Lists have gone fairly well for me in the past, so I think I am going to kick this particular literary endeavor off with another one. This time around, a few things that many Christians are generally considered to be in opposition to.
1. Sex outside of marriage.
2. Excessive consumption of alcohol
3. Abortion
4. Materialism
5. The worship of other gods (both in the direct and abstract meaning)
There is an important question, though, that should be asked of oneself when considering these and other issues which Christians are generally considered opposed to. Particularly, this question should be taken into even greater account when discussing these issues with someone who does not have a relationship with God. This question is a short one.
"Why?"
Often, Christians have the idea that these various things are wrong drilled into their heads with very little opportunity to question this at a young age. As a result, we reach our adult years with the understanding that these things are wrong, evil, what have you simply because they are supposed to be. As I'm sure many reading this have experienced, the answer of "because it is" or "that's what I was taught" (both in my opinion based from the core idea that certain things are just supposed to be wrong) are almost completely ineffective when it comes to intense and animated dialogue on issues such as those listed above.
As suggested in the title, I feel that we need to, in a manner of speaking, declare war on the idea of "supposed to". We are called to witness to people about the love of God, but sometimes there are (very legitimate most of the time) roadblocks to person understanding God as being one who loves and cares for them deeply. When this is the case, it falls to those God has called to minister to people to confront these misconceptions. We cannot, however, expect to do that if the only way of helping that person overcome those misconceptions to to tell them what we were taught growing up, or what we "just believe".
This leaves us with an important burden. We absolutely have to educate ourselves as to why we believe what we believe, both in the bigger terms of faith and in specific issues. I am not saying we have to know everything. For example, if someone were to come to me and ask me some sort of science based query, they would receive a response beginning with uncomfortable ums, much shuffling, and confusion. Ultimately, I would run away. But then I would get ice cream and come back and we would be friends. Yay.
In all seriousness though, we are not required to know everything. If we are ever to be able to claim a strong position on a contemporary issue for God, one which will indeed stand the test of both time and our own culture, we must be willing to do the leg work to make sure that we are capable of defending that position. In this, we should not be lording our knowledge over people, but rather showing that we care enough about what they see as important to be able to dialogue with them. If what we believe really is Truth, I am wholeheartedly confident that this exercise, though admittedly scary sometimes, will indeed be affirming, and challenge the false stereotype that as Christians we have long ago given up our brains for an ignorant faith. With this, we have the chance to do infinitely more good in this world.
With His love and hopefully His grace,
Taylor
