Set a Good Example

So...do you feel like there have been a lot of bad examples of Christians out there? I do. I feel like I have at times been a bad example. When I was unkind or just kept focusing on what I wanted.

Our media likes bad examples, right? People keep showing pictures of Christians protesting in ways that don't help anyone and have no real conversations involved.

We do need to stand our ground on certain issues. That Christ is the way to God. That marriage is heterosexual. That abortion is wrong. These things need to be said...but do we need to say them the ways that we often do?

Some things we can give on (such as homosexual couples being able to file join taxes; does that really hurt us for them to be able to do that?). But do we need to make such big deals out of things? Jesus clearly stated in Matthew 19 that marriage is heterosexual, but he didn't ever refuse to have a conversation with anyone. He never picketed events. He did have righteous anger (he very physically and violently threw out the moneylenders at the temple), but this was rarely something that controlled His actions.

Today I watched the video of a panel from Comic-Con, it was one of the Nerd HQ panels (The Awesome Woman's Panel...I slightly changed the name because I don't like to cuss.) Missy Peregrim did an outstanding job of setting an example of a Christian.  I wish our news media would show more like her. She shared part of her story of being a Christian woman in the field of entertainment and how her parents raised her to care about honesty and integrity.

Let us be against bullying and be honest about what we do not agree with. We can gently speak the truth in love. Let God handle the rest.

Change the Fear

Greetings in Christ.

So, I have noticed a reluctance on a couple of fan groups on Facebook about discussing religion.  One of them is a Godzilla group and the other one is a Star Wars group.

The Godzilla group has a post pinned by the administrator saying that religion and politics are both off limits.  All they want to talk about is big monsters destroying each other.  I wonder if they would consider a discussion about the viewpoints of religion shown in the movies?  They seem to forget that faith and religion do play a part in many Godzilla films, whether it be the Islanders from the original film who saw Godzilla as a deity or the culture on Infant Island that worships Mothra. 

The Star Wars group actually did have a discussion going based on a meme that takes a picture of a church sign with Matthew 12:13 which starts "Whoever is not for me is against me".  This is the only part of the verse on the sign.  The creator of the meme than put a pic of Obi-Wan Kenobi below that with the quote "Only Siths deal in absolutes."  (Both sign and the meme forgot the rest of that verse "for whoever does not gather with me scatters.") This started a discussion about Jesus, judgement, etc.  I went to put my two cents in and lo and behold the post had been revoked.  I am guessing they were upset about the argument going on.

Religion can be polarizing.  Part of that is do to judgmental attitudes from people of varying view points. Have you ever felt judged by another?  Maybe you were investigating Christ and you felt like Christians were mean and critical.  Or, maybe you were trying to explain the truth of Christ and someone refused to listen to you unfairly.  This criticism and judgement can come from holders of all world views; there is no such thing as a world view where no one who teaches it is critical or rude.

However, there is another thing: the assumption that one is being judged.  We tend to see people as judges rather than as fellow students telling us what they think will be on the test.  This is especially popular right now.  People don't like to be told how to live their lives.  

As we go out to share Christ, we need to remember what Peter told us in 1 Peter 3:15 "Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  We should not be judgmental.  It is God's place to judge, not ours, but we must not be afraid to say something.  We should remember we are students of Christ and that He is the test-grader.  We are the test-takers.  It is our responsibility to let other know what is on the test, but not to grade their tests for them.


I don't think these groups should be so scared of discussing religion, but we can only pray and speak in gentleness and respect to change it.