The Enemy in the Mirror

It seems we are surrounded with arguments on every side. Each sentence in the conversation seems to grow more strident and more hateful. The spiral is downward in every arena of life.

 The Left and the Right are at each other. The only portion of the battleground that is emptying is the moderate group in the middle.

The US of A is scatter shooting all over the middle east. ISIS hates Americans and Americans seem willing to oblige ISIS, its just that we are so much more sophisticated and humane in our killing.
America has managed to keep the racial wars going. Now the war has centered more directly on police, which seems the height of irony.

And Christians have found a way to hate everybody. While clinging to our guns and bibles Christians are a formidable bunch. But the homosexuals, the Muslims, peace mongers, and the democrats better beware, Christians are out for blood. Of course the last thing you will hear as an enemy of this group is the refrains of "God is Love". 

Where did this world take a turn to violence and stridency? When did we lose the ability to debate, reason, and treat each other with deference? The downward spiral can't continue. As a Christ-follower, a Kingdom resident it seems we should be this voice of reason.

But now we see the decline and erosion, at least in numbers, of the Christian world view. I have noted this in other blogs, but the fact remains that this world view has been marginalized and generally ignored.

I came across a quote in a book I am finishing called "Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gay-vs-Christians Debate" by Justin Lee ( by the way, this is nice starting point if you are really interested in discovering what a devoted Christian and a gay man struggles with)

"And while so many of us in the church have been focused on the "threat" to our culture posed by homosexuality, we've missed the realization that the church in our culture is under attack-not by gays, but by Christians. We Christians are the sleeper agents. The bomb is in our car. We have become the unwitting assassins of people's faith. The Christians are killing Christianity"

Christianity is being erased by the actions of those who are the most fervent about making this world view dominant.

It is time to place on the ground the armaments we cling most closely to, the entitlement of righteousness, the lofty place of condemnation, the battle cry of "rights". As a Christ-follower, I have no rights. The mental image for me is standing on a battlefield and stooping down and quietly placing my gun on the ground, waving a hand in salute to the other side, and walking away. I cannot kill them into understanding.
So the ratios may change. Instead of my side killing them 10 to 1, it may take my side experiencing the loss ratio of the same magnitude. Only when we see that the harm we have done has at least matched the harm they have done will we begin to understand the true dynamics. We can no longer have a voice in this if we continue to insist on resolution only on our terms.

Godspeed to those who seek another way.
Don