The Bible never states that you have to be a “prophet or a son of a prophet” to exhort your brothers and sisters in Christ about an overlooked area of biblical concern in your church or the church at large. It teaches the opposite! In fact, lovingly addressing areas of weakness or apathy within our churches is a noble Christian duty, for the fruit that it bears results in the building up of the whole body of Christ.

On Oct. 4, the Gospel Coalition website ran an article entitled, “Stop Slandering Christ’s Bride.” Written by Joe Carter, the article took to task those Christians who claim that “no one” is talking about a particular issue of concern in the church and then urge the church to stand up on that issue.

Here is the gist of Carter’s reasoning: Because it is impossible for any Christian to be omniscient and omnipresent, no Christian can claim “no one” is talking about an issue in the church. Furthermore, he tells such Christians, “you’re not a prophet or a son of a prophet.” Therefore, it is “slandering Christ’s Bride” to imply that “no one” is talking about an issue, and anyone who does so should “stop claiming to know what (only God) knows.”

First of all, Carter’s entire argument is a logical fallacy; in particular, a straw man fallacy. The Logical Fallacies website defines a straw man argument as “one that misrepresents a position in order to make it appear weaker than it actually is, refutes this misrepresentation of the position, and then concludes that the real position has been refuted.”

This is exactly what Carter has done. He starts by misrepresenting the claim and then attempts to refute a claim that he’s failed to prove actually exists. He says:

1) Some Christians claim that “no one” is talking about an issue.
2) No one can know that “no one” is talking about an issue.
3) Therefore, Christians who claim “no one” is talking about an issue are wrong and “slandering the Bride of Christ.”

The premise is false, and so the conclusion is false. Surely Carter understands English semantics and metaphorical language. When a Christian claims “no one” is talking about an issue, that’s a slightly hyperbolic way of saying “not enough” people are talking about an issue. To insinuate otherwise is to falsely accuse a Christian who speaks that way of making a self-refuting statement; after all, if one Christian says “no one” is talking about an issue, he already knows he is one person who is talking about it.

Carter further claims that “the surest sign that thousands of Christians in church congregations across the country are talking about an issue is that someone will claim that believers in America are not talking about it.” Let’s take that sentence at face value and see if it holds up. Is Carter literally meaning to say that if someone claims believers are not talking about it, that’s the surest sign that they are? So if I say, “No one in the church today is talking about the problem of empty toilet paper rolls in megachurch bathrooms,” I’ve proved that, right now, thousands of Christians are talking about empty toilet paper rolls? That my complaint was actually evidence that there’s a nationwide church discussion on “empty toilet paper rolls?”

What’s more troubling, however, is how nonspecific Carter is in making his accusations. What’s the purpose of the article? Who, exactly, is out there “slandering Christ’s Bride” by saying that “no one” in the church is talking about a particular issue? “Slandering Christ’s Bride” is a very serious charge, one that shouldn’t be leveled carelessly. So if Carter believes that a Christian out there is actually slandering other Christians — that is, intentionally making damaging remarks against their character for the purpose of defaming them — doesn’t he have the biblical and journalistic responsibility to name names and cite issues?

But let’s take an example of an issue that a few Christians actually have claimed isn’t being discussed enough in the church today: the problem of rampant sexual abuse in evangelical churches. Who has made this claim, and what has he said?

I can think of one Christian who has made this claim: Boz Tchividjian. He is a Liberty University law professor and executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (G.R.A.C.E.), and he has been a stalwart voice on the silence of evangelical pastors and leaders on the subject of sexual abuse in evangelicalism.

As the group’s website states: “One in four women and one in six men have been sexually abused as children. Yet sadly the Christian community has largely ignored the sin of child sexual abuse and its prevalence within the Church. Even more disheartening: The evangelical church has often unwittingly contributed to the suffering of victims because of its failure to protect children and adequately respond to disclosures of sexual abuse. Additionally, the Christian community often overlooks the many needs of those within their congregations who are adult survivors of child sexual abuse.”

Tchividjian’s concerns, of course, have taken on a much broader context in the wake of controversy surrounding the Sovereign Grace Ministries sexual-abuse lawsuit, filed last fall. In that twice-amended complaint, 11 plaintiffs alleged some of the most horrific and sickening sexual abuse against children that you’ve ever read, as well as cover-up and conspiracy charges against church authorities. Though the initial complaint was dismissed, due to the fact that the statue of limitations for several plaintiffs expired, the attorneys in the case filed a motion for reconsideration. Tchividjian publicly aired his concerns about the silence of evangelical leaders over the lawsuit. G.R.A.C.E. also posted an online petition, calling out evangelical leaders for their silence on the widespread problem of sexual abuse in evangelical churches and urging Christians to stand with the victims — as we should.

The Gospel Coalition, it must be noted, was one of the two main groups at the center of the firestorm of criticism leveled about leaders’ silence on the SGM lawsuit. The group finally released a statement about the suit on May 24, which itself drew a barrage of further objections — perhaps most notably from Tchividjian, whose pointed and detailed criticism of the statement was hard-hitting and accurate.

