Evangelical Writers Challenged to Avoid Alienating the Unchurched (BARF)

Evangelical writers nearly always alienate non-evangelicals in their works, noted long-time Christian writer and editor Tim McLaughlin.

PORTLAND, Ore. – “I have a bone to pick with you,” a Christian writer told a group of fellow evangelical writers Thursday.

Evangelical writers nearly always alienate non-evangelicals in their works, noted long-time Christian writer and editor Tim McLaughlin.

While most writers write to impact non-believers, as well as believers, the phrases they use and how they ignore some faith passages are real obstacles to reaching the unchurched, the Oregon native added.

During a workshop, entitled “How the Non-Evangelical World Views You and What You Can Do About It,” McLaughlin said he refers to a list of common pitfalls of evangelical writers in offending the unchurched when he writes or edits stories.

“I will not make a dent in any unchurched person’s mind unless I attend to this,” McLaughlin said, speaking at the annual convention of the Evangelical Press Association.

Unconscious evangelical “passwords,” such as how many years an evangelical has been married and how many kids that person has, in a biography is nice from an evangelical perspective, but may be irrelevant or a stumbling block to non-evangelicals, he said.

McLaughlin contends that evangelicals include personal information in a biography to establish credibility based on religious standards rather than professional. After careful consideration, he decided to delete the line on family life in a biography and leave just the subject’s professional qualification in his efforts to edit out the “passwords” used in evangelical writing.

The speaker also called into question the campaign for traditional marriage.

Evangelicals have long championed the idea of one man-one woman for life as the biblical standard for marriage, said the evangelical writer. But for non-evangelicals, this may be an unrealistic or inconsistent view because the one-man-one woman for life concept in the Bible is only relevant based on where one looks in the Scripture.

“I think that we are also unrealistic, evangelicals, in how we view let’s say marriage,” McLaughlin said. “I wonder if we are reluctant to see our current ideas of a Christian marriage in the United States as a thing much more dictated by culture than the Bible.

“Adam and Eve had no civil ceremony, Abraham slept with other women including Hagar, Isaac’s wife was selected by his father’s servant and was his cousin, David ‘collected wives like military victories, and his most memorable son came from an affair with a married woman,’ and Prophet Hosea married a whore,” McLaughlin noted, speaking from a non-evangelical point of view.

“So what do we have as a biblical model for marriage?” he asked while chuckling.

“Let’s not call marriage ‘biblical,’ as we like to, but healthy,” posed McLaughlin.

The evangelical writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience called on evangelical writers in the room to be more thoughtful and conscious of what viewpoint they write from.

“I speak through writing,” McLaughlin said, who also edits for a non-Christian publication to be able to see through the eyes of non-believers. “So when I’m writing and editing, I’m not picturing a person who is lost, in all respect, but a person who is finding themselves and being chased by God.”

Seems our Evangelical Friend has forgotten the bible:

From Luke 12

51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

I’ve noticed two things about evangelicals Bible reading (skills), they seem to be missing two things, comprehension and retention.

I've noticed several things about those who critique Evangelicals--Evangelicals, who BTW, often make themselves vulnerable targets because they resemble the critiquers of Evangelicals in that they are not comprehensive enough in their reading of Scripture.

Read Matthew chapter 1, the genealogy of the Messiah. You’ll find great love stories and soul mates, you won’t find monogamy.

I did. (And are you that given over to massive exaggeration?) As you examine the 40 generations or so mentioned there, you find smack dab in the middle the polygamist era of Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijah...beyond that you get Manasseh and Jacob on either side...and certainly we know David had more than one wife but Scripture is unclear in what order (for example, by 1 Sam. 14:50 he's down to "one" wife) and another verse in that book clearly mentions the death of his wife Michal...so Bathsheba may have been post-Michal and pre-Ahinoam...and, no, concubines weren't "wives" which is why the Bible distinguishes the two (Solomon's 700 wives & 300 concubines in 1 Kings 11:3).

Contrary to some circles' opinion (namely, Mormon), Isaac had one wife (Rebekah), and indeed it's a great Biblical monogamous Biblical love story.

After Abram slept with "the help," it never mentions her again in any other capacity than a servant/slave. (That's reinforced by Sarai, the Angel of the Lord, Abram, & Hagar herself all in Gen. 16; by Moses in Gen. 21; and by Paul in Gal. 4:21-31). Hagar was merely a surrogate.

You make it sound like Matthew 1 was only "cohabitationville" and "polygamyville." And by you starting off by referencing the entire Bible ("Bible reading"), your inferences go beyond a poor and incomplete description of Matthew 1's characters.

See the woman at the well, she was ‘dating’ a married man.

Well, Mary Magdalene was a former prostitute and Gomer in the book of Hosea was a prostitute who God told Hosea to marry even as she continue to ply her trade post-nuptials. (So what?) Are Evangelicals then meant to write to the lowest common denominator of mass culture as if most are whores? [I tell you, the absurd conclusions some like McLaughlin draw are insidious]

The fact is that monogamy is indeed the standard of both the old and new testaments:

OLD: Deut. 17:17 & Gen. 2:23-25 + implied by Hebrew laws in Ex. 20:17; 21:5; Lev. 18:8,16-20; 20:10; Num. 5:12; Deut. 5:21.

NEW: Monogamy practiced as "THE" standard: 1 Tim. 3:2,12; Titus 1:5-7; 1 Cor. 7:2; Matt. 19.

Whereever folks find the presence of sexual activity among the ancestors of Jesus that failed to promote monogamy shows that God wasn't expecting a pristine cultural/family background for His Son. (If such pristine families were possible minus Christ, then His arrival was unnecessary, for He came to shed His blood for adultery, cohabitation, prostitution, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well and me).

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