Blasphemy! How should a Christian respond?
The students at the local university do a fundraiser every year for the university run charity. Every year they harass motorists on their way to work trying to sell a student produced magazine (why the guys think the will sell more by dressing up as girls I will never figure out).
I usually buy the mag with no intention of reading it, but rather as a contribution to charity. It is generally a massive waste of money if you buy it for the content.
This year the students thought it would be funny to attack Christianity and those of us who call ourselves Christians.
I received a number of emails from Christians who took offense at what the mag had to say, and reading the quotes I could not but agree with them (the emails, not the quotes). There were a number of letters to editors and high ‘ranking’ people at the university and some of the corporates that sponsor the charity drive each year.
All of the respondents (at least the ones I saw) were very gracious in their apologies. I sent a quick email (ok I forwarded one that I received) to a contact I have who works for the University’s charity organisation. She is also a Christian and someone whose opinion I deeply value. We don’t always agree, but she is full of grace and wisdom.
Amongst other things she said this:
I think that the comments in the magazine shed a poorer light on Atheists than Christ (their counter-arguments are just so childish and stupid)…the light it sheds on us ChristIANS might be more disturbing in that (from what I can read), I think we have a lot to look at in terms of our witnessing to other people and the example we set…I always think that articles like this which attack Christianity (as opposed to Christ) are good for us because they show up hypocrisy which we can then recognise and change…
ANYWAY…I was thinking about this over the weekend and thinking the proper response from Christians, if we really think blasphemy is bad because it is blaspheming the Almighty, as opposed to making US look bad/stupid, is “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We should be pleading with Him to show mercy because of their ignorance, not judging them for it…look at how Moses and Aaron PLEADED for the Israelites whenever they did something wrong, because they had seen how God just “smote” people all the time and how strict His laws were. I think that, if Jesus could hang on the cross and pray like that , having been crucified by the people He was praying for, then we should be able to do as much because we don’t act in our own power, but rather in the power of the One that RAISED Him from the dead.
How’s that for a Monday morning kick in the teeth!
So yes let’s write to the papers and the powers-that-be. Let’s do what we can to stop this kind of thing from happening again. But let’s also look inside and ask ourselves:
Have we prayed for the people who printed this stuff?
Are we concerned about their eternal worth?
What can I do to mend the Christian public image?
Have you loved an enemy today? Have you prayed for those that persecute you?
Good that UCT has come forward with an apology in the newspaper. I am not sure what sort of fire throwing and temper was laid out on them to get the apology, but I hope that there was some genuine Christian attitude in the approach to this issue.
And that there was some good publicity for us Christians, hmmm.
I do not know about loved an enemy or prayed for someone that prosecuted me, but I have just the thing to pray for an enemy that has been embittering me.
I read the whole mag for the first time this year and quite honestly didn’t laugh once. I don’t even think i raised a corner of my lips in an attempt to smile at something in the mag. I was not that disturbed at the articles in the mag that took a stab at Christians. I was however quite shocked to see that that is the perception the generation from which these writers stem have of us as believers and as a church.
With all that has gone on in the news, about priests molesting children and the Methodists stand on gay marriages, you have to wonder how twisted the perception of being a christian is. It scares me to think of the task the rest of the world is setting us of reaching one more for Christ. How more difficult is it going to be to even have a conversation with a non-believer of that generation if that is there perception of Christianity.
It does give me hope though especially with our strategy of ‘invest and invite’ at church. spending time with a non-believer and living by example influences someone into thinking that there is hope in Christ especially when they see an amazing testimony. or you show compassion or just being there them through a difficult time.
I have a friend who says ‘I’m not a Christian, but God and I have a special relationship’. It makes you wonder what she has heard to make her choose this way and not make the commitment of going to church and reading the Bible. Ghandi wrote something along the lines that Christians have the most powerful resource in the Bible and an amazing God. yet it is Christians themselves that turn people off Christianity. I think that he might have named the biggest cause of atheism out there – Christians.
We are so quick to judge and condemn when we really should be pleading with our Father to spare the lives of those around us. We should be trying new things to save one more for Christ. Jesus didn’t exclude himself from circles of drunkeness and those that did wrong. He walked amongst them and lived a sinless life to show the world that it can be done.
We should be walking amongst those who blaspheme and those that sin intentionally living a life that, although will never be perfect until we ascend to heaven, we can at least choose right over wrong and live a life of example showing that we do fault at times yet God has the mercy and grace to forgive us. And that without Jesus we would have no life to live.