Over the past weekend I attended the DARE2SHARE student conference with our church. It was great. While we were worshipping God and being force-fed (in a good way) the need to take the plight of lost people seriously, there was another student event happening on the West Coast. Ron Luce, with the organization he founded, Acquire the Fire, found themselves being hounded and harassed in San Francisco while they sounded the battle cry for our nation to repent. While it is true there are similar rally’s happening at various locations around our country on any given weekend, the fervor this rally incited was different. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, told counter protesters at City Hall that while such fundamentalists may be small in number:
“they’re loud, they’re obnoxious, they’re disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco.”
Earlier in the week, leading up to the Aquire the Fire event, the Board of Supervisors actually passed a resolution condemning the “act of provocation” by what it termed an “anti-gay,” “anti-choice” organization that aimed to “negatively influence the politics of America’s most tolerant and progressive city.” Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who authored the condemnation resolution said, “Even if it is done by a Barnum and Bailey crowd with a tent and some snake oil, I think we need to pay attention to it. We should not fall asleep at the wheel.”
There are some who would say we should not provoke the society we live in, but simply love the society around us. There are others who say we should deal with those who oppose us strictly through legislative actions; there are others, who I would be numbered with, who want to know where the next rally will be in order to catch a flight.
Christians need to remember that Satan desires to shine a bright spotlight on the virtue of “loving your neighbor” while casting a murky shadow on the radical proclamation of moral truth found in God’s Word. Let us remember the chilling reality that among the evil deeds for which people are condemned to hell is acting “cowardly” (see Rev. 21:8) in the face of persecution and opposition.
May you and I be counted among the faithful who were “slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained” (Rev. 11:9b)
Read more. Look at the pictures for a vivid reminder of evil and the grim reality of a city being given over the wickedness.
I am of the opinion, and think that you are to, that a person can do both. I can love my neighbor and expect him to do no more than his depraved nature would lead him to do and at the same time forcefully and with tact and grace present the absolute moral truth found in God’s word to him. It is not an either or propositin, but society would like it to be-with their highjacking of the word tolerance to include not only the loving of the person, despite their particular view, but also the approval of said view.
I do find it a challenge at times to be as bold as I would like to be at work on issues that come up-often too busy, to apathetic, or not consumed enough with the passion to spread God’s fame regularly. May God grant me that passion all the time for His name!