Missionary Road

Today’s USAToday article on Online Social Network Information really set me off. No, it wasn’t about the start of the article describing a woman coming out of the closet to her entire circle of friends online about being a newly married lesbian. Instead, It was about a professing Christian Professor discussing his fear to come out of the closet about his faith to his students. The article reads,

Ledbetter states on his page that his political views are “conservative” and that he is a Christian. “I’ve wondered about if students don’t share my political affiliation or religion, would that ever be a barrier?” He says he has wanted to post religious thoughts for members of his church, but decided against it. “Would that be appropriate for current students to read?” he asks. “Possibly not.”

Why did this set me off so much? As I’ve been reading about persecution around the world and seeing missionaries sacrifice their lives oversees to share the Gospel in the most dangerous of places, I can say without a doubt that I have more respect for this lesbian’s courage than I would for this overly cautious Professor. I don’t even place this professor’s decision to not share his “religous thoughts” as an attempt to be shrewd with his students. I see this as another compromise by Christians around America to conform to the false tolerance of our day. In fact, this is such a common occurence in Christian circles to not want to offend in workplaces or among nonchristian friends, that more education needs to be done in the Church to prevent this.

Would reading the blog about the Persecuted Church, Persecutionblog.com, change your views on whether you should be bold enough to stand up for your faith in the workplace or with nonchristian friends? Would checking out this Map of worldwide Christian Persecution challenge you to get out of this false mindset of tolerance that runs rampant in our American culture today.

Maybe the American Church should focus less on becoming the next mega church and more on sharing these truths about having the boldness Paul had to Proclaim Jesus Christ and Him Crucified:

1 Corinthians 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

May God change the hearts and minds of the American Church to embody the verse above, and may God grant us repentance as we confess believing the lies of this world.

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