There is a sentiment that I often hear in Christian circles. It basically goes like this; We have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I have never heard it questioned, but today I want to question your thinking about that statement slightly.
I will begin by saying that the “problems” that people are ranting about when these statements are made, are real and true problems. Allowing marriage to be anything other than between one man and one woman is wrong, abortion is wrong, the movement to push the Christian church out of every area of the public sphere is wrong. (E.g. kicking the Gideons out of public school or not allowing Churches to have booths at the Dogwood Festival. Fayetteville NC I’m talking to you.) Those things are wrong! I will unashamedly say so. (And there may be a future blog post about the death of the word wrong)
Secondly, there are some political things that American Christians are silent about. For example, we are often silent about genocide, I suppose because it happens far away. We are silent about the abuse and martyrdom of Christians in most of the world. We are mostly silent about the evil of divorce. (I should say evangelicals are silent about. Liberal Christians believe fixing this stuff is equal to salvation) However, we simply are not silent about the things I hear people complain about all the time. Most non-believers know Christians for their political activity more than anything else
You will not meet a non-Christian in America that doesn’t know the Christian position on marriage or abortion. In fact, research tells us that non-believers believe that what it means to be a Christian is to be judgmental and to hate homosexuals. <aside>This may be their view, but it is simply not true. The best thing that ever happened to me, ever, is asking Jesus to be my lord. I know that lost people are in fact lost and will act that way. It is to be expected.</aside> But we have lost our message somewhere. We can blame the news media, or the people who make entertainment, but if they were Christians they would know better.
The problem [if there is one] with all our political activism is that it is an attempt to fix consequences without taking care of the problems. Dr. Reid always says, "Jesus did not die to make bad people good; he died to make dead people live." The deplorable behavior of our nation will not be fixed by all the political rallies, petitions, or letters (and I write letters to my politicians regularly) that we can produce. They will only be fixed with a great awakening style revival in our nation.
So back to the original statement, we have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I agree with this statement…but not the way most who say it mean it. We have all these problems because Christians have been silent with the gospel message for too long. I am convinced that unless my city councilman actually knows Jesus, there is no reason to expect him to vote like someone who does. (He does claim to be a Christian.) The same goes for my mayor, my Governor, and my president. You get the idea. Also, I know that hope for our world is not found in politics.
This is not a pessimistic post just to complain, I offer solutions. So, what can you, my reader, do to fix all the problems of society? For starters, I would say consider every single person you know at least casually. If you know that any of them do not know Jesus, and you have not witnessed to them, witness to them. That sounds convoluted, so I’ll say it a different way. Tell everyone you know that Jesus loves them and that He died for their sins. If you are reading this and realize that you don't know Jesus go here and watch the movie. Secondly, live differently from the world. Live with joy and your acquaintances will want what you have.