It occurs to me that there are times when people say too much. Many very well meaning people have done great harm to their cause by opening their mouths. It's always an interesting phenomenon to me when silence is the most powerful tool in our bag given certain circumstances.
I am a Christian. I am not ashamed of it about forty percent of the time. This puts an interesting perspective on me to be sure since my Bible says that true Christians need not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ as it is a word of life to the lifeless and a cool drink to those in need. I have had many struggles with the religion I find myself so firmly entrenched in. As a follower of Christ, I find myself appalled at the actions of many of my companions on this journey. Yes, there is indeed an element of our humanity that gets in the way and that often plays scapegoat for unpopular actions. It is far too common for me to look in the news and see christians behaving in ways that simply goes against not just the grain of our message but literally flies in the face of human decency.
One needs look no further than the ministry of Westboro Baptist Church to see a powerful example of what I'm talking about. For those of you who have the good fortune to not to have heard about these people, allow me to enlighten you. They have taken on their backs the cause of homosexuality, or rather the hatred and maligning of homosexuals. Their slogan that they carry in the name of Jesus is "God hates fags". As a christian, I have a deep, visceral reaction to this. As a human being, I have an even deeper reaction to this message that can't really be described in polite conversation. But, as a follower of Jesus, it makes my heart heavy to see these people constantly spreading their hateful propaganda. I have no opinion on homosexuality yet, but I have many strong opinions about hate and what it does to people.
Hate is like a cancer, except that it's affects are more like a shotgun blast to the knees. It is debilitating to those who it is directed against. It turns people off to whatever it was that you had to say.
To my knowledge, I don't know many people who would say that they would feel loved if someone shot them in the knees.
At least, I wouldn't.
And yet these people exist.
And even worse they use the name of my Saviour as their banner as justification.
I loathe these people far more than they could ever loathe the people they think are evil. This is where I believe silence would be best applied.
But before you shut me down, let me qualify myself. I don't mean complacency and apathy on my part or your part. I mean they should really not even speak in the presence of anyone belonging to the human race. They do not understand the message of Jesus. Let me explain to you my view of Jesus.
Jesus hung out with drunks. Jesus hung out with prostitutes. Jesus hung out with low class citizens. Jesus rubbed shoulders with people who cheated other people. Jesus desired the company of those society has stated as irredeemable. More importantly, Jesus loved them. This means that no matter what he believed about their actions, Jesus loved these people unconditionally and invited them into the christian community.
This is our example.
This is how high the bar is set.
This is what we should aspire to.
Which means that I must love the people of Westboro Baptist Church. Which is something that is difficult for me. I must love those who have done everything they can to take the name of Jesus and drag it down into the mire of hate speech and shameful acts. Why? To show that there is redemption even in the darkest of places. And I do believe that these people live in a very dark place if they are able to take a message of love, redemption, and transformation and twist it into a message of hate, vengeance, and merciless rhetoric.
There's a very powerful song sung by a band that is now defunct. They were at one time called Pedro the Lion and they wrote many songs interacting with the darker side of christianity and human struggle. My favorite is a song that says "You were to busy steering the conversation towards the Lord/that you didn't hear the voice of the Spirit begging you to shut the f*ck up./You thought it must be the devil trying to get you to go astray/besides it could not have been the Lord because you don't believe he talks that way." This is what I am talking about. Following God does not always mean speaking out. Usually it does, but when you contradict the message of Jesus and the scripture or you are afraid that it might, there's a fair chance that your silence could allow dialogue from someone who otherwise would never come out and articulate their faith.
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