This week’s issue of WORLD magazine arrived today. I was drawn in by an article called “Going Negative” by Tony Woodlief. Here is what the beginning of the article said:
The Barna Group, a respected Christian survey organization, recently asked young people to identify which perceptions they most strongly associate with Christianity. The three most commonly agreed upon were anti-homosexual, judgmental and hypocritical. Barna president David Kinnaman and co-author Gabe Lyons conclude in UnChristian that Christians “have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.”
Wow. This moves me almost to the point of tears.
I think of Jesus. He didn’t have to have an anti-abortion or a boy + girl = marriage bumper sticker on the back end of his donkey to let others know He valued life and marriage. He lived those values, while loving the people who hadn’t gotten there yet.
The bumper stickers, public condemnation, division, and judgment is the stuff of Pharisees.
Who are you going to follow?
