In news that shocked the world, long-time Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church pastor, Tony Evans, abruptly resigned. In a statement, he claimed, "The foundation of our ministry has always been our commitment to the Word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which we are to conform our lives." Evans admitted to a vague "mysterious sin" he committed years ago, and that was that.
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However, his resignation has an interesting wrinkle considering the viewpoints he articulated only two years ago. In a sit-down interview with The Christian Post, Evans was quick to decry modern Christians for being "cultural" rather than "biblical."
"Our identity is to be rooted in the Imago Dei, in the image of God. But we've gotten so ingrained in the thinking of the culture, that we wind up being parakeets to what the society is saying. Rather than taking a solid, loving but clear stance on what God is saying," Evans claimed.
"The dignity of every human being has to be held in the highest standard lest you insult God. And when you understand that, that is how God made us and that is how he wants us to relate. God is not colorblind, He's just not blinded by color. He recognizes and has created the uniqueness of the cultures in which we are born and the ethnicities. But He never wants that to be the deciding factor for decision-making in our lives," Tony Evans explained.
Before Resigning, Tony Evans Claimed Christians Have Become More 'Cultural' Than 'Biblical'
Evans would conclude by pointing out how distracted the world has become with conflict rather than reconciliation.
"The way you know you're being serious about the conflicts in the culture is that you are visibly and verbally involved in reconciling things that have been historically divided. If all we're doing is discussion, discussing our division and not creating the windshield of reconciliation because we're living in the rearview mirror of our past history. We will not be moving where God is moving."
On its face, the message isn't a malevolent one, really. That humanity has become negatively fixated on everything that makes us different than our commonalities. I don't disagree! But maybe that interview hasn't aged so gracefully when a leader isn't exactly forthright about their own failures. Perfection is impossible, but if you're in the preaching business, be transparent with your flock.
