I'm taking a few days away from "Through New Eyes" as I need to digest some of the stuff I've read before I can do a decent commentary on it. In the mean time I was poking about the net and visited Albert Mohler's Blog. His latest offering was a discussionabout the "culture of offendedness". How timely. It seems religious faith is offensive to more than a few people, and the way religious faiths are portrayed by the media offends a few more. Everyone is offended these days. Mohler was dealing mainly in the context of religion vs society, but I see it between just about everyone. And for some reason we believe that we are entitled to NOT be offended by whatever views or actions other people take.
For instance...as a Christian I supposedly have a right NOT to be offended by my neighbours kid mentioning "the goddess" at school, and this kids family have the right NOT to be offended by my child's faith in Christ. I'm sorry people, this is unworkable on the highest level if we all supposedly have the God given right to freedom of speech, association, expression and religion. Instead of being offended, we should be protecting each other's right to express our faith. Honestly, how valuable is "freedom of religion" if I will only put up with religions which do not annoy me in some way? What good is freedom of speech if I agree with it all? Isn't freedom of speech the right to say something which is garunteed to make someone else mad?
I also see people who are offended by my confederate leanings. I have a bumper sticker in my car that says "I'm offended that you're offended." It isn't meant the way it seems. It's meant to show how stupid the whole argument that I should avoid my flag due to your beliefs about it, as I could avoid taking your feelings into account due to mine. I see one person after another on Christian discussion boards becoming "offended" when a heated doctrinal discussion starts.
While we shouldn't be lobbing spitwads at each other, do we really have the right to not be confronted by the possibility that you are wrong? And isn't this what this whole thing is about? Mohler points out that what the REAL definition of offense means does not cover these situations. He uses a historical definition which includes the ideas of "To be caused to stumble so as to fall, to fail, to apostasize, to be brought down, to be crushed." Wow, nobody in the instances I've cited were truly "offended" in the historical sense. It is something which if left alone would destroy a person. My views on the end times, the confederate flag or prayer in school will not destroy anyone. Neither will the opposing views destroy me.
So what does it mean to be "offended" in today's culture if it does not mean what it historically meant? Basically it comes down to we get our feelings hurt by the idea that we could be wrong, that someone would dare disagree with us and our cherished beliefs. I'm sorry but if that is what you mean when you are 'offended' by my doctrines, my flag or my kids...well you can go right on being that way. I will hold to what I know to be right until I know that I was mistaken. Then I will hold on to what I have learned just as closely. Lobbing tearfaced accusations that I have somehow hurt you by my simply holding and expressing a belief will never sway me from presenting what I know to be right in a forthright and hopefully cogent manner. Granted I have no right to be rude, but I do have the right to be truthful even if it hurts someone's feelings.
However, the church seems to have sucked in this newest component of the culture and made it part of it's own, misapplying scripture all the while. And it's not limited to the "culturally correct" Christians. Even culture averse groups such as punks, goths, and hippies will become "offended" by something within the church when they come to Christ. If they find that the church culture is "offended" by their clothes and their music, they become "offended" when they find that the main portion of the church doesn't understand them. Why would they if they reflect the main culture that rejected us in the first place? And if they can't, will it really destroy your faith? Did you come to Christ to be acceptable to the rest of the world or did you come to Christ because you want to be acceptable to GOD?
Hey if the body of Christ can't grow thicker skin I'm afraid we will become spiritual wimps, if we haven't already become them. THEN how are we going to do battle with the evils of the world? The world will tear apart a believer who can't handle having their feelings hurt. That's the nature of the way the world works.
Thus scratched Lady Raven at
3:31 PM
1 Other Squawking(s)
Name: Raven Shadowwinds From::Gaston, South Carolina, United States
I'm a 40ish mother of two; wanna-be historian, webdesigner, thinker of deep thoughts, and gothic princess. I am a perplexing and arcane person, creative writer, artist and photographer. I’m a voracious reader of anything Celtic, Norse, Confederate, Reformation, Renaissance, Medieval, World War two, political, philosophical or theological subject matter, as well as vampires, werewolves and other “darker” gothic themes. I’m an amateur historian, philosopher and theologian. I’m a confederate constitutional libertarian. I like antiquity goth, romanti-goth and period-goth styles mostly, though my hair has punk tendencies. In music I prefer celtic, renn, medieval, gregorian chant, ethereal darkwave, gothic rock, punk, melodic metal, medieval metal, hair bands, dark ambient, new age. I drink Coca-Cola, Chai Latte or British style tea.
Legalism is a sin, one cannot bind the conscience of another believer without direct scriptural compulsion to do so. Where there is no commandment or restriction there is liberty. Twisting scripture and
misinterpreting it to take away the liberty of a believer is legalism.
No culture can honestly claim to be Christian unless it has been ordered by and initiated by God. All cultures have been polluted by sin as all men are sinners. The Body of Christ should remember this...When attempting a conversation with a member of another culture...in that conversation, there will be two sinful cultures and two people who have a sin problem. This does not change whether the conversation is in deepest africa, or the goth club down the road.
**Warning** the below linked blog rolls contain sites which may not be acceptable or Christian. I have placed them here to increase traffic to my blog and possibly expose unbelievers to the truth. Click out at your own risk!!
