The Untouchables

Many years ago if you were a part of the clergy you were deemed untouchable. You were to be kept separate. If there was a war, you were left unharmed due to the fear of the wrath of God. If you wore certain garments, you may have been treated as though you were royalty when it came to the community since you were a speaker for the Lord Most High. This caused many clergymen to get lazy. This caused many clergymen to abuse their power, and we all know of those stories. It caused many clergymen to believe that they were above the law, but forgot that God told them to obey the law. We came to a place of Christian stagnation, all due to the fact that the Clergy and Laity were separated.

In today’s church, we may not see this as often, but for some reason the underlying principle of “They are close to God, we can’t be human around them” as stuck. We see too often that Clergy are not accepted as friends, or offered to come and join in the festivities all because of their status. The laity of the church has now placed the clergy in a box and refuse to open it. We have a new generation of the untouchables.

On the one hand, having others behave differently around clergy is wonderful. This change in character shows people that they can honestly behave themselves and step away from their sinful nature. It takes away the temptation of clergy to fall into, or in some cases back into a state of sin that once plagued their lives. It can keep a stumbling block from developing in anyone’s life, but keeping the clergy at an arm’s distance is causing damage.

The damage I am seeing falls into 2 categories: Illiteracy and Lack of Community.

The illiterate Christian is one who does not understand their bible. If we do not understand something in the modern age we have the benefit of being able to look it up online, but when that does not help who do we turn to? The clergy are men and women (depending on denomination) that have devoted their lives to learning. They spend hours, days, weeks, months, years, and so on just learning about who God is and what the Scriptures say. They have devoted so much to this area of study so that they can be ready to answer questions, but if they are untouchable ten this knowledge goes unused. We now find ourselves in a state of illiteracy. Too many Christians do not know the basics of their faith. I fell into this category a long time ago all because the clergy I served under was naturally kept at this distance with the entire congregation. I had to go and learn on my own, and thankfully this is where my life was to be devoted to study anyways. We need to turn back and begin to talk with those who have  been placed in our lives to teach us, and realize that all they are are people with a title. All pastors are people, but not all people are pastors.

The lack of community that comes from this aspect of untouchables is caused by this separating of clergy. We always know that pastors like to go to lunch with certain people. As a pastor, I can tell you that this isn’t because I play favorites. I go to lunch with certain people simply due to the fact that they invited me. Many of the people who eat with clergy after church tend to be other members of clergy, Sunday School teachers, Deacons, and other members of the church who are actively around the pastor and have come to the realization that they are people just like them. When a church can realize that the pastor may be designed to be the leader of the flock, but is still a member of the flock we will see a greater unity in the church. We all know that today’s churches need better unity and community if they are going to grow.