need real wisdom in knowing how to best sort through all the different nuances of this.