"How do I love the gay people that I work with?"
"How can we be friends when we don't believe the same things?"
"I know I'm supposed to love them, but I have such a hard time knowing how to show them love without thinking that I'm disowning what the Bible says about this."
"How do I convince them that we can be friends, but I can't agree with their lifestyle?"
"How do we love them?"
Hard stuff, right? I definitely don't have all the answers, but the Lord has graciously allowed me to enter into good dialogue with these girls who are thinking about tough issues.
Today, I entered into that conversation again today, but from a slightly different angle. For those of you who haven't been on a public university campus in a while, it's very common for universities (especially the larger ones) to have "crazy preachers" or "screaming preachers" come to campus for a day (or a week). They hold large signs, usually yell in a loud voice, and stir up lots of controversy on campus.
Regardless of your personal views on evangelism and what is or isn't effective, most of the time, these preachers aren't preaching the true gospel. They'll point at girls around campus and yell out, "Whore! You wear shorts!" (Seriously, I'm not making this up! I got called out by one during my sophomore year at Mississippi State — yes, I was wearing shorts and an RUF t-shirt.) Needless to say, that's not particularly effective, and usually angers the crowd. Most universities have the preachers guarded by a policeman or two, and they have to stand behind a line of police tape so that students can't touch or hit them.
(For those of you protesting and wondering how this is legal, just remember — free speech!)
Anyway, today the screaming preachers are here at Kennesaw. I took a few photos to show the crowd and some of the signs. Several students made opposing signs and stood silently in the crowd, or walked around. Others waved their Bibles and entered into dialogue with these men, who argue that they haven't sinned. The photos don't show this well, but there were about 100 students crowded around the preachers this afternoon:
These are the signs from the preachers.
The yellow and green signs are from Kennesaw students.
Today, I found myself dialoguing with Christian students:
"They make us look bad. This isn't the true gospel."
"Why do they come and yell and scream? Don't they know it isn't effective?"
"They're wrong, but how do we love them and show them Jesus anyway? And how do we show this crowd that we love them?"
Whew. Tough stuff, but good conversations. As much as I dislike the screaming preachers, I have to be thankful for the opportunities they create — not just for students to ask questions, but for me to consider how I love others. Do I really believe Jesus is big enough and great enough for everyone? Do I really believe that because He's shown such love and compassion to me, I'm to show that to others? What does that look like?
3 comments:
What is striking to me is there are a whole host of biblically questionable behaviors that Christians don't seem to get nearly as riled up about or even practice themselves without judgment: divorce, financial irresponsibility, gluttony, holding grudges, lying, etc..
Also, the rates of premarital sex are roughly the same--and in some studies, more common--among Christians than non-Christians.
We all fall short in some way .. and I'm not convinced it's a good idea to decide which sins are worse than others, or which ones are causing God's wrath.
If anything, the job of the Church should be to take in the most broken, the most sinful, and show them there is a better way. Jesus was occasionally pretty harsh with folks, but in the end it was backed by love, not hate.
We drove through Columbia, SC two weekends ago as they were preparing for a gay pride parade. Observing the protestors lining the road brought up a similar conversation as we continued our drive. The pastors (their shirts and banners named them as such) held signs condemning the people in the parade and telling them what God was going to do to judge them.
While the verses on the signs are in the Bible, the pastors had unfortunately taken them out of context. They also seemed to have forgotten where the Bible says we are to leave judgment up to God and we are to love our enemies/those with whom we do not agree.
I think of the passage when Jesus allows the Pharisee who is without sin to cast the first stone. No stones are thrown because even they accepted their sinful nature.
The Bible does not say that we are to agree with actions and attitudes contrary to God's law (including judging others) but it does command us to examine our own hearts and understand we are all sinners and could easily be that person (insert action you oppose here) without God's grace. Ultimately, we are not called to defend God. He's got the power to do that. We are called to be witnesses for Him when and where He has placed us.
Thanks for posting, Aubs! You're handling some tough questions.
I would get so upset when false teachers/preachers came to West Georgia when I was there. They don't want to have conversations, they just want to yell. It would be better to shoot them with an immobilizing dart than to try to argue with them. I like in Acts 13:4-12 when Paul rebukes the man for what he's doing and he becomes blind. I wonder if anyone's tried that yet.
It's hard to know what to do because you don't want the lies to be preached to people who don't know God, but you don't want to sink to their level and engage them either because it's ineffective and then you are yelling too.
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