July 30, 2012

Ready for This Particular Chicken to Cross the Road

When you live in the Bible Belt, every shot fired in the culture wars seems to be the shot heard 'round the world, or at least throughout our section of the world.

The current battlefront can be found at Chick-Fil-A. I refuse to take sides, although I'm sure there are those who think not siding with them (whichever side they're on) is taking a side.

Call me silly, but I think companies can support whatever causes they may choose to support and customers who don't care for those decisions can choose to take their business elsewhere. That seems simple enough.

I don't understand Christians turning this into a holy war with snarky comments and pictures on Facebook. These Christians represent both sides of the issue.

Really? Jesus gave his life for a holy chicken war?

I think not.

Paul indicated in I Corinthians that marriage can be a distraction from the Gospel. While he wasn't speaking to this situation, I think it applies. While there are married couples who manage to serve the Lord fully through their marriages, as Paul says, most who are married have divided interests. As Christians, when we let ourselves become distracted by who is or is not supporting gay marriage, we have divided interests. 

Sometimes I wonder if we all have a case of spiritual ADD as we bounce from one battlefront in the culture war to another. Whenever Christians get caught up in this stuff, we're not focused on Christ. We're focused on convincing others that we're right. That's not our job.

God does not call us to make people just like us, which is a good thing. Jesus unloaded on the Pharisees over that sort of thing, masterfully employing the phrase, "son of hell." (I alternate between chuckling that he used that term to describe religious leaders and feeling convicted that he could be referring to me.)

We're called to love others. We're called to tell people about Jesus. We're called to tell the world about God's grace. We're called to share the story of God's love for each of us, love demonstrated in Christ's sacrifice.

Nothing else compares.

Until next time,
Margaret

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ~ 1 John 4:10

8 comments:

  1. My thoughts exactly! Your words are eloquent, timely, and accurate. Well said!

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  2. Great take on things. Couldn't agree more!

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  3. Thanks to both of you. It's nice to know it's not just me. ;-)

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  4. well said, as always, margaret! and the greatest of these
    is love.

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  5. Thanks, Lea. Not sure anyone is feeling the love in this mess. Shame on us.

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  6. You are incredible at combining truth and humor, a Mark Twain thing, a Will Rogers thing, something that Jesus was so good at. Well done!

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  7. There is no room for snarky said she who can be quite snarky. I really very much wanted a chicken sandwich today and wished that I could have supported the company whose owner should have the right to say that he is a Christian who does not believe in gay marriage without mayors of two major cities saying that they don't want "his kind" in their communities. Now THAT is snarky.

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  8. Vee - I agree that politicians shouldn't determine whether or not Chick-Fil-A can open a store because of the owner's beliefs. I think the statements made by some mayors along those lines were completely out of bounds.

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