Comfortable Christian majority can’t comprehend persecution

[RC]

There was a time when I thought Fargo was progressive when compared to the rest of North Dakota. Granted, I was much younger and more naive about many things at that time, but it was something I truly believed. As I grew older and the rose-colored glasses cracked, I still believed that, relative to the rest of the state, Fargo was indeed a more accepting place.

It saddens me to look at Fargo today and see that either it has drastically changed or my impression of the city was completely off-base. Or maybe it’s a little of both.

I grew up in Wahpeton, N.D. We as children looked forward to our outings to the “big city” of Fargo. Yet I was always puzzled as to why the same monument that graces a cemetery in Wahpeton had such a prominent place in the center of the city mall. Yes, it was something I was aware of, and it was something I questioned.

<SNIP>

The simple fact of the matter is that in the 231 years that this country has existed, Christians have not had to endure the persecution that so many others have. Sure, once upon a time, in a land far far away from here, there was persecution. It’s one of the founding ideas of modern Christianity. But, how many current practitioners were in Europe when the Council of Nicaea was convened?

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/printer.cfm?id=171413
Edited for link

This is a fantastic well written letter that puts the so-called christians in their rightful place. I love the part about the same monument in a cemetery in one town being in a prominent place in the center of the city mall in another town.

[salin]

1. link?

I would like to read the whole letter.

[Perky]

2. Christians certainly ar not being persecuted here

From a sermon I am preaching in a couple of weeks

I think there are some who would wan to politically silence religiously informed opinion in the public square but that is not persecution.. Truth of it is Christians have brought that on themselves of the last generation... The language on the Christan right has been ugly, divisive and certainly not remotely evangelical, while the language of the Christian Left might seem more palatable to the secular world, it can tend to be non-evangelical as well...

Not that evangelical language should pepper our political speech,(in fact, it rarely does, though God is invoked continually), but if we attempt to portray the life of CHrist in our word and actions, I think we would be tolerated and listen to as one of the many voices in the public square.

In a secular society, we should not hold sway, but neither should we be silenced. The path to tolerance is a two-way street, and because some of us i9n the Christian C~community have raised intolerance to an art from, our first act has to be repentance. and then apology to the country for the division s we have caused. We must learn that the rules that God applies to the CHurch were never meant to be applied to non-Christians. There may well be moral absolutes. but we have no right to use the legislative process and the picket line to promote our 'agenda" or impose our view on a secular world. We have spent a generation using that approach and the results have been grievous both politically and spiritually. We have been foolish and arrogant and We must repent. we must apologize. We have done great damageed to both this country and the cuase of Chist and we must repent.

It is fine to speak out in the public square on issues that concern us us from a Christian perspective. But a legislative agenda and moral outrage is a poor substitute for revival and doing what we are called to do. We have to speak to the issues of the day, we have to speak truth to power, but we should not attempt to shut the door in people's faces because that is not wHAT JESUS WOULD DO.

[Perky]

3. thanks for the link

[GeorgeGist]

4. But then why do Christians believe ...

that only Jesus can save them from God's persecution of their souls?

[InkAddict]

5. Beats me? I think that most X-tians believe in the Triune nature

of the Divine. Therefore, there must be a path to salvation through the Holy Spirit. One cannot legislate love, so I can't command that Spirit be present. IMO, our individual lives have been tasked with the responsibilty to recognize where that light is not and explore the ways in which to increase its power to illuminate the potential for good in all things. It's inevitable that each of us screws that up a lot, but no one human should be so arrogant as to decide that he/she has the corner on the ability to recognize all the dark spots. A zeolot's reliance on an infallible leader who claims an endless supply of batteries for the only true candle of truth/justice just can't be good!