Mind Your Language - a Response.

The important contribution to my blog by Rev. Dr Alan C. Clifford is both urgent and timely. Within the churches today there is a clearly 'protected species' - the elders.  Whilst there is biblical warrant for such protection, this teaching has been frequently abused.  

For instance, I have heard some of the filthiest langauge that can proceed out of a man's mouth being spoken by a Presbyterian elder.  I have heard our precious Lord Jesus Christ being blasphemed by a Presbyterian elder, and some of the dirtiest stories belign related by a Presbyterian elder.  But these men kn ow they are protected by the church authorities.  One reason for this is that senior management within that church prefers non-Christian elders to Christian ones, because that makes their lives easier.  It allows all sorts of unfaithfulness to the Gospel to be supported by the elders, who always outnumber ministers in the various church courts.  Ministers will be persecuted where necessary by the church in a bid to keep the elders on board.

Further, church members who are clearly not Christians - they have made their profession of faith, and that means they are real Christians - are also protected by the church for precisely the same reasons.  They are needed to support the church's institutional infrastructure and keep the funds coming in.  Senior churchmen will bring as many into membershaip as they can irrespective of their spiritual condition because this increases the number of contributors to church funds and eases the drain on central funds.  These people can be the filthiest men in the country but because they keepm the show on thew road, they are protected.

Blaspheming, cursing, swearing elders and church members are common in Northern Ireland, sadly.  Their language is not the more sophisticated kind that Dr Clifford refers to, but the coarsest most vulgar language it is possible for a human being to use.

My challenge to ministers and to all who are concerned about this situation is to ask each elder face to face to confirm that he never uses bad language or blasphemes the holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Record their answers and ask them to sign the truthfulness of what they say.  Then go and speak to people who know then well outside of church and in the work or social context and get their views.  Both they and the elders might have to be pressed for a response.  Record what they say.  Then compare the responses.


Next, take the elders in turn and discuss with them what your findings are.  Give them the opportunity to reply to whatever allegations are made.  Given that these are officers of the church, their verbal behaviour ought to be treated in exactly the same way as stealing or adultery - instant dismissal without appeal.  

The same procedure should be taken concerning the matter of womanising elders.  Oops!  This might mean that many churches will be left without any elders; but that might not be a bad thing really.


If this will not be done, then those ministers might feign concern for and support of the church, but that is all it is - mere lip-service.  Because they care nothing for the spiritual health of the church they display their hypocrisy when they refuse to take brotherly criticism of their church from others.