The Foreignist

I’ve often been told that as a believer I should always “believe the best”. This sounds very nice and very Christian. It also sounds incredibly naive. Like I’ve said before, one of Europeans’ biggest criticisms of Americans is that we are very naive. We, in turn, think Europeans are too pessimistic. Living in Europe, I am constantly told how stupid I am for believing anything the media or the US government tells me. I try telling them that I am not like other Americans. Nevertheless, we’re all the same to them. So like it or not, I am a naive American.

So I set out to try to find biblical basis for “believing the best” (BTW, starting out with a concept and going to look for it in the scriptures is shabby way of studying the Bible). Lo and behold, just as I start my informal study on this topic, the allegations about Ted Haggard start coming out. During the first 24 hours of the scandal frenzy, evangelical “leaders” like James Dobson come out and unequivocally deny the allegations and say that this a “political stunt” by wicked Democrats. Others made similar statements. My newly adopted tinge of Euro-cynicism cringed at the naivetẻ of these Christian leaders. This religious/media/political scandal was becoming a case study for Christan naivetẻ.
As more news came out, it became obvious that Haggard was not credible. Worse yet, because men like Dobson blindly “believed the best”, they have now lost credibility as well - at least with me. I know he was just defending a personal friend, but did Dobson ask Haggard point-blank questions about this? Did he even ask him if the allegations were true before jumping to his defense? Continue Reading »