Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Serving in the Name of the Lord

John McCain, Rick Warren and Barack Obama
Mother Teresa and Child
Famous Christians Lead the way in love, compassion and reconciliation
On my last post I mentioned a research study by AARP on the state of volunteering in America. Is there anything in that research that surprised you? Did you find it unusual to see the high number of Christians involved in serving?
The fact that all Christians serve more than almost any other group has been found in study after study. Despite the facts, agnostics and secularists continue to spread disinformation about the high compassion levels of Evangelicals and other Believers no matter what their theology.

Why does the media so often repeat the illogical rants that Christians are full of hatred, bias and callous disregard for hurting members of our society? For example, when the Leftist politicians discovered that Sarah Palin was a Conservative Evangelical with a child pregnant out of wedlock they immediately smiled with glee. They assumed that Conservatives and Evangelicals would scorn her as an unfit mother.

Some politicians also began to heap scornful attacks on her for the pregnancy and for working outside the home thinking Conservatives would reject her. They want to disembowel the Religious Right but it was out of ignorance that they acted. This led them to show how callous and mean spirited they were and the result was a strong backlash. Many people, including Conservatives, have strongly supported Mrs. Palin and her husband. If they read the polls over the past thirty years they would stop treating us as members of the Ku Klux Klan.

This is also a lesson for us Evangelicals. We must also watch our words and judgments carefully. We need to remember the words of Jesus when He warned us "Do not judge or you will be judged." Those secularists who judge us discovered that it backfired on them. If we get judgemental it will violate the law of love and backfire on us as well.
For example, some Evangelicals have treated Obama harshly and unfairly. This is wrong and will not be tolerated by the Lord. His commands are clear that judgement with harshness will lead us to be judged harshly. Let us always treat our political opponents with gentleness, compassion and mercy.

Democracy is a rough, adversarial business but we must guard our hearts when we interact with politicians with differing views. It is reported that some preachers said that people who vote Democrat can't be Christians. That is wrong and a terrible thing to say. Let it be a lesson to us that such things always come back to haunt us. Mercy drives out judgement!
As it says in Proverbs 9:7

Never argue with a mocking person our you will end up being ashamed

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