Posted on 12/12/2012 6:14:58 AM PST by Guido2012
And this sensitivity to offense doesn’t stop with Christmas. Prayer, Bible reading, crosses and other religious displays of any kind have been targeted repeatedly by those organizations longing to secularize our schools and our society. And when they can’t identify any actual religious symbols, they make them up anyway. Case in point is the ruling by a judge that the “Choose Life” license plate in North Carolina is unconstitutional even though that same plate was acceptable to the Florida Supreme Court, and the plate has nothing to do with religion. The problem is that the vast majority of these court challenges are legally without merit, yet they cost the taxpayer millions to defend, making it easier for local governments to just cave in to the bullying instead of fighting. Another example is the fanatical fight over keeping the theory of evolution as the de facto religion of our public schools. Any attempt to introduce factual scientific information into this debate, or even point out the obvious, glaring flaws with this theory, is met with maniacal, fortress-like resistance. This kind of insanity takes place, mind you, despite the complete absence of any religious motive, although proponents of evolution will always say that a religious motive is implied. All that’s needed to put these secularists over the edge is an attempt to put the theory of evolution under the lens of real science, and allow students to make up their own mind.
So why can’t Christians play this “offense” game. Why can’t we be offended at the garbage that public schools shove down our kids’ throats? Why can’t take we offense at governments that recognize gay marriage and make us subsidize benefits for these couples? Why can’t we be offended that the sex we see on TV is always illicit, recreational, and almost never within the bounds of a loving marriage? Why can’t we be offended at no-fault divorce laws that violate the Biblical view of marriage, and undermine the sacred vows that are the foundation of our society? Why can’t we be offended, like the Muslims, when our religion is held in scorn and demeaned by the Hollywood elite? Why aren’t we allowed to be offended when the killing of unborn children is called choice, and was legalized by a few unelected judges on the basis of lies, instead of sober deliberation by an elected legislature based on the facts? Why can’t we be offended when those same judges call pornography free speech? Why can’t we be offended when our churches and businesses are forced to offer insurance coverage that violates our religion? Why is it that we’re required to be silent while the gay agenda, feminism, multiculturalism, radical environmentalism, and globalism are deified and taught to our children, while the Christian worldview is vilified by the same government officials? Why can’t we be offended when private companies force us to silently comply with these same policies or be fired? The truth is that we as Christians are bombarded by all of these things every single day we live in this nation – a nation ironically founded by those who held a Christian worldview and crafted a Constitution based on those views. Those Founders would no longer recognize how completely that grand document has now been illegally rendered moot, without going through the amendment process, by those that hold a secular worldview.
When we don’t like the filth we see on TV, we’re told, “Just change the channel.” Why can’t we give the same advice to atheists - to ignore what they see and hear during a Christmas program, or an invocation at a football game, or a prayer at a board meeting? If Christians are supposed to overlook all of the cultural attacks on our religion by the secularists, why can’t the secularists ignore a manger scene or a 30 second prayer now and then? They can’t, because their hatred of us reminds them of the God whose standards they reject. Yet, they delight in offending us because they feel that our religion teaches that we should just accept persecution as a way of life without complaining. They are wrong. While we are to love those that hate us, the Bible also teaches that we are to be the salt of the earth. Without us, our nation would be a very bitter, dark place, full of the kind of violence and immorality not seen since Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to be engaged in our culture and fight for the rights enumerated in our Constitution – a document written by men who didn’t hesitate to fight for those same rights, especially, and most particularly, because they were God-given.
Darn good question.
I would say, training. Unfortunately.
‘Cuz we’re supposed to turn the other cheek.
I’m offended by long, unreadable paragraphs.
(Joking, kind of). :-)
Political correctness was designed to do just that. Demonize all that is good.
It happens because the Christians let the offended get away with it, and say nothing about, or go on the defense, or refuse to fight back, or try to placate or reason with the offended. Hate to tell all of you, no matter what you do, their will always be a minority of people who are offended about something, so stop kowtowing to them, and if they don’t like it, the majority says tough shit, get over it.
It's their loss, not yours.
That could be a mistranslation of the original, compounded by a misunderstanding of context. After much prayer and thought I’ve decided self-defense comes first.
The doctrines of Ahemsa were not originally in Christianity ~ they arrived in maybe the 4th or 5th centuries.
I think it’s written somewhere in the Obamacare legislation...only the President can be offended.
I think it’s written somewhere in the Obamacare legislation...only the President or other liberals can be offended.
It's time for Christians to become Old Testament-style warriors and stop turning the other cheek.
The reason we can not change it is because the 78 percent who claim Christianity as their faith may regard it as nothing more than a social club or an ideal.
People can hold to an ideal even if they think it is a fairy tale.
Once a year or even once a week is not what being Christian is all about.
Christians still have a right to go to the polls and vote for who they think can best run the country for the benefit of their own welfare and that is just what they did in November.
Could the actual percent of Christians be 10 percent instead of 78?
Look for it to get worse, it will.
The most liberating sermon I ever heard pointed out that the act of turning one’s check when being slapped in public would have the effect of humiliating the one who hit the victim. So would humbly handing one’s remaining garment to the thief who demanded one’s coat. Likewise walking another mile would be humiliating to the abuser, if done in public.
Notice also these acts are all one on one interactions, and not the behavior of one group to another or worse yet, one nation to another.
Nowhere does Jesus ever advise an entire nation to allow another to roll over it out of humility.
In respense to attacks on Christians we need to start using the word “Christophobia” consistently whenever Christianity is attacked.
Anti-Christian bigotry is Christophia and the Bible does not say we can’t call it what it is.
I believe your statement speaks to why some groups are perpetually offended - homosexual & abortion-on-demand activists for example. On at least some level, they know what they claim to believe isn’t true (homosexuality is normal, healthy, on-par w/hetero relationships; women have the right to control their own bodies, it’s not a human being, only a fetus) but they want to continue anyway. People who disagree might bring the truth to the forefront of their minds, instead of allowing them to keep it buried and ignored.
It seems to me that Christian men have for some time now been encouraged by a large and growing segment of contemporary Christian culture to be...pussies. Many go along with it quite happily because they are quavering approval seekers at heart—it’s easy to be a wimp. It has something to do with the increasing feminization of the church, I think. As the churches become more feminized, and thus liberal, males become more passive and marginal and the strength and vigor they once added to church life fade away. If you’re really offended, then be offended and don’t hide it or make apologies for it—more Jesus kicking ass in the temple and less Mr. Milquetoast looking for permission to have an opinion is what is called for. Manliness is not a sin, nor is fighting when it’s time to fight. And as you make so clear, it’s long past time for Christians to fight. Yes turn the other cheek, but when they slap you again, it’s time to kick ass.
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