A former Australian Archbishop and retired theological college Principal has issued a stark warning to evangelicals about their use of words.
Peter Jensen, who was Archbishop of Sydney and Principal of Moore Theological College, says the teaching of Scripture on this subject needs to be heard afresh.
Writing in the new edition of the Global Anglican periodical, Jensen says: ‘I have seen churches, and marriages too, deeply troubled by the spirit of falsehood, breaking apart as people criticise, gossip and malign without evidence.’
He writes: ‘The whole matter was triggered for me by the casual reading of a Christian blogpost. It is on a serious site, where the person many be said to have some authority. It spoke of some people by name, and was very critical of them. It said things about them that I knew were untrue.
‘It spoke out of ignorance, calling one of them to account for not acting in a particular situation, where I knew that he had in fact done all he could.
‘It accused people of a “cover up” when in truth they knew nothing of the events referred to. And – something that really provoked me – it described a gathering of Christian leaders and spoke with assurance about the things they must have discussed amongst each other, drawing conclusions which defamed them. The writer was not present and could not know. It did not deter him.’
Jensen continues: ‘To use the rough language of James, “My brothers, this ought not be so among you!” Alas, so often it is. I would suggest that we all, wherever we are in this world, need to hear the word of God afresh at this point. There is time for a reconsideration of our language, for a cleansing where necessary, for a repentance… We need to ask ourselves what our speech patterns reveal about us and our spiritual weaknesses.’
He adds: ‘As someone who is in touch with global Anglicanism, I am profoundly troubled…’. Jensen said the devil was sowing ‘discord and even hatred’ among believers.
‘Bad doctrine, which is a travesty of the gospel, is doing much harm. But just as harmful is the careless or self-serving language by which other believers are traduced either secretly or publicly.’
