By Ife J. Ibitayo
Punk rock was my childhood. I was deeply familiar with the greats in that space: Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Mayday Parade and every other headache-inducing rockstar you could name. I also loved the lesser known Christian artists like Emery, Anberlin, and Hawk Nelson. But as the gnarly riffs of the early 2000s gave way to the pop electronic sounds of the 2010s, the faith of many of these Christian rockers gave way as well. I first noticed this trend with Underoath—arguably the most famous Christian screamo band of all time. In 2018, they released a brand new album called Erase Me with a different sound and a different spirit. So I unearthed an interview from their frontman Spencer Chamberlain:
“The Christian community is what ruins Christianity for me…They were putting out magazines about me being a drug addict and stuff. The whole Christian world was like ‘that’s the reason that Underoath is breaking up’…The places I was most accepted and where people would listen to me and talk to me and share stories about how they’re f—d up were the people who weren’t Christians…And they were like ‘let’s talk about it’, but in Christian bands they were like ‘let’s not’- and doesn’t that seem opposite? Doesn’t that seem very unloving and very unaccepting?”
The Museum or the Hospital
There’s good reason many who are suffering avoid the church at all costs. Sometimes we focus a little too much on the high bar of holiness without acknowledging how far we all have fallen from it (Romans 3:23). Even worse, we expect “sinners” to fix themselves before we welcome then into our congregations and homes.
Noticing this problem even in the formative years of the western church, St. Augustine argued, “The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.” We can mistakenly believe that what others need is to “get to church” or to “read their Bible.” Now these things are good and essential components of healing, but if Jesus Christ is the Great Physician (Matthew 9:12) and we are His body (1 Corinthians 12:27), doesn’t that mean we are supposed to be little physicians too?
Galatians 6:1-2 says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ doesn’t just apply when others are at their best but all the more when they’re at their worst.
Conclusion
Some of my lowest moments have been pushed even lower by misguided Christians seeking to squeeze righteousness out of my crushed vessel. But I’ve also overcome many great sins in my life because of the love and longsuffering of my spiritual family. The tempted, the addicted, the stumbling, and the fallen need us to stumble alongside them. If even we refuse to carry their burdens, who else will?
“Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.'”
(Luke 5:31)