No One Knows What We Are For, Only What We Are Against

My source of entertainment this Sunday night? It was counting how many "Support Duck Dynasty" posts I could find on Facebook. I counted, oh about 30 in the past several hours. All by Christian-identifiers. They all had phrases like "Stand up/with," "support," "freedom," "liberty," etc. 

Phil Robertson expressed his biblical views on same-sex marriage in a distasteful manner, but that's another sticky story. My underlying thought about my favorite Duck Commander and his fellow duck-haters is that well, we're debating a moral issue that isn't worth our time. We're not going to convince anyone here. Only Christ can. 

And you know, that initial thought rabbit trails me into something else: it seems like American Christians quack too much about what we cannot do or say to prevent us from sharing the Gospel and do way too less about the many, many things we CAN do that would share the message of the Cross more than any angry Twitter Tweet.

1. Why protest lack of school-led prayer in school? Write your child's teacher and administrators encouraging notes instead, thanking them for the unseen work they trudge through.

2. As a teacher, I can't say "Merry Christmas" at all-it's only "Happy Holidays"-but whatever. I think Christ's unofficial birthday would be best celebrated if I asked loved ones to donate to Compassion International in lieu of a Christmas present instead of whining about a phrase largely ignored anyway.

3. Last year's Chick-fil A Appreciation Day where those who lobbied for freedom of religious speech all bombarded CFA. What if we had all raced out to go to serve at the homeless shelter instead?

4. It's easy to participate in an anti-abortion protest at the women's clinic. But what's not so easy is adopting that unwanted child. Therefore, what if we offered our love and hope through adoption instead of our judgement through a picket sign?

5. Your outbursts against gay marriage are useless in a country that's already made up its mind. So build up your own marriage instead, never leaving your spouse behind.

The American Church's pending emphasis is all on what we can NOT do instead on what we CAN do. So should it surprise you that mainstream society knows us more for what we are against instead of what we are for?

"The words that express your faith and the works that show your faith should be so intertwined that they are like a pair of legs walking together side by side in such a way that you can scarcely tell one apart from the other."