Judging by my Facebook news feed, I’m not the only one who didn’t like Beyonce’s halftime performance at this year’s Superbowl.
Looking like a cross between Klingon she-warriors and pole dancers, Beyonce and her backup dancers turned one of America’s premier sporting events into a sleazy nightclub act.
But even though some of my peeves about it are probably justifiable, what bothers me as much as anything is that I allowed the spectacle to bring my inner “church lady” bubbling up to the surface. That’s not a part of me I like.
I don’t want to think or sound even the tiniest bit like the smug, holier-than-thou, ranting “church lady” character featured years ago on the “Saturday Night Live” TV show.
But sometimes this world makes me want to rant, and it happened again during that halftime show.
I envisioned church youth groups and families gathered at Superbowl parties across our land, eating Doritoes and bean dip, chatting it up, and then suddenly having to dive for their TV remotes when Beyonce took the stage.
Up and out came my inner “church lady.”
Comic Dana Carvey, creator of “church lady,” said he based the character on women he knew in the church he grew up in. I don’t want to be one of those women.
In the Gospels, we see Jesus getting righteously angry at religious hypocrites, not railing against unbelieving sinners. Calmly, lovingly exposing their sin sometimes, but not ranting.
It seems Jesus expected lost people to act lost and was much more passionate about rescuing them than condemning them. (See John 12:47)
On the other hand, I don’t think Jesus would want His followers to drift apathetically down polluted cultural streams toward a perilous waterfall, either. His Word says we are to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12).
Christians find themselves on the uncomfy horns of a dilemma.
We’re called to walk a thin, difficult line that requires us to hate the sin but love the sinner, and to speak the truth, but only if we speak it in love.
Only Jesus has been able to walk that line perfectly. The rest of us often fall off, to varying degrees, into self-righteous ranting or unholy compromise.
Never having actually seen an entire “church lady” skit, I checked out a few on Youtube. As expected, Carvey’s character was anything but Christlike. After exposing and berating the moral failures of celebrity guests, she declared them eternally damned and then did her “superior dance.”
It was all quite insulting to Christians, but I think I understand why “church lady” became one of the show’s most popular characters.
For starters, unbelievers often love to throw darts at Christians. Always have, always will. Jesus said that if the world hated Him, it would also hate those who follow Him (John 15:18-19).
But “church lady” probably also resonated with so many viewers because, sadly, there was a grain of truth in the caricature.
Maybe too many Christians have decided that condemning sinners is a whole lot easier than rescuing them.
Maybe we can’t handle ungodly people acting ungodly because we resent constantly feeling like geeky middle-schoolers banished from the cool kids’ lunch table.
Maybe sin angers us because we sometimes secretly wonder if all this resisting temptation will be worth it in the end.
Sin should be offensive to Christians because it offends the God we say we love. The righteous Judge will, indeed, one day judge. But until then, my angry ranting won’t help. My anger will not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20).
I’m in Rome. I don’t have to do as the Romans do, but I am called to love them. God certainly does.