Another piece of narrow-minded dogma in the last week and a half came from Scott Lively, president of Defend the Family International. The story has to do with how the Ugandan parliament is attempting to make homosexuality a capital offense, punishable by death. Lively, who has a lot of connections throughout Africa (much like many other religious leaders do), toured Uganda in 2009 and gave speeches concerning the gay agenda. Lively says that he never suggested the death penalty for homosexual acts, but he did say, “But the fact that they’re willing to stand up and say, ‘No, we are not going let you homosexualize our country!’ — that is a step in the right direction, and I would hope that it would spread to other countries.” (Full story at http://bit.ly/5VyDeY).

I definitely don’t advocate for or condone the practice of homosexuality, but Lively’s backhanded way of saying that action like that may be a “step in the right direction” because it shows commitment is inflammatory and runs the risk of making all Christians seem as hateful.

I have plenty of friends that view me as a tolerant Christian, but who won’t call Christ their own because they don’t want to be lumped in with folks like Pat Robertson or Scott Lively. And I can’t blame them.

As my boss used to say, it only takes one “Aw, sh**” to wipe out a hundred attaboys.” I think the same thing holds true here–it only takes remarks from one person with a worldview perceived to be intolerant to obscure all of the good work that’s being done in God’s name.

Jay – Perhaps I could have chosen a different word than “wacko” (even though that is what his statements makes him sound like). The only reason I am frustrated when public figures make these kind of statements is because the vast majority of Christians who don’t hold to those opinions end up having to do damage control and explain to our friends & family that not all Christians think that way. His statements are harmful to the cause of Christ and place unnecessary barriers in the path of those who might consider placing their faith in Christ. The simple fact of the matter is that Christians do in fact have an image problem and people like Pat Robertson don’t exactly help.

In addition, the mainstream media is certainly not in the habit of reporting on the good things that Robertson does but after seeing how the media operates for nearly 20 years, this doesn’t surprise me. Sensationalism is their bread and butter. I don’t worry about it because I just don’t watch television news anymore.

But it’s this quote that gets me the most:

“It only takes a relatively small number of people on the fringe to undermine the image and standing of the majority.”

I wrote about this on my own blog. We get so caught up in what we want the “image” of Christianity to be, that our knees jerk uncontrollably when somebody says something like Robertson did and we’re scrambling to distance ourselves from it saying, “That’s not me!” Is anybody willing to defend Robertson from the scurrilous attacks that claim he’s a racist, bigot, etc? If not, why not?

Why do we concern ourselves so much with this image? Why not go out and just do what Christ called us to do and stop worrying about what others think of us? Our actions are always going to speak louder than our words or the words of others. In addition, there are and will always….ALWAYS….be people who are going to look for any opportunity to say, “Aha! I knew that’s what you Christians were really like!” No matter what image you attempt to project, there will be people who will always see Pat Robertson. And what does the Bible say about that? In Matthew 7:6 it says, “Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

When we’re concerned about our “image” we’re allowing the outside world essentially to define us. The best response to what Robertson said is to simply say, “Well I don’t agree with what he said, but did you know what his organization, Operation Blessing is doing?”

OK, So we all look at the world through our own prism… our own worldview.

Being a missionary in Thailand, it has become quite clear just how different two views can be. Thailand has a spirit-affected worldview… living in fear of spirits. A case-in-point: a popular pet name for babies is “Ugly” and they will call a baby ugly. Why? Because they don’t want to attract the Evil Eye (I can’t verify if it’s the one from LOTR) with a cute baby. Now a typical ethnocentric American response is to say how quaint and/or stupid this is and then go on and talk about science and calculus. Maybe a better approach would be to understand this to better understand them.

Where am I going with this? I am merely pointing out that we need to look at Pat’s worldview… a worldview that sees good and evil supernatural forces at work in the world. (Incidentally, the last sentence on his clip was that he was optimistic. With his org Operation Blessing, they do a lot of good.) He is trying to do good and fight evil.

Naturally, our response to Pat is the same as our response to the ugly baby.

I guess I’m not as angry at his off-the-cuff gaff as I would have been 8 months ago. So he belives an actual pact with the devil is the cause of their poverty, instead of _____(fill in the blank with the REAL scientific reason).

Let’s all expand our understanding of others just a little bit.

Oh, and so this confusion doesn’t happen again, we need to do a major edit of that big book we look to for our worldviews.

Aaron: I wish I could claim credit for my views, but I have learned them through trial and error from others who have taught me, and they, having found them in scripture.

Brad: thanks for letting me have so much realstate on your site; was not my intention. ch:

Reminds me of another quote:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

The fringe is insanely important. While I agree it has the power to ruin the reputation of all the rest, it also has the power to lead all the rest. I want to be the fringe.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

Love you bunches!