Our religious liberties are under attack in America.
Under attack from what?
Nothing.
.
.
.
.
American Christians have recently felt under attack, worried that we will lose our religious liberties and be forced to live in disagreement with our religious beliefs. Worried that our beloved pastors will be forced to marry homosexual couples. “Under attack” is the phrase I have seen pop up a lot recently. “We are under attack!” No. No we are not.
When you are raised in a society that affords you everything, the loss of anything is felt deep in your core.
The older I get, the more I realize that American Christians cry about being persecuted, while truly persecuted Christians suffer in silence.
As a white Christian in America, I realize that I have extraordinary privallege. “This country was founded on Christian principles!” So, right from the beginning, if you believe like us, society is going to work more in your favor than for person down the road who believes differently. We cry for religious freedom, but only want Christian prayers in schools. We cry for religious freedom, but we only want our ten commandments on the steps of the courthouse. We cry for religious freedom, but talk down about and degrade muslim communities wanting to build a mosque to worship in.
Christians do not want religious freedom. Christians want Christian freedom.
As a Christian, this hurts my soul to a level so deep I sometimes find myself feeling physically sick when thinking about it more than I ought.
Christians flock to the internet in outrage when a bill is vetoed that would have allowed them to discriminate based on religious preferences under the guise of religious freedom.
We rally around a cake shop that refuses to provide a cake for a homosexual wedding. We want to move heaven and Earth to allow those people to refuse service to those they disagree with. Just as Jesus refused healing to those who did not want it or were different.
Oh wait, Jesus served everyone. In fact, God’s example for our lives in that of His son Jesus, went out of his way to serve those people least expected him to help. If we claim to love God, and follow Jesus’ example, shouldn’t we be against things that would allow people to refuse service to others? Shouldn’t we WANT to serve those who believe differently than us?
As a Christian, I understand why people do not like us. I wouldn’t either if I were them. We grow up and embrace an attitude of accepting those that accept us, and bashing those who disagree with us.
We fuel a society that says you either believe totally this way and you’re right, or you believe totally one way and you’re wrong. You can’t love Jesus and love non-christians. We say we love all people, but do we really? We love people who haven’t made a choice yet. If they chose to be on our side, then welcome to the club! But if they chose the other side, we throw hell in their face and want to be as far from them as possible. One side or the other. Republican or Democrat.
The more I learn about Jesus, the more I realize how stifled his voice would be in today’s society. Jesus wasn’t the leader that the Pharisees wanted him to be, and he wasn’t the conquering ruler that even his disciples thought he would be. Jesus was his own. Loved all, hated none; forgive many, despised few.
Yesterday the internet was flooded with Christians burning the Governor at the stake because of his vetoing of the “religious liberties” bill. Seeing friends and people I respect jump on the bandwagon really hurt me. Seeing Jantzen Franklin pen an open letter against the governor really hurt me.
Where is the Christlike attitude we are called to emulate?
Pastors have never been forced to marry someone they didn’t want to, and won’t because of the First Amendment. And how does the right to religiously discriminate sound good to Christians? How is that spreading the message of Christ? What kind of message does that send to those looking to us to be an example of the Jesus we profess to follow?
We claim to be living examples of Jesus. So if we claim that, then we need to serve as Jesus served. Serving a cake to someone who believes differently than us is our “woman at the well.” Our Lord went out of his way to serve and spend time with a woman who knew her place was so low in society that she could not even get water from the well at the same time as everyone else. She was the least of these.
We must find the least of these in our society. They are all around us. They are begging to be loved like Jesus loved the least in his day. They are dying without hope and living without life. We have become too comfortable with serving those who see life as we do. We have become so closed to people different than us that is cares me.
