replies: jesus vs. the moral majority (and other sinking ships)
Alex From Montreal asked some great questions in the comments section of a recent post. I’d like to answer some of them more fully, and hopefully continue to round out the idea of Christians as a people who see Christ as Lord of everything.
Us Vs. Them
First, as I briefly mentioned in my reply in the comments, we must always remember that we are proclaiming the lordship of Christ, and not an ideological nuance, a politician, or even a certain moral agenda. Proclamation of morality says, “The world is wrong because of your [corporate greed, abortion, injustice].” Proclamation of Christ says, “The world is saved because of Christ’s [generosity, life, justice].” Proclamation of morality says “Mankind has no hope unless your [corporate greed, abortion, injustice] is stopped.” Proclamation of Christ says “Mankind has no hope unless Christ’s [generosity, life, justice] is found.” In this way, the Christian witness transcends politics and apathy.
Us Vs. Us
Second, it is my sincere belief that every Christian is called to continually proclaim of the kingship of Jesus. This constant shining of God’s glory is buried deep in the essence of what it means to be God’s people in the earth (see Matt 5:15-16 or Eph 1:23, for instance). And this calling doesn’t exist in a vacuum — biblically, men and women who truly understand God’s wonderful nature through Christ will naturally desire to see how He is the fulfillment of every desire, the answer to every problem on the earth (I look to verses like Rom 12:1-2; Psa 42:1-2; 73:24-25 for this). As G.K. Chesterton famously said, “If Christianity should happen to be true — then defending it may mean talking about everything.” So being a Christian and being a proclaimer of Christ-over-all are really one and the same thing.
I mention this not to be nit-picky, but rather because it is quite tempting in our 21st century context to talk about our spokespeople and their responsibilities. I would rather we talk about ourselves as speaking people and our responsibilities. So the real question we must ask is, “What are the everyday circumstances that God has placed me in so that I can live and speak in such a way that lifts up Christ?”
Them Vs. Us
Finally, a thought on sound bites: We will not win the sound bite war. The ship of societally normative Christianity is sinking in the west — focusing on our sound bites is bailing water with a dixie cup.

The true antidote to public slander is the humility of Christ. In 50 years Christianity will not have a new name in the world if it advances its repartee. It will have a new name if it sacrifices itself in love for the world to bring fame to Christ.
I don’t know about you, but for me that gives me tremendous hope. Because who really wants to have to babysit Mike Doria?

We have now 100% confirmed type 1A lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. This is fantastic news: normal cancer can travel through your body through all kinds of pesky cancer transporter beams, but lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has to progress sequentially down the Oregon Trail of your Lymph Node system. That makes it containable and predictable. Which is good.