Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your words. I am sure everyone gets caught up in it sometimes, but when we get too wrapped up because of our own opinions, the broad stroke of a brush can be harmful to the message being discussed. We must be careful and present the truth as it has been simply presented to us.

As Christians, we must be ready to respond to an article instead of reacting to it. It makes a big difference.

Just my thoughts,

Chris

For instance, I write a response to the NC Marriage law which defined marriage as a man and woman, I received many post that said, “Why are you writing about this when you should be talking about marriage as God would have it.” I found those type of statements in various places online as many wrote and lumped those who agreed with the passing of the law into one boat of not speaking up before then, when the fact is, many of us have been speaking about it for a long time.

Personally, I believe every citizen has been given an opportunity to speak regarding issues of the government. I further believe, as Christians, we have a voice in the government and should speak regarding those matters. Esther had the opportunity and she used it to save a nation, we need to use ours to save a nation as well.
Once again, it was not my intent to lump people into the same boat, but to be on the lookout and speak on behalf of some who are working together to bring about the greater good.

The postings you’ve been reading seem to be of a different type than those I’ve read dealing with recent statements coming from the W. House. 

In your comments here, you seem to lumping folk together in one boat launching a few torpedoes of your own.  The inference though, is that if you’re not one of the folk you put in the boat, you’re not under torpedoe fire.   Most of the postings I’ve read qualify for the same inferences.  They are addressed to those for whom the shoe fits.

A some things come mind here… 

first, our gov’t allows us to have a voice – there  is nothing wrong w/ encouraging others to use that voice.   Even though the current trend is to imply that our political voice cannot and must not be informed by Biblical standards (the separation of church and state thing) and those who’s values are informed by their faith must be shouted down, marginalized and disenfranchized.  Still, we get to have a voice, and can use it (at least for now, as political correctness and ‘hate’ crimes continue to impose censorship on us, it’s not out of the realm of possiblity that we will lose our voice)

second, when dealing w/ broad issues, there is going to be some painting with an overly broad brush.  Its partially the nature of language, and certainly part of the rhetorical nature of things.  Polemic speach should be tempered, but that is not the age in which we live, and whatever is going outside of the church is going to get dragged into it.  So, while we need to take the high road, lets not be surprised, or overly critical of those who occasionally fall short of the standard.

Third, and likely most important here, is the tendency to down-grade those things that may be important to others, but not to us.  We tend view others as over reacting to trivial matters, while we ourselves only react strongly on jugular matters.   Who gets to decide what are and are not trivial matters and what are, or are not jugular matters?   There are matters that trivial, and those which are jugular, but we need to practice a little golden rule when viewing others’ lists of jugular matters.

Consider, too, that the Apostle Paul wrote of taking the conscience of others into consideration (Rom 14 and 1 Cor 8); the same Paul though, would not surrender an inch on fundamental issues.  Because its not important (or as important as some other things) to me doesn’t mean that its not important.

Preaching on the biblical nature of marriage – as you noted – has been around for a long time among Bible-beleiving folk, and far out strips the preaching against homosexual activity … You and I have the same experience there.  But when an anti-scriptural thing is being shoved in our faces, sooner or later we’re going to have to deal with it.  There are things that will keep folk out of the Kingdom (Gal 5 and 1 Cor 6  mention a number of them) and the homosexual thing being shoved down our throats is among them.  We don’t ignore the rest to focus on the one (at least no one I’ve been reading has implied this) but we don’t ignore the one being specifically promoted either.

Not sure this is a clear as I’d like, but hopefully the intent will come through where my time and writing ability have restricted my clarity.