The Junior High School Locker Room Of Life
I think the world has devolved itself to the point where we seem to live inside a giant junior high school locker room. It’s to a point where people actively try to bully one another through insults and personal attacks because you can do it without real fear of reprisal. Just go through the media or through the internet and make sure you do it in a place where you know others will jump on the bashing bandwagon. It doesn’t matter if what you say is true…you just keep saying it and eventually people will start to believe it because they see it or hear it so much. It’s disgusting, it’s childish and I think if you deliberately propagate lies just to hurt someone else it’s Satanic in nature.
I see it all the time on the internet. For example, I recently came under attack from a batch of Switchfoot “fans” who never bothered to read my recent blog referencing the band but still decided to send me hateful private messages because I dared to say something critical. They ran to message boards around the internet and proceeded to lie about what was in the blog and to lie about me personally. It’s hilarious in that none of these people actually know me…or had even read this blog before they did a search on MySpace for Switchfoot and found it…yet they virtually run around and say that I’m some horrible, judgmental person who’s destroying Christianity because I made some comments about experiences with that band I had first hand.
That’s the funniest part to me…they’re saying I’m just bashing the band when a member of the band itself told me directly he could see why I felt that way! Of course, these haters refuse to answer the question as to why they apparently know better than their so-called heroes what was being said about them. That’s a hallmark of the internet today…and in all honesty any real discussions where someone starts their name-calling. When someone who is the object of your scorn raises a question with a legitimate point which negates your hateful rantings you just continue to insult them and ignore the valid question.
You see these kinds of tactics every single day and many of them are aimed at Christians. People with agendas to legitimize sinful activity…like, for example, those in the pro-gay culture…refuse to actually discuss the issue with any decorum but rather jump immediately to yelling someone’s a bigot because they don’t blindly agree. If you’re not in favor of letting gays do whatever they want anywhere they want at any time then you’re a bigot. If you’re against someone using pornography any time they want to do it…whether at work or at home or at church…then you’re just closed-minded and trying to impose your beliefs on others. If you’re an employer or leader of a group (like a church committee) and someone’s not pulling their weight and you let them go suddenly it’s all your fault for being a poor leader, for not showing compassion for your fellow man/woman or for making unreasonable demands like showing up on time. Lately, the biggest example of this is in the immigration debate where people who want to give a free pass to criminals say anyone who points out the fact these people are breaking the law are just racists.
I try to avoid political issues as much as possible in this blog even though I myself have some very strong views regarding the direction of the US. (My problem is that I’m not in line with any party on the scene so I’m despised on all sides!) Yet I saw a letter to the editor from someone that I felt I needed to respond to and their behavior fell within the boundaries of what I’ve been talking about up to this point. The letter stated that anyone who called themselves a Christian yet was against giving amnesty to illegals was someone rejecting the love of Jesus Christ. The letter went on to say that God would hold us to account for demanding the government hold them accountable for violations of the law of the government.
Let me just say this…whoever believes that as a Christian you should advocate full pardons for those who violate the law intentionally does not know the Bible nor Christ very well.
“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” – Matthew 13:41-42 (ESV)
“You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.” – Romans 2:23 (ESV)
Whether some people like it or not, God takes the law very seriously. In the case of God’s law, those who openly violate it will face God’s wrath and those who have accepted Christ will receive God’s discipline to correct their violations of His law (like adultery, etc.) It doesn’t mean that you lose your salvation or that Christ didn’t pay the price for your lawbreaking to keep you from heaven but it does mean you still have to face the penalty for what you’ve done.
“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” – Romans 2:6-11 (ESV)
I’m sure that by this point some of the rabid pro-illegals crowd have already clicked “add comment” and are leaving insulting messages because someone disagreed with their blanket amnesty position. They’ll likely start up the “Jesus said to love everyone” comments where they completely ignore the many times Christ told people to stop sinning. Violation of public law…governmental law…is sinning because we’re called to give to the government what is theirs and that includes following the law.
” He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” – Luke 20:25 (ESV)
So how is a Christian really supposed to handle this illegal immigration issue? We’re to show Christ’s love to anyone here illegally while not giving any honor to their illegal actions or advocating the government not take action against them for their illegal actions. If we take steps to help someone break the law of this country…and that includes trying to keep them from being arrested or deported under the current laws of the government…then we are not rendering to Caesar what is his…namely, following the laws of the land. If we dislike the laws, that’s fine, we work through our governmental officials to change it. However, that does not give us the right to violate man’s law if it does not conflict with God’s law.
Unfortunately, God’s law doesn’t conflict with man’s law in the case of illegal aliens.
We can show God’s love to these people by making sure any family left legally in the US is taken care of while the illegal person returns to their home country and do what it takes to get here legally. Sure, it might mean some families are broken apart and that’s certainly not a preferred situation but that doesn’t mean that goes against God’s law so we have some Biblical claim to avoid man’s law. We show love and compassion by helping them financially if necessary to go through the steps to become a legal citizen under the current set of laws. We show true love and compassion for them while at the same time showing them that laws of man are called to be respected under the Scriptures (when, again, they don’t directly conflict with God’s law.)
So stand firm on the truth of the Word in this debate if you’re a Christian and make both sides angry. Anger those who want to just throw all illegals out of the country by showing love and compassion to these people and making sure their basic needs of life are met. Anger those on the amnesty side by saying that the government is justified in arresting these people and returning them to their home countries. You’ll be faced with being called a bigot or racist or someone who’s unpatriotic and hates our country. You won’t find much support anywhere for this position but it is the position that Scripture calls us to follow if you truly are a believer in Christ. However, let the insults flow your way and be glad they are…
“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” – 1 Peter 4:14
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