Saturday, February 6, 2010

Different responses

There is always an interesting balance in regards to how Christians should expect to be viewed by non-Christians.

On one hand, some folks will hate us. If there's no persecution, then there we're not living a very godly life: since everyone who lives a godly life will be persecuted. And the gospel can make us smell like my shoes-now that I can't wear flip-flops everyday-to those perishing (II Cor 2:15). Its very proclamation will anger folks. There will be responses like this from the St. Pete Times.

And on the other hand, the gospel does bless people even though they may not believe in it (like the Egyptians in Gen 50). For instance, I should be a better employee as Christian (Col 3), must be well thought of by outsiders to be an elder (I Tim 3), and ought to be a model citizen (Rom 13). So at the same time, other folks will be glad to have us around.

Washington Post's Sally Jenkins, who is outside the faith and also vehemently opposed to Tebow's stance on abortion, responds here to Tebow's "intolerant critics" and the flack which CBS has ridiculously taken. Its definitely worth the read because she is thoughtful and not reactionary. She even calls out most "pro-choice" people for actually being "pro-abortion."

So I think in the end, we should expect both responses if the gospel is really saturating our head, heart, and hands.

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