Dr. Fred Howe was one of my favorite seminary profs. He had a sweet and gentle way about him and imparted a lot of wisdom if you listened closely. He used to say "It takes little size to criticize," I like that. It was his way of saying that we shouldn't waste a lot of time responding to critics. They're usually small people. Not necessarily in physical stature - one of my harshest critics was much taller than I am - but in smallness of soul.

A few months ago my friend and fellow pastor Mark Batterson was characterized as an "apostate evangelist" by one of his critics. You can read Mark's response here. I think it was a gracious response, and I applaud the way Mark took the criticism and grew from it without giving the critic any reason to further criticize. Not that a critic will be stopped by graciousness. It usually infuriates them, actually - but that's food for another blog.

A Baptist pastor in Texas had a good analogy about doctors and lawyers and how it applies to criticism. I thought it was a good insight and you can read it here.

A good friend wrote me the minute he saw the post on Mark's blog. He had recently seen the negative effects of criticism. His thoughts (part of his e-mail):  "....I just encountered criticism, not directed at me but at someone I greatly admire, who had used Oprah Winfrey in Bible study group as an illustration.  In this situation there was nothing approaching an endorsement of Ms. Winfrey or any of her ideas – rather she was merely selected as a prominent national figure that most people would recognize.  I believe the mere mention of Ms. Winfrey’s name was so disagreeable to this person offering the criticism that the context was missed and the principle from the illustration lost on this person....."

Now that some of the furor over this in the blogosphere has died down (and you've had a chance to digest some of the responses), I'm feeling like I should make a comment, and its this: An analogy: there are people at the CDC who handle deadly viruses - really nasty, highly infectious stuff - all the time. They have highly specialized technical training, take systematic, universal precautions, etc. They do it because they need to understand and develop ways to combat these filthy/nasty 'bugs'.

That's similar to what Christian leaders do as they exegete the culture. Cultural exegesis is not an excuse to dive into the world's cesspool. It is a systematic attempt to develop an effective response to the latest strains of sin. 'Amateurs' can't do it without being extremely careful. Good cultural exegetes take precautions - time in the Word and in prayer, accountability, discussion of findings with colleagues......

Mark (from my observation) takes those kind of precautions. I hope Mark keeps up the good work (he's one of the best I know of) of exegeting culture.