This is a blog post I started in 2012 and apparently never finalized. This still rings true to me as lines are continuing to be drawn darker and deeper in our culture. Just the other day my dad posted something to Facebook that encouraged a culture war by Christians; calling Democrats “demonic”, and obviously voting Republican was the Christian thing to do.
If I recall correctly,
this blog post started on the heels of Chic-fil-a’s stance on gay marriage.
Here’s a little back and forth between me and folks on Facebook (that occurred
at the time)…
Me: But can’t you also see how a “celebration” like yesterday’s
further’s the us vs. them divide? Sure we have the right to freedom of speech
but there are times we should be willing to lay down our rights in order to be
approachable. Unless we’re approachable how else are we going to show the love
of Christ to anyone?
My friendship with a lesbian friend is more important to me than
padding the pockets of a billionaire in the name of thanking him for “defending
marriage”.
Christian friend: Never, ever should we
lay aside the rights to free speech, assembly, religion, to vote or any other
of the protections offered to all under the Constitution because the compromise
will lead to tyranny.
Me: Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten the Christian
heroes/saints of the past who gave up all their rights in order to spread the
Gospel; in trade for the safety and security of the American Constitution. We
here in America are very adverse to the Bible passage of “blessed are the
persecuted”. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from our Christian brothers
and sisters in places such as China, Iran and North Korea.
We have no “Christian duty” to uphold the Constitution, we do have
a “Christian duty” to live like Christ, in a free country or under the harshest
of tyrannical conditions.
Agnostic friend: I think it is funny that
Christians use the first amendment over the bible. Freedom of speech over
loving thy neighbor. Very Christ-like.
More and more I hear
this term "Christian duty" being thrown around. Typically it is
in relation to not how we should live or how we should spread the gospel, but
instead, how we should vote or why we should vote. Here recently I saw
how this ideology of Christian duty corresponds to the notion that America is a
Christian nation, so defending our Constitutional rights is more important than
being vulnerable and Christ-like. Right off the bat I would say that we
(Christians) need to be willing to lay down our rights, even to the point of
death, if that would further the Kingdom of God.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
Tertullian
The Gospel is the heart
of Christianity, and that message transcends all cultures. When the
Christian walk begins to look different for us, because we have certain
unalienable American rights, that is no longer true Christianity nor can it be trusted.
