In It, Not of It, Not Afraid of It

It's ok to be vocal about what you believe in. Its even ok to be steadfast in what you believe. We can look back to the book of Daniel and see that his dedication to his beliefs is what helped him to persevere through all that he had to walk through. He made a decision to not be defiled and walked towards that decision. I don't think it is ok though to alienate, to incite hatred or to push away people who need to be reached. Reverend Jerry Falwell passed away today. I am sorry for his family and for all those who held him dear and I pray God sends the comforter to keep them. He did some good things in terms of mobilizing the people of God in the political realm and can be credited with infusing politics with a hint of morality by affecting candidates platforms. I do think, however, that he used his pulpit to alienate some instead of attracting them into the Kingdom of God through the love that attracted us all who are saved. I wrote something a while ago about this and it still lays heavy on my heart. I think we should all be open to loving the sinner and hating the sin. If God ever calls me to a pulpit permanently (please God NO!) I want the majority of the people attending to be the people the church sees as sinners--they are the ones who need the gospel. The brothers and sisters who are already saved should be the ones on the outside bringing them in--not sitting in the pews hiding from the world. We need to be infecting the world with the change that transformed our lives not hoarding it to ourselves. While we can celebrate the what the reverend did for christianity in terms of recognizing us an important political constituent, I fell we need to learn from some of his alienating practices and as the new generation of evangelists move in a direction that reminds us we are in the world, ministering to it but not of it but definitely not afraid of it.