Issues With The Banner Part 1 - "Tough Love"

That time the Banner editor Shaio Chong basically called out Jesus Christ for being unChristian

As I explained previously, as a way of illustrating some of the issues I see that are systemically wrong with the Banner, I went through the March 2023 issue and pulled out nine separate articles that were at best of dubious value and at worst promoted theologically questionable beliefs, and I then presented them to the elders of my church along with essentially two questions: (a) why is this publication on our literature rack and (b) why are we funding a publication of this dubious quality with our ministry share dollars? A bad article here or there may be expected from even the best of publications, but nine articles in one issue seems like a major concern.

With that, I present the first of those nine articles.

"Tough Love" by Shiao Chong chief editor of the Banner

The entire article sounds like it was written by an 8th grader in response to an uninteresting writing prompt for a school assignment, and that 8th grader is incredibly bored, has nothing to say, and is just trying to reach a word limit set by their teacher. I am left baffled as to what exactly this article does to improve or increase the readers' faith.

But beyond that, within this generally trite and vapid column, Mr. Chong throws out this statement:

"Without the context of an established caring and trusting relationship, tough love can easily backfire. How many people actually change their minds about abortion because they were called “baby killers”? How many people permanently change their racist behaviors because they were shamed? Perhaps Jesus’ harsh words to the Pharisees did not change their minds, but might even have hardened their hearts to kill him. Was that Jesus’ plan all along to ensure a path to the cross?"

That's a pretty bold and wildly speculative statement which I suspect Mr. Chong has no actual biblical evidence to support.

Jesus's conflict with the religious leaders of his day is a recurring theme throughout the gospels. The editor of the Banner is calling into question the validity of the way Jesus interacted with those religious leaders and is basically calling Christ out as unChristian and suggesting that His actions were only okay because He was intentionally trying to provoke Jewish religious leaders into kill Him. In what way is that belief orthodox or supported by scripture?

That statement in and if itself is bad enough, but what is additionally galling is the fact that Mr. Chong didn't even make it the focus of the article so that he could flesh that belief out and provide some supporting evidence for it. Instead, it was two throwaway sentences in an otherwise empty and boring article, which makes it look unremarkable, as if this wildly speculative belief is so normal that it's unworthy of note even though he was voicing a belief that throws into question not only the validity of Jesus's actions on earth but also that of all the Apostles (who were not necessarily shrinking violets) as well as any other Christian throughout history who has ever spoken out harshly against religious beliefs and leaders of their day.

It should also be noted that abortion does kill babies and any changes in state laws to restrict abortion came about specifically because the people of those states have recognized that abortion kills babies and the practice needed to be stopped on the grounds that killing babies is immoral. So, his argument that minds aren't changed by highlighting the fact that abortion kills babies is not even justified. Rather, hammering home that truth over and over and over again is the only thing that has any possibility of changing minds. It is the reason abortion needs to be stopped, and it’s absurd that he would be arguing that Christians should not make that argument.

I think a little more truth from Mr. Chong is in order. But lack of truth turns out to be a recurring theme in the Banner.