Hayley Williams Just Called Out Christianity

Haley Williams of the band Pyramore is

making waves with her new single True

Believer. The lyrics are a scathing

criticism of Christianity and the cover

art the lyrics are a scathing criticism

of Christianity and the cover art

features an upside down cross. How

should Christians feel about this song?

It might be different than you expect.

Welcome to Provoke and Inspire, where I

look at culture and current events by

asking the question, what would Jesus

think and what would Jesus do?

Now, for those who have followed Haley

Williams, her departure from her

Christian roots is nothing new. Over the

years, she has become increasingly vocal

in her progressive political beliefs and

in her critiques of Christianity in

general. She is known for using social

media to attack evangelicalism and

conservative politics. But this song

seems to take things to another level.

Check out the words of the second verse.

They put up chainlink fences underneath

the biggest bridges. They pose in

Christmas cards with guns as big as all

their children. They say that Jesus is

the way, but they gave him a white face

so they don't have to pray to someone

they deem lesser than them. Now,

predictably, the progressive world has

celebrated the song as a bold critique

of corruption and hypocrisy. While on

the other hand, Christians have

dismissed it as just another attack from

a crazy liberal who hasn't been a

Christian for years. Anyway, the views

on the extremes are not surprising, but

is there more nuance to this than might

first meet the eye? You see, I believe

as followers of Jesus, we become far too

proud and sensitive. We complain when

the culture tries to silence us, yet we

feed the very system we claim to resist

when we boycott or call for silence

against those we disagree with. What if

Christians would be known as the most

humble, the most teachable, and the most

gracefilled listeners in the world

today? This is who we should be. And

here's why. The foundation of our faith

is not perfect knowledge or flawless

morality, but a daily recognition of our

need for God's grace. Jesus makes this

clear in the parable of the unforgiving

debtor in Matthew 18. A servant is

forgiven an impossible debt by his

master, but he refuses to extend the

same mercy to someone who owes him a

small sum. The master finds out and is

furious at his hypocrisy and he punishes

him. Jesus is illustrating the profound

hypocrisy of those who are given

everything but refuse to extend that to

others. This is the posture Jesus calls

us to adopt. We are to live in humility,

fully aware of the mercy we receive

every day. That reality should

profoundly affect how we respond to

those who criticize us. The truth is

much in our political and church culture

does need to be challenged. There is

real moral hypocrisy and at times we

have compromised by aligning ourselves

with political power at the expense of

our loyalty to Jesus that has hurt our

witness and in some ways Haley is right

to point it out. So rather than being

shocked and offended, let's take the

opportunity to examine ourselves and

repent where needed. Followers of Jesus

should be the most comfortable with

repentance because repentance is at the

heart of our faith. And if we are famous

for anything, it should be that. Thanks

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for everything else. That's it. Peace.