Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Can I Get A Witness?
This question is intended for evangelical Christians. If don't count yourself a member of that subculture, you're still welcome to read this - consider it a peek behind the curtain (a la Wizard of Oz).
What in the world makes us think that by attacking our political opponents that people will suddenly say, "Oh, wow - you know, I've never seriously considered the claims of Christianity... but hearing you trash the President I voted for has totally opened my eyes to my need for grace & forgiveness"?
Really?!
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4 comments:
Short-sightedness?
Thanks for that, Mark. Keep it up.
Tribal thinking, us-vs.-them, being on the right team, insecurity. Identity rooted in the world and its ultimately temporal, artificial distinctions instead of in Christ and His ultimately infinite, all-encompassing love.
I don't think the goal is others-focused. These kinds of statements--and they come in all kinds of forms for many different aspects of life--are based, I believe, in a misunderstanding of holiness and our purpose in this world. The goal is holiness by negation and world-change by force: If we can distance ourselves enough from __whatever__ then I'll still have my holiness bubble up, and if I can defeat the wiles of the devil by __whatever__ then I'll be fulfilling God's will.
In other words: This has more to say about us and our fear that we're being "tainted" or overrun than our focus on others. We don't care about others... when we do these kinds of things we're thinking about ourselves.
At least, that's my guess as to how we can be so completely unhelpful and still believe we're doing good.
~Luke
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