Christians no longer comfortable in culture

Excerpted from "The days of acceptable Christianity are over," World Magazine, May 13, 2014 - Robert P. George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on Tuesday delivered a somber message to Christians: “The days of acceptable Christianity are over.”

George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, made the remarks at the 10th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. George said society calls Christian beliefs bigoted and hateful, and “they despise us if we refuse to call good evil and evil good.” He argued that American Christians no longer have the option to avoid the culture wars, saying “a price must be paid” for holding to traditional church teachings on life, marriage, and sexual ethics.

Former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich and axed reality show hosts David and Jason Benham are some of the latest to pay that price for their belief in traditional marriage. George said what American Christians are facing is the 21st century version of the question, “Am I ashamed of the gospel?”

“Marriage is inseparable from the gospel,” he said. “These teachings are not the whole gospel, but they are integral to the gospel. They are not optional truths.”

George said even if the current cultural trend is unstoppable, Christians should not stop teaching what the Bible says about human sexuality. “If we deny these truths, we really are like Peter [saying] ‘I do not know the man,’” he said. “If we keep silent, we are like the other disciples, who ran.”

George noted how societal pressures have helped unite Catholics and evangelicals, who he called “our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Commentary

CMDA Executive Vice President Gene Rudd, MD – “I write this while still jet-lagged from a trip to an East Asian country where persecution of Christians is well known. I return with a heightened appreciation of the struggles facing believers who live under the real threat of reprisal for their faith. With signs and symptoms now manifest here, it is easy to agree with Professor George in predicting that our culture is destined to the same fate.

Growing up, I never imagined overt persecution against Christians in the United States. But our faith is now the one that the “tolerant ones” refuse to tolerate. Is it because of our message, or because of hypocrisy and lack of grace? Likely both. The first we must not abandon; for the second we must seek forgiveness.

On a recent flight, I read Nik Ripken’s (pseudonym), The Insanity of God, his personal research of the persecuted church in many cultures. My seatmate must have thought I was daffy. At one moment I would be laughing and in the next, crying. In one of the book’s poignant conclusions, Ripken reminds us that God uses persecution to grow the Body of Christ. We should not disdain persecution. Rather than pray to be delivered from persecution, we must simply pray that we be found faithful.

“Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets’” (Luke 6:22-23, NIV 1984).

Resources
Full Remarks – Robert P. George at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
http://www.freedom2care.org/