Why do we think that we are even speaking the same language as secular liberalism? We can shout ourselves blue in the face and make not one dent in their armor of idealism. Sure, at least for now, we have the freedom and right to be heard... but isn't a lot of our energy going toward shoving that barn door shut while we watch the tail end of the horses gallop into the sunset?
In the AFA Journal March 2007, Ed Vitagliano writes:
...(Jim) Wallis, an earnest opponent of the religious right, said in a column on www.washingtonpost.com that “religious people must win the debate, just like everybody else, about what is best … for the common good.”
This misses the point completely. Christians currently cannot “win the debate” on any number of critical issues because the culture has rejected the underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian worldview. As a result, our society will continue to reject the propositions that flow out of that worldview. It is difficult, for example, to win an argument about abortion when a culture does not recognize the sanctity of innocent human life in the womb.
http://www.afajournal.org/0307_blurringgospel.asp
In the same article Vitagliano says:
Of course, the great power given to the church by the Lord Jesus Christ is the Gospel. It is through the preaching of the cross that the church must engage our secular culture and its problems.
...Certainly believers have a responsibility to be respectful of others and their opinions. Christians should avoid being arrogant and loutish. They should season their speech with grace and humility. And there is nothing wrong with Christians attempting to persuade unbelievers that the truth of God would make for a better life individually and, corporately, a better country.
And Chuck Colson says in The Body p33:
Too often Christians want to rush off and organize anti-pornography or anti-abortion campaigns, work for criminal justice reform, clean up inner-city neighborhoods, and defend religious liberty. All noble and worthy good works, but all doomed to failure unless they proceed out of who we are as God's people.
(Italics mine)
If we believe God is supreme and in control, why do we get so worked up and worried? We do need to defend what we believe, while we can, but when judges' rulings make a mockery of the legal system, and when media reporting twists shards of scorn into our sensitive skin, we don't have to despair!
Colson in The Body, again:
Also we must be willing to be uncomfortable. Living in a post-Christian culture means that our Christian faith will be ridiculed and that we will be regarded as strange. That can be costly. But obedience often is...
We must learn how to support and encourage one another. If we are to be the agents behind enemy lines, then it is critical that we establish a network whereby Christians can pass information back and forth to one another. We can learn a lot about the world from Time and Newsweek, but we must also equip one another with Christian perspectives on critical issues.
We know that someday every knee will bow and everyone will aknowledge Jesus as Lord. If we focus on that, and remaind each other of that, and do what we can to make a difference in big or little ways where we can...then all the "setbacks" in the world won't shake our inner peace and faith.
