When I was little a "friend" of mine and myself decided we would go to our respective homes and get swords to play with. Not having a sword of my own, I built one out of Constructs (kind of like erector legos), and went out to meet him.
When we met outside, he had brought his own real (plastic) sword. He then proceeded to tell me something along the line of how mine was useless before breaking it to pieces with his sword and walking away.
Needless to say, I was crushed. I picked up my sad, broken sword, went back inside, and played there until whenever it was I felt like going back out. I still remember that incident clear as day. I remember the weather, the sun, the excitement, and the soul-rending defeat of the moment. I even remember the old man next door shaking his head (no doubt muttering something to himself about mean kids) as he worked on his lawn, bent over probably pulling weeds.
Even now, 20+ years later, I still have this weird, sickly feeling whenever I think about it.
But this post isn't about that sickly feeling. This post is about the fact that I brought a useless weapon, and how we do the exact same thing all the time in our own lives. Instead of coming prepared with our best weaponry, we come to the battles in our lives with poorly made substitutes thinking that the other side will play by our rules so that our flimsy toys won't break and fall to pieces.
We need to realize one thing. The other side does not care if our toys break. In fact, it has a vested interest in making sure they do. Yet time and again we cobble together "defenses" for our beliefs that are not bound or upheld in Scripture. We even use arguments that are completely devoid of a Christian worldview for fear that we will be attacked as kooks or bigots or some other perverse smear.
So we go in our rooms, look at our legos, and build a toy thinking that everything will be fine because we're "on the right side of things". Thinking we will win simply because "we are right," is not only dangerous, but fatal.
Take the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage this week. The way the opinion was written has basically left the door open for the next useful case to declare gay marriage as a "right," guaranteed by the Constitution. When the opinion came out I saw people everywhere rejoicing at the decision. Facebook, Twitter, News, even YouTube has a marker next to its logo "celebrating LGBT pride." Taglines such as "all love is equal," are everywhere, as well.
Yet almost nowhere did I see wide scale denouncement of the decision. It was as though Christians and others got their toys broken, picked up the pieces, and went to go play in their rooms, thinking that they would be left alone if they went into hiding for a little bit.
As Erick Erickson put it, you will be made to care. One way or another, you will be required to take a stance on this issue one way or another. It's not only this issue either. Drug use, pornography, FCC decency regulations on primetime TV, the sexualization of girls and the demasculation of boys, and on and on and on. There are a lot (a lot) of things coming to a head in the next several years that you will have to take a stance on. There will be no hiding from it. "No opinion," will not be an option.
Are you ready for that?
Are you ready to do the preparation and fighting it will take to battle these things? Are you willing to donate your time, your money, your expertise to those who are on the front lines fighting these wars in public? Will you take a stand before there is no ground from which to take a stand on?
Some will say, "you can't legislate morality." I disagree. We legislate murder, insider trading, cheating on your spouse, child support, what can be on TV before 9pm, and a thousand other "morality" issues based on what is right and what is wrong. Legislating morality is all that regulators do. The argument holds no water.
Others will say, "that's not showing love." Is it showing love, then, to not tell someone they are about to be hit by a train? Is it love to look at someone, knowing they are dying while holding the cure in your hands, and not tell them about it? How much love can we show if we do not fight for goodness and holiness? How much love are we showing if we are not showing a broken and fallen world the requirements from a loving God to live with Him forever?
Still others will say, "if you fight back against what is going on, you will run people away from the church." This, too, is a false argument. If we do not hold ourselves to God's standard, are we acting as His church? Are we proving ourselves as the body of Christ by our silence? Better a small church which follows God than an enormous clubhouse of people calling themselves christians who are such in name only.
We must be willing to act. We must be willing to fight. And we must be willing to do so using real arguments based in God's Word, Character, and Worldview. Lego swords will not work. Running away will not work. We must be willing to stand, now and forever, for what is right before God, and Him alone.
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