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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

How Much Do We Own?

A recent interaction was fruitless like so many others. I'm the bad guy; he's the good guy. If only you Christians would think like the rest of us then you wouldn't be such idiots. That kind of thing. And the other day I got to overhear a room full of people eating lunch and discussing how much they hate Christians. "If I want to go to Hell, just let me go to Hell. Don't push your religion on me."

Now, I think that there are answers, but I had to wonder. How much of this do we own? My recent antagonist accused me of "playing the victim card". How often do we do that? I know I've heard it from Christians far more than is reasonable. "Oh, we Christians in America are being persecuted." Heaven help us if what is happening to Christians in America is "persecution". We'd never survive what is happening to Christians in, say, the Muslim world. We say we're persecuted because NBC wants to remove references to God from Veggie Tales. Oh, yeah, that's persecution. In fact, I've known people who use "persecution" as a measure of accuracy. If people are disagreeing with them (That's "persecution"), then they're obviously right because Jesus said they would be hated by the world. It never occurs to them that maybe people are disagreeing with them because they're wrong. "Narrow is the gate," they'll say and see the fact that 99% of Christians disagree with them as vindication.

Then there's the "in your face" types. "Hey, man, do you know Jesus?" That's perhaps the least offensive approach from these well-meaning Christians. They'll range from that to strings of expletives explaining how wrong you are for what you believe. They'll argue that Jesus is in favor of torture if the torture is against those who attack Christianity. These types can go so far as to make me seriously question the reality of their connection to Christianity. I mean, "God hates fags" does not represent the Christ of the Bible. Do these types actually know Him?

I know. The Bible promises that the world won't like us. I know. Many times it seems as if we're singled out merely because we're Christians. It seems, to be sure, that people don't spend nearly as much time assaulting Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism as they do Christianity. I don't mean to minimize it. But I have to wonder how much of the time the attacks we experience are brought on by our own attitudes and the attitudes of others who claim to represent Christ. Denying the reality of that embarrassing fact does nothing to ease the problem when I go to talk to someone who has questions about Christ. Maybe we are looking at Christianity with rose-colored glasses, when reality is more important.

5 comments:

Samantha said...

Sometimes even the most "fruitless" discussions in your eyes still produce fruit. :D

Stan said...

True ... but I'm not talking about the "fruitless" ones. I'm talking about the obnoxious ones.

Anonymous said...

Nice blog!
Greetings from Montreal, Canada...my name is Wren.
I have a discussion forum here...
http://z6.invisionfree.com/denominations
Please know that you are very welcome to register and participate anytime.

Anonymous said...

I do think we are starting to have persecution in the US, but nothing like what so many of our brethren go through in other countries. Of course my heart is completely with Voice of the Martyrs, so this is my passion. When I read the stories of what persecution really looks like, then I know I have NEVER experienced true persecution.

This is another peeve of mine, the part of the church that wants to teach that God wants us all to be blessed with material goods and health. Yet my brethren who will not deny His name are tortured, imprisoned, homes burned down. They no nothing of material blessings or good health, yet they love Him more dearly. How is that? Why would God not bless those who refuse to deny His name in the face of death? Perhaps our blessings are spiritual!

Stan said...

Julianne: "Perhaps our blessings are spiritual!"

How pitiful that so many seem to want to give us more than the blessings we already have. As if God is pretty good, giving us all those, but there should be more! But Paul says that God "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing", that those blessings are already ours, and that they are found "in Christ" (Eph. 1:3-14). How dare they say, "Well, that's not enough ... we also get health and wealth!"?

I'm with you on that.