Interestingly, The Gospel Coalition later added a caveat to the bottom of its statement: “This statement reflects the views of the signatories and does not necessarily speak for other Council members, bloggers, and writers for The Gospel Coalition.” So which council members, bloggers and writers wanted to distance themselves from TGC’s statement about the SGM lawsuit? Your guess is as good as mine.

So why is this all of this background potentially — although not definitively — relevant to Carter’s charges? Because several days ago, Tchividjian laid down the gauntlet again against evangelical leaders who are silent about the problem of sexual abuse in our churches. Speaking at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, he compared evangelicals to Roman Catholics on abuse response, and said: ”I think we are worse.” He went on to say that too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.

So I’d like to ask Carter: Does he think Tchividjian is “slandering Christ’s Bride” to say that evangelicals are actually worse than Catholics when it comes to staying silent about sexual abuse in our churches?

First of all, Tchividjian is right that we have a crisis in evangelicalism. If you don’t agree, just type “pastor” + “church” + “sexual abuse” into a search engine and read the shocking news stories that come up every single day of the arrests of sexually abusive evangelical pastors and church workers in this country. Sure, some Christians are talking about it. Some bloggers have been outstanding in their ongoing coverage of it. And to its enormous credit, the Southern Baptist Convention even passed a resolution regarding sex abuse this past summer, and it included a section encouraging “all denominational leaders and employees of the Southern Baptist Convention to utilize the highest sense of discernment in affiliating with groups and/or individuals that possess questionable policies and practices in protecting our children from criminal abuse.”

Yet can anybody make a credible case that rampant sexual abuse in evangelicalism is a huge issue of nationwide discussion at the local-church level? And how many really well-known evangelical pastors and ministry leaders — the ones whose names millions of Christians know and respect — have positioned this issue front and center in their churches and ministries? Please, prove me wrong, but I can’t name one. For all our successes in waking people up on the issue, it’s still pretty silent out there.

In fact, Tchividjian’s willingness to point this out is about as far from “slandering Christ’s Bride” as you can get. On the contrary, his speaking up for the invisible victims of sexual abuse in our churches is one of the greatest manifestations of love for Christ’s Bride that I’ve seen in a long time. Far from a slanderer, Tchividjian is a Christian hero for sounding the alarm. But, as Scripture tells us, “There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.” (Amos 5:10)

Unfortunately, Carter seems to think that if only a few Christians speak up on an important concern for the church, that neutralizes any significant culpability on the issue for the church at large. As Carter puts it, “While there may be a need for more Christians to become informed and motivated to address the situation, the mere fact that someone is driven to make claims about our apathy shows that there is already a nucleus of concern within American churches.” But isn’t the fact that there is only a “nucleus of concern” on a substantive issue the very reason the nucleus needs to speak up?

Apply this reasoning to the Protestant Reformation itself. When Martin Luther took on the power of Rome, first by objecting to the indulgence system and then by proclaiming the true gospel of Jesus Christ at his own great personal peril, would Carter have told Luther: “While there may be a need for more Roman Catholics to become informed and motivated to address the situation of a false gospel, the mere fact that you’re driven to make claims about the church’s false gospel shows that there is already a nucleus of concern within the Roman church?” Would Carter have accused Luther of “slandering Christ’s Bride” for noting that “no one” was preaching the gospel in the Roman Catholic Church? I would hope not!

Again, it is unclear whom Carter is particularly addressing in his admonition to “Stop Slandering Christ’s Bride.” I am not saying his intended target is Boz Tchividjian or anyone else who has decried the silence on evangelical sexual abuse, since his article is virtually detail-free. But regardless of the issue, Carter’s article is an unwarranted scolding that could discourage discerning, faithful Christians from speaking biblical truth on any widespread issue of neglect — sexual abuse or otherwise — simply because they lack Carter’s stated requirement of “omniscience” and the title of “a prophet or a son of a prophet.”

The Bible never states that you have to be a “prophet or a son of a prophet” to exhort your brothers and sisters in Christ about an overlooked area of biblical concern in your church or the church at large. It teaches the opposite! In fact, lovingly addressing areas of weakness or apathy within our churches is a noble Christian duty, for the fruit that it bears results in the building up of the whole body of Christ. Ephesians 4:25 tells us: “… Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Furthermore, Paul admonishes the believers in I Thessalonians 5:12,13: “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.”

Yes, we should praise and thank the Lord for any Christian who holds us all to a biblical standard of doctrine and conduct. There are far too few of them out there. And just remember this: Martin Luther wasn’t an Old Testament prophet. He didn’t need that title. He had the Word of God.

So does Boz Tchividjian.

And so do we.

“Righteous lips are the delight of kings, And he who speaks right is loved.” (Proverbs 16:13)

This article appeared on Janet Mefferd’s blog and used with permission.