Tommie's Take; Vanilla, a good flavor but NOT for Church A Wake-Up Call Ep 27

Now let's get something on the table before the internet lawyers start typing.

I'm not against kindness.

Kindness, after all, is a fruit of the Spirit.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

Vanilla, however, that's a flavor of ice cream.

It's not a spiritual gift.

Nobody in Acts got filled with the Holy Spirit and then immediately became harder to offend than a golden retriever with Xanax on board.

But somewhere along the way, a whole lot of American churches decided that the highest virtue was, in fact, not holiness, not even courage or fidelity to the text.

They decided the highest virtue became, do not make anyone uncomfortable.

Now, if you've ever been a cop, and some of you know I used to wear that badge for a living, you learn real quick that comfort and truth are not always roommates.

It is absolutely capable and easy to be done, to be respectful, and still be able to ruin somebody's night with a pair of handcuffs.

You can be calm and still tell a man that his story doesn't add up.

Politeness is a manner, but truth is a duty.

And if you confuse the two, you don't get a nicer society.

In fact, you get a lying one.

And unfortunately, in America, the churches have done the same swap.

I'm going to step on a lot of toes here.

Seems to be I do that frequently.

But somebody needs to.

To be clear again, as I mentioned in my opening, this wasn't necessarily my idea.

I was just spawned by somebody much better than I, who inspired this to kind of become Tommy's take this week.

Churches have looked at the culture that was getting louder, meaner, more sexualized, more confused, about the most basic things God ever said about a man and a woman and a child and a womb...

And they decided that the pastoral move was to turn the volume down.

Soften the edges.

Now let's get something on the table before the internet lawyers start typing.

I'm not against kindness.

Kindness, after all, is a fruit of the Spirit.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

Vanilla, however, that's a flavor of ice cream.

It's not a spiritual gift.

Nobody in Acts got filled with the Holy Spirit and then immediately became harder to offend than a golden retriever with Xanax on board.

But somewhere along the way, a whole lot of American churches decided that the highest virtue was, in fact, not holiness, not even courage or fidelity to the text.

They decided the highest virtue became, do not make anyone uncomfortable.

Now, if you've ever been a cop, and some of you know I used to wear that badge for a living, you learn real quick that comfort and truth are not always roommates.

It is absolutely capable and easy to be done, to be respectful, and still be able to ruin somebody's night with a pair of handcuffs.

You can be calm and still tell a man that his story doesn't add up.

Politeness is a manner, but truth is a duty.

And if you confuse the two, you don't get a nicer society.

In fact, you get a lying one.

And unfortunately, in America, the churches have done the same swap.

I'm going to step on a lot of toes here.

Seems to be I do that frequently.

But somebody needs to.

To be clear again, as I mentioned in my opening, this wasn't necessarily my idea.

I was just spawned by somebody much better than I, who inspired this to kind of become Tommy's take this week.

Churches have looked at the culture that was getting louder, meaner, more sexualized, more confused, about the most basic things God ever said about a man and a woman and a child and a womb...

And they decided that the pastoral move was to turn the volume down.

Soften the edges.