Why People Hate Us

A good many of us Christians are simply not able to understand the depth of hostility that many hold us in, and have no idea of it's origin.

The last few days have given me a couple of examples, both of which do a wonderful job of explaining this. They both illustrate common behavior among Christians that isn't in line with our faith, and that engenders a great deal of hostility. Some of us mistake ourselves for God.

The first is the Tiller shooting.

I understand the desire to stop a man from murdering the unborn. But when we talk about about being pro-life, the phrase we most often hear is from conception to natural death. Murder is not natural. I understand the frustration of a state government that has over 200 documented complaints, many of the malpractice and other criminal matters, against a man who was protected by the Attorney General of Kansas, an official who was appointed by a governor who received much money in campaign donations from Tiller. But if you check your catechism, you'll notice that the instances where capital punishment is allowable is very circumscribed--and the decision is reserved to the civil authorities. The early Christians didn't run around killing Roman officials or those who exposed infants or performed abortions. And, after time, they won!

The bozo who shot Tiller simply fulfilled the fears of the pro-abortion community, and rendered anything we have to say about the subject ignorable--we can be painted as murdering fanatics now.

The second instance involves resistance to Pornography. On my way back from fishing, we stopped for coffee, gas and cigarettes. Across the road from where we stopped there was an "adult superstore". It was under siege by local Christians. They had raised banners--expensive, commercially produced banners--telling patrons that if they entered the store, they would be photographed, and their photos and licence plate numbers would be posted on an Internet web page. They had banners proclaiming that if truckers entered, not only would they be photographed and posted, but the corporations they worked for would receive photos, etc., of their entry.

Again if you check your catechism, you will find that we are not to be gossiping about other peoples peccadillo's. Let alone publishing them on the Internet. (That's why we shouldn't read gossip rags, BTW.) Further more, they are endangering people livelihoods. To be honest, if I'm working in a place you think is immoral and you get me fired by impeding business, I'm not going to like you. If I lose my business, because you impeded it by running a blockade with threats of what amounts to black mail, I'm probably going to hate you.

(Here I know what I'm talking about! I know people who lost jobs, or had their earnings reduced, by smoking bans in bars--yep, I worked in bars, used to be good money there. I am no longer in any sympathy for anti-smokers.)

Instead of converting people, too often some of us scream at them, or regrettably (and thankfully rarely) shoot them. We seem to have forgotten something--punishment of sin belongs, not to us, but to God. Is it any wonder that Seculars hate and fear us?