Is It Time to Stop Reading the Psalms of David?

The Dilemma of Embracing a Polygamist, Rapist, and Murderer

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

What does it say about people of faith today — people who claim to love God and embrace compassion and justice — that they read, meditate upon, and even memorize the writings of a violent, polygamist ruler who committed such moral offenses as adultery, murder, and abuse of power?

This article was inspired by an excellent piece by Dan Foster at Backyard Church, a popular publication here on Medium. Dan presents a battle between mind and heart over the complicated, messy legacy of Hillsong Church — on the one hand, a church with lots of scandalous skeletons in its closet, and on the other hand, one that has produced incredible music.

Is It Time to Stop Listening to Hillsong Music?

His piece (and I encourage you to read it) got me thinking — not just about Christian music from flawed artists but also about Scripture from flawed human beings.

In fact, the entire Bible is a compilation of writings from men who were flawed — some of them majorly so. And yet…

People of faith today regularly read from, quote from, meditate upon, and memorize portions of the Bible.

Isn’t this a problem?

Well, if you follow the progressive embrace of cancel culture out to its logical conclusion, it is a problem. But…

We shouldn’t follow the progressive embrace of cancel culture.

For one, it’s better to learn from history than to try to “cancel” or scrub it.

For another, if you close yourself off to the writings, music, and other contributions from flawed people, you will eventually close off your family, friends, and yourself.

Those who aggressively pursue cancel culture and call-out culture for the sake of social justice are following the proverbial path of the French Revolution. In that bloody episode of history, what began as an uprising against monarchical abuse and corruption turned into a rage-driven…