I have to admit having had to fight some very un-Christlike feelings over the last few weeks. After the Orlando shooting I heard several people actually blaming Christians for the horrendous act of terror. A few weeks ago I heard a couple of disc jockeys on a local radio station making derisive, condescending statements about people who believe that restroom rules should stay the same that they’ve been since the comfort room was invented. Funny thing is that I’ve been listening to these guys for years, and never once in all that time had I heard them advocate opening up public, multi-use restrooms for people to use whichever one they wanted. They never mentioned it because it was never an issue—they knew deep down that, for reasons of privacy, modesty and safety, multi-user bathrooms should be segregated by sex. They never questioned it. But suddenly the politically correct winds have shifted and so has their position. Now they have every right to change their position, but what really bugged me was their attitude. They were treating people as backward, narrow-minded, intolerant bigots for believing what
they believed yesterday. Such is the current nature of our society.
In writing
1984 George Orwell might have been a few years premature in his speculation regarding how long it would take our society to get to such a point, but he’s proved prescient that society would begin to go down that road.
The question is how do we as Christians live in this kind of culture—one where up is now down, right is wrong, day is night, and pointing out the problem with it makes you a hateful, bigoted, whatever-phobic, evil person in the eyes of the public and now the government? How does a Christian live in a world where the godly morals that used to keep you off of the governmental authorities’ radar now make you a big red target with radar locked? How do we stand for truth when truth is now against the law?
Galatians 5:22-23 says,
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” If you look at these qualities, there is still no law against them. You may argue that faithfulness is beginning to come under fire, but the word used for faithfulness in this verse refers not to faith in God, but to trustworthiness and dependability. Even in our upside down society these qualities are still valued. And it’s crucial that we as Christians display these traits in abundance—especially if we’re going to have to deal with cultural changes—and even laws—that stand in opposition to godly morals and common sense. If the world sees these traits in us, false charges of hatemongering won’t easily stick.
This is no guarantee that we won’t come under fire, or that we’ll prevail in the current culture war. It’s hard to reestablish standards in a culture that seems so dead set on completely eliminating them. But we have a responsibility to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our life, every bit as much as we’re responsible to stand for truth. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” That may sound impossible, but remember, He’s also the one who said, “Father, forgive them” on behalf of the very people who nailed Him to a cross. And nothing we’re going through is even close to being as difficult as that.