Tonight I decided to check out Boundless, Focus on the Family's website for twenty-something singles.
One podcast topic in particular caught my eye: is it okay to have an opposite gender roommate if it's a platonic thing to pay the bills?
First off, I would like to say that I definitely see the wisdom in a Christian staying away from this type of situation if possible. Secondly, I do not have plans to do something like this myself.
However...I was very offended by Focus' approach to this question. First, the person they were interviewing immediately assumed the right answer: before even touching the question, she answered it and jumped into the aftermath: how should someone confront a friend who is living in sin in such a way? Afterwards, she did give biblical justification to her stance: 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which is the "avoid every appearance of evil" verse. Problem is...if you do a little research on google (aka type in "avoid every appearance of evil") you will quickly find that this is only in the KJV and that there is question about the validity of that translation. Most versions say something along the lines of "avoid every kind of evil." There's a difference there. One is used as justification for outlawing everything that some other more conservative Christian might find offensive. The other says to avoid evil. Plain and simple. If it's evil, avoid it.
Of course, there is Romans 14, which is the "don't eat meat if it's going to cause your brother or sister to stumble" passage. This is a much better passage to back up Focus' claim. Unfortunately, this passage was not mentioned in their podcast.
I honestly believe Focus means well, and I believe they are right on many (definitely not all) things. But they annoy the crap out of me. I can't even listen to or read any of their stuff anymore without getting really annoyed.
When I went to college, I was taught a new way of looking at the world, a new way of approaching life. I began to question what I believed. By the grace of God, I emerged on the other side still a believer. However, not every college student has the same story as me. Many fall away from the church. Young people are falling away from the church at unprecedented rates...and I believe that the way that Focus approaches issues is not helping matters (I definitely wouldn't go so far as to blame them).
I don't want rhetoric. I don't want someone to quote one verse out of context, in one translation, and use it as the basis of their argument, especially when that translation happens to be questionable. Even though I think that Focus had a good point that living with an opposite gender roommate could be unwise, they failed to responsibly back up their claim. Not only that, but they immediately jumped on the "it's a sin and how should we confront the sinner?" wagon. Never mind that the girl "living in sin" may not have been sinning at all, because that was never even an option. Maybe they're right, and maybe it is sin. If so, offer a valid logical and Scriptural argument for that. Start at the beginning, so that listening Christians can be given a responsible and not-only-rhetorical basis for their system of morals.
I shudder that Focus on the Family is such a huge representative of American evangelical Christianity. Not because I think that they're not faithful to the Bible, but because I wonder if they will be able to make any real ideological difference in this generation as long as they continue to present every complex moral issue as an open and shut here's-an-out-of-context-verse-to-back-up-my-view case.
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