What Makes a Church a "Responsible" Church?

I was reading some news items online and came across a story regarding Jewish reactions to Mel Gibson's upcoming movie on the life of Christ, The Passion. While I do not agree with the theological slant of the movie (pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism), I found the following comment regarding the portrayal of the Jews as approving and desiring the death of Jesus very interesting:

Representatives of the Anti-Defamation League saw the movie in a private screening and the League said on Monday that if it was released in its present form it could "fuel the hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate," (Reuters news article, 08/12/2003, "California Rabbi Says 'Passion' Already Fueling Hatred").

The Anti-Defamation League would like us to believe that those churches (i.e., denominations) who have "worked hard" to repudiate the obvious message of Matthew 27:20-26, Mark 15:8-15, Luke 23:18-24, and John 18:38-40 are the "responsible" organizations. If "responsible" in this circumstance is equivalent to "apostatized," the statement is perhaps true. It is imperative for churches (and I mean individual congregations of God's people, not a denominational organization) to be responsible; this responsibility is not in repudiating the clear message of the Scriptures but in many ways by upholding it. Let us now look to see what God considers to be a truly "responsible church."

Characteristics of responsible churches are as follows:


1. Responsible churches uphold the truth of God, the Gospel of Christ. Paul speaks to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:15:

but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

The truth mentioned here correlates to the Gospel of Christ, regarding which Paul speaks in Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.