Onward, Forward, Toward…

What made me talk about this was Dan’s article “Being the Body: How to Forge Real Community, Part 2 (I trackbacked because my comments would have been too long) where he talked about privacy should be non-existent to the Christian. I read the part he wrote about people who asked not to be listed in the church directory because of privacy issues (it raises a question of is it a sin to have a unlisted phone number if you look at it). My church is going through the updating of the church directory and when I was asked to verify that my information was current, I requested to be left out of the directory due to privacy but telling the fellow church member in charge of the directory that I will give my phone and address for calls and mailings specific to the activities of the church from the staff of the church.

He seemed ‘taken back’ and asked me why. I explained to him that people do sell photocopies of church directories to any Christian ministry that will buy the names for pennies per mailing address. He advised me and showed me the actual church policy of the church would not do such a thing and I had replied that It was not church leaders I feared. It is church people doing this for extra income and/or if pragmatic acts of desperation over some social cause is on the horizon and their favorite parachurch organization needs new addresses to send out fundraisng letters to fight the culture war, new phone numbers for potential elected politicians to call you wanting your vote, the newest Christian business needing addresses of Christians to send out flyers to play the ‘brother-in-Christ won’t rip you off’ game, a leader in a local ministry needing addresses for fundraising letters, a christian ministry (actually a political action committee) needing you to send back a canned letter to your congressman, an ‘ex-member’ of the church who left to join a newly formed church and needed to publicize the new church, etc.

How do I know, I experienced it first hand and could prove it because my last name was accidentally misspelled in the church directory and I got the misspelled mail and the mispronounced phone messages and getting off these new lists are very troublesome because wanting off the new lists was being seen as being ‘the enemy’ to the cause.

I’ll tell you this, some of the most stable, scriptural, friendly, and volunteering Christians I know are the most introverted people I have met. The introvertion was not only a part of the personality, but also of the belief that their actions spoke louder than words. They didn’t need limelight (many despise it) to do something. They found something that was grossly neglected and behind the scenes went out and addressed it.

I wonder if the mentality behind the viewing of introvertedness as being a sin is the same mentality of those who think that they can eliminate sin instead of learning how to biblically overcome temptation? I wonder if they really believe that all shy, reserved, quiet, and introverted people must have some deep and dark sin they must be hiding and it’s their job to “expose’ it and ’save’ them. I really believe if the theory is that the less privacy and more public we make all of the church people, the less likely they will sin.

An introverted man who loves his computer must be looking at internet pornography…. An introverted man who loves his garage and workship must have stashed away some hard liquor he can’t drink in front of the family…. An introverted man who doesn’t talk or cry much must be viewed as a ‘potential suspect of interest’ and must be constantly watched.

For some reason we like the shallowness of the bombastic. We like the arrogance of the pushy. We like the pride of the braggart. We like the attention of the high dollar giver. We fail to realize that maybe God made people introverted for a reason and God loves them just the way they are…..