The original post down below was a well-deserved shot at the worldliness of theological Liberals and why they preach a false gospel.  But I have to be candid and concede that the root cause the rampant theological liberalism in the Western church is the fault of authentic believers who put their own popularity above church discipline and sound doctrine.  They let these false teachers stay in the church, and the fakes have grown so much that they think they are the real thing.

I always laugh at the scene from The Office where the boss, Michael Scott, reveals his utter narcissism and desperate need for approval:

Do I need to be liked?  Absolutely not.  I like to be liked.  I enjoy being liked.  I have to be liked.  But it’s not this compulsive need to be liked, like my need to be praised.

Sadly, authentic believers may fall into that trap.  As I have pointed out in a leadership / management training session at various conferences, if I really care about my employees I’ll risk my comfort and popularity and tell them the truth about where they have weaknesses.  I can rationalize that I’m being nice to them by not telling them seemingly bad news, but then I’m really just being nice to myself.

In the same way, church leaders who rationalize being nice to the false teachers in the church are really just being nice to themselves.  Life is much easier when you avoid confrontation and let false teachings slide.

We should have shown these people the door decades ago.  I’m not talking about restricting their religious freedoms.  They can go anywhere they like to organize and preach their false gospels.  They just shouldn’t be allowed to infiltrate real churches to spread their poison.  If these teachers lied at their ordination vows or changed their minds later, it is perfectly logical to ask them to leave.  HP wouldn’t take too kindly to its salespeople pushing Dell products.

Authentic believers need to care more about the sheep than the wolves.  If you want to pray for the wolves to convert, that’s great.  Just get them out of the sheep pen first.  Don’t let them devour the sheep while congratulating yourself on how loving and tolerant you are.  Said another way, don’t apologize for stepping on wolf toes.  

Original commentary about the Michael Scott quote

That captures the personalities of President Obama in particular and the theological Left in general.  “How dare orthodox Christians claim that Jesus is the only way!  The Bible only makes that point explicitly and implicitly one hundred times or so.  They are such religious bigots!  We know that God speaks through all these religions.  Ahhhhhh . . . we showed them.  Now the world will like us and our made-up version of ‘Christianity.'”

Yes, the world likes you all.  Congratulations.

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.