STORY OF THE WEEK: Is it Disrespectful to Call Another Person Lost?
Examining the Harmful Dynamics of “Lost” and “Found” Labels
Amazing grace,
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
but now I’m found
Was blind
but now I see
The sweet refrains of Amazing Grace, the grand old hymn written by John Newton in 1779, have become so well-loved that we rarely stop to think about the lyrics.
John Newton worked in the slave trade, buying and selling human beings at a time in history when such practices were common and accepted. He even captained slave trading ships for several years, delivering hundreds of miserable iron-clad prisoners from their homes to their destined lives of bondage.
It was during one of these perilous voyages that Newton experienced a spiritual awakening. In a ferocious storm, faced with the imminent threat of death, he began to question the morality of his actions and pondered the consequences of his involvement in slave trading. This marked the beginning of his journey toward faith and redemption.
Eventually, John Newton abandoned the slave trade and underwent a dramatic personal and spiritual transformation. He denounced his former way of life and became a prominent abolitionist, vehemently advocating for the abolition of the slave trade.
Considering Newton’s past in the troubling world of human trafficking, it makes sense that when he penned the hymn “Amazing Grace,” he saw himself as a bit of a wretch. That’s likely how he genuinely felt. When he talked about feeling lost, he was sharing his own journey. It was a personal lightbulb moment — owning up to his mistakes. And that’s what makes it okay.
It’s fine to say you’re feeling lost about your own path. But labeling others as lost? Well, that’s a different story.
Strategic Planning for Saving the Lost
When I was neck-deep in evangelical church culture, I would participate, along with other church leaders, in semi-regular strategic planning meetings on how to save “The Lost.”
Yes, we would refer to them as “The Lost.”
In the evangelical church world, “The Lost” referred to anyone who was destined for Hell, which meant anyone who had not accepted the Lord as their personal savior by praying a prayer of repentance and salvation — basically, anyone different from us.
These meetings would often involve a whiteboard and a free-wheeling brainstorming session on how to make the rest of the world believe the same things we did.
Door knocking?
Street preaching?
Dropping pamphlets in letterboxes?
Some kind of whizz-bang community outreach program?
In these meetings, the urgency was palpable. There was a genuine belief that we held the keys to eternal salvation, and it was our duty to unlock the gates of Heaven for “The Lost.” If we didn’t save them, we were responsible and even be held accountable by God.
The Problem of “The Lost”
Labeling people as “The Lost” made it easier to organize our mission. It organized “The Lost” into a homogenous group, creating a clear distinction between us and them and simplifying a complex world into two distinct categories.
If Newton’s “lostness” was a personal recognition of past mistakes, the church took that concept and institutionalized it, transforming personal “lostness” into a collective label it applied ad nauseam to everyone outside of the church.
For the church, reducing personal belief to a binary classification was helpful. To the rest of the world, it is insulting. Only now that I am outside the church system can I see just how condescending it is to call someone else “Lost.”
For it implies that the “found” person has the answers, and the “lost” person is in need of them. It is to say: “I have the truth. You don’t have the truth. You need what I have. You are walking around in the dark. I am enlightened. You need to learn from me. You have nothing of value to say to me, but what I have to say to you is of infinite value.”
A person doesn’t take directions from someone who is blind. In the same way, to believe that another is lost and blind is to believe that whatever they might share with you is not something you can learn from but merely an opportunity for you to fix them, correct them, and help them know what you know.
There is an arrogance about it.
Besides this, while the church might believe that its core business is the process of reaching and converting those it considers “lost,” I’m not even sure that you could mount a robust Biblical justification for such behavior.
In fact, let’s take a look at the Bible now…
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