Wednesday, September 05, 2007
cowardice
Thoughts on being a Christ follower in a culture that praises pursuing truth, but dismisses anyone who claims to have found it... There is a strong desire in most people to be well thought of by ones peers. In non-church, intellectual circles, one way to be dismissed quickly (among many) is to state that you believe Christ is God come in the flesh. Some, who have believed cultural propaganda, tend to lump such a believer with flat earthers or antiscience thought and at best look on you condescendingly as someone who believes in a rather arcane superstition. Sometimes, there is a deeper price to pay than just being intellectually dismissed. In such a hostile atmosphere, it is easy for those who are prone to conflict avoidence, to practice small acts of cowardice. May the Lord give us loving hearts (so that it is through no unkind actions of out own that we are so treated) and may He give us courage, if we are to be dismissed and treated unkindly, because we follow Him. He was not treated very nicely by the educated of His time either.
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So true. I have talked to so many people who are just now returning to their faith after "losing it along the way" while at the University of Chicago. I faced open ridicule from teachers and peers, even other Christians, while at the UofC for believing in "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." It seemed that no matter how well thought out one might be, as soon as you mention God you lose all credibility. This was so hard for me on many different levels. In a petty sort of way it made me feel insecure and unappreciated, but on a more gut level it seriously messed with me because the last thing I wanted was to push people away from Christ...I hated to think that something I was doing made them discredit the Gospel. Thank you for sharing your thoughts...they are always much appreciated.
While working a Beaumont I frequently met with dismissive attitudes about my faith. These were usually followed in my relationship to these people by ridicule in subtle means of Christians. Of course it was socially inappropriate to express open hostility by the standards (morals) of the culture at large. However, I was not surprised at this behavior. In our culture a certain coarse humor in intellectual thought is considered to be normative. All perspectives of life, at least theoretically, are fair game for ridicule in our society. Denigrating Christians however was especially accepted because perhaps in so doing you were returning a service that Christians are routinely accused of committing toward others (at least that was the message I received).
It amused me to think that they would be greatly offended however if I told them I thought their home was disgusting or made fun of their children, yet treating ones perspective on life in an uncivil manner was not recognized as offensive.
Frequently in a place like Beaumont I found individuals that demanded a standard of truth that faith could not provide or that despaired of identifying truth objectively and had accepted pluralism as a comfortable perspective on the world at large. In dealing with people under these terms I would try to show the reasonableness of both our perspectives but point out the differences in our starting propositions. Sometimes even the opportunity to share the gospel story would arise in discussing the origins of the propositions.
The saddest group I encountered however was those for whom life is so full of pleasure that they never give thought to the world around them. Faith to them was much ado about nothing.
Reflecting on those days reminds me of the wonderful church in Royal Oak we attended. After a week at Beaumont it was encouraging to go and hear the voice of the Shepherd speak through our pastor and our friends. God’s word was preached such that it was an encounter with Jesus.
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