When the Church Becomes Its Own Worst Enemy

Stan Moody:

I’ve Met the Enemy — And He Is Us

After 85 years in Evangelical America, including 32 years as a pastor, I write this with a heavy heart. What I see around me is not the radiant gospel of Jesus Christ, but a deconstructed, diluted version that confuses the American Dream with the Kingdom of God. Too often, we have embraced prosperity and comfort over humility and self-sacrifice, even celebrating dying for a nation while ignoring Jesus’ far deeper call to lay down our lives truly to live.

We, the Confessing Church, have become our own enemy.

The phrase “I have met the enemy, and he is us,” originally from an Earth Day poster and popularized by the cartoonist Walt Kelly, perfectly names our problem. We’re quick to blame others — politicians, “the culture,” unbelievers — for the brokenness we see. But the truth is much closer to home. We have been complicit in transposing our materialist survival instincts onto the Confessing Church.

Pointing Fingers at Others — While Avoiding Our Own Sins

Within white evangelical circles, especially, it has become habitual to focus on what I call “OPS” — Other People’s Sins. We rail against the moral failures of society while ignoring our own pride, complacency, and complicity. We have turned faith into a moral checklist, wagging our fingers at the world while failing to honor the very commands we preach.

This posture, which I have seen and felt deeply in my own life and ministry, fosters self-righteousness and robs the gospel of its beauty and power. We have exchanged the revolutionary Lordship of Christ for a lukewarm gospel of conformity and privilege, cloaked in the language of American exceptionalism.

I confess that for many years I, too, was caught up in the frantic effort to impress God and “do great things” for Him — measuring my worth in accomplishments, sermons preached, churches led, people influenced. But in the end, it was all shadow. Like the Apostle Paul, I’ve learned that all of it is rubbish compared to truly knowing Christ (Phil. 3:8).

A Call Back to the Real Jesus

This reflection is an alarm bell — a warning to all who have grown tired of “cookbook Christianity” and long to see the real Jesus again. It’s for those who feel spiritually homeless, adrift in a church culture that seems more concerned with political power and prosperity than with the grace and truth of the gospel.

We Evangelicals have believed ourselves indispensable to God, yet the world around us crumbles as we chase pleasure and success. We have offered a gospel stripped of grace, reducing the good news to a list of don'ts — even though Jesus clearly warned against such hollow righteousness.

If you find yourself confused, despondent, or even angry at how the Church has aligned itself with the empty promises of the American Dream, know this: there is still hope. God can break us down and rebuild us, preparing us for humble, faithful service.

Finding Joy in Faithful Service

My journey has taught me that real joy comes not from accolades or influence, but from touching lives quietly, one at a time. Jesus calls us to a Kingdom not of this world — a Kingdom where He is not just Savior, but reigning King and Lord.

If you recognize yourself in this story, I invite you to join me in repentance and hope. The road home is not easy, but it leads to life. Let us stop pointing outward and start looking inward, allowing God to strip away our pride and comfort until all that remains is Christ and His call to love a broken world.

The enemy of the gospel is not “out there.” The enemy is within.

And that is exactly where God wants to begin His work.