There are a number of ways to distinguish contemporary American culture. One can do so economically or in terms of its entertainment focus. It is certainly possible to discuss our culture from a political perspective, or even from the point of view of current trends in American philosophy. But in recent years a new feature has caught my attention. It does not have to do with politics, philosophy, or economics. It has to do with the way we respond to one another.

Everyone is aware of our communication dysfunctionality. Facebook has either been a mirror, reflecting back to us a problem we already had—or else it has been a catalyst that has exacerbated the worst of our relational weaknesses. Maybe a little of both? I will leave that to greater minds to decide. At any rate, part of American culture today is to go after one another with ferocity.

I am not sure if this is related or not…but we have also become dismissive. What I mean by that is that there is a tendency to look at someone until we find a flaw in them (how long can that take?)…and then we write them off. We purge them from our conversations, movies, interviews, and history. After all, they were defective. They failed.

What I call the “gotcha culture” in America makes our dismissiveness work. This singer had an affair. This actor said something offensive. This politician used to take drugs. This church member got drunk. And so on and so on. Most “episodes” of the nightly news help us find ways that people all around us have failed us, which allows us to write them out of our focus and dismiss them empirically. When we find out how they have failed us…gotcha! The purge can begin!

Of course the gotcha culture needs a matrix. And it always has one. The matters we care about change, sometimes quickly. It used to be that Christians were hammered mercilessly for daring to posit any kind of “absolute truth.” Now the absolute truth of whatever American culture deems to be the sujet du jour serves to banish any violator and subject them to continual repudiation.

How does this match the kind of community the church is supposed to be? After all, the church is not supposed to be a copy of the culture at large. It is my prayer that we are not. Will we find people who fail and fall in the church? Of course we will. Will our leaders fail? Of course. Even recently we have been saddened by news of an Evangelical leader living inconsistently with what he claimed. What should our response to this be? I suggest that our response should be sadness. It is a sad thing when sin damages. Naturally our response should also be about restoration, not castigation (Gal. 6:1). The gotcha culture seems to almost delight in finding damning tidbits about people by which we can toss them into the hopper of the abandoned. There is something not only unloving, but self-righteous in all of this. If I vilify those who fail enough, I can imply that I am above it all. I can live approved among those who have not been dismissed and silenced. This clearly is an unbiblical disposition. I stand before God as weak as the next man, fallen and in need of grace. The guys huddled (or crammed) in our prisons are cut of the same cloth as I am and also in need of grace. Jew, Gentile, prisoner, free, “…there is no difference, for all have sinned.”

This does not mean that sin does not carry consequences. It means that we all face those consequences. And apart from the mercy and grace of God there is no relief. The world is right to be disgusted by acts and expressions of sin. But it is wrong to act as though they are guiltless and somehow…different.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 7:24-25)