Finding Unexpected Grace In The Culture War

Shane L. Windmeyer: Dan and Me: My Coming Out as a Friend of Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A.

I recommend to you this article by Mr. Shane Windmeyer. In this post Mr. Windmeyer, a nationally recognized leader in the LGBT community, admits to having cultivated a friendship with Dan Cathy, President of Chick-fil-A. He will take a lot of criticism from within his community for admitting a friendship with the “enemy.” I think this is a brave thing to write. I respect Dan Cathy for refusing to defend himself and simply trying to sincerely follow Christ.

At the time of the Chick-fil-A uproar, I posted my feelings that it was a mistake for Christians get so excited about the controversy. I thought it would create more hostility than was appropriate or Christ-like. I stick by that. We can learn from Mr. Cathy in this.

There is so much I could say about it, but I will post more on this topic later. For now I will say that we must stop demonizing those who disagree with us. Dialing down the rhetoric, listening, having a dialogue does not mean we have to give up that which we hold true. It doesn’t mean we have to compromise anything. What it means is that we’ll start seeing “them” as people. Maybe they’ll see us the same way. Maybe – just maybe – we’ll get beyond the hostility and actually be able to talk about our common need for forgiveness.

 

Is It Hard to Convince People They Are Sinners?

Following up on this post about Dorothy Sayers, I read an article this morning on the CNN Religion Blog, and I made the mistake of glancing at the comment thread. This is something I almost never do because the comment threads of poorly monitored websites are typically a mess of name calling and drive-by insults. Anyway, one comment caught my attention.

A respondent said, “The problem that Christianity has is that it has to convince normal healthy people that they are fundamentally broken.”

I certainly know that most people want to deny the reality of their own brokenness and typically want to make excuses for it, but I’ve never found it particularly difficult to demonstrate the sinfulness of humanity.  Once we establish that, I don’t think it is a big jump to demonstrate the sinfulness of individuals. Of course, as in the Sayer’s quote, we would really rather find a way to put the blame on someone or something else.

So, what do you think? How hard is it to convince people of their basic brokenness?

Barton’s Book Getting Pulled From Shelves

(Edit 8/17/12: Because I put my foot in my mouth, and said some things I can’t defend, I decided to cut out the problem paragraph in this post. I was rightfully called out for it, and I’ve changed it.)

If you haven’t heard of David Barton, you should know that he is a self-taught and mostly self-published “historian” who is quite popular among conservative Evangelicals for his brand of history and politics. Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee love him. He makes the argument that America was founded, constitutionally speaking, to be a Christian nation, and that almost all of the founding fathers were Christians. No legitimate Christian historians I know of have high regard for David Barton’s work.

A Truly Christian Boycott | inexhaustible significance

If you hang around the internet, blogs, or Facebook you’ve probably heard about the Chick-fil-A controversy. I didn’t post on it, but I did have a bit of a discussion with some friends on Facebook when Facebook pulled down references to Mike Huckabee’s “support Chick-fil-A” day. According to Facebook, the event was getting so many “likes” it triggered the spam filters and was taken down. I commented at the time that it made me nervous when a large information sharing company like Facebook seemed to act as thought police. It still makes me nervous.

With that said, this pastor has some good thoughts on boycotts and controversies.

“People who tell you to fear are trying to control you.”

Do not be afraid.

A Truly Christian Boycott | inexhaustible significance.

Where Has Grace Gone?

More times than I care to recall, I’ve had to apologize to someone for something I’ve done or said. On occasion, I’ve been wronged too. Actually, by my count, I’ve been wronged quite a lot. Funny isn’t it how we remember so clearly those hurts done to us while being mostly able to forget the hurts we’ve done to others?

The community of the Church is supposed to be different from what we normally find in the life around us. We are supposed to be a people who acknowledge and repent of our sins against God and one another. We are supposed to be a people who both seek and grant forgiveness in order to create reconciliation.

Where has grace gone?