Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places–More on Prager's Article

Date February 23, 2005 Posted by Amy Hall

To continue the discussion on Prager's article, I'd like to point out an idea I have found to be key with both political liberals and postmodern Christians.  Prager says, “The liberal preoccupation with whether America is loved or hated is also entirely feelings-based. The Left wants to be loved; the conservative wants to do what is right and deems world opinion fickle at best and immoral at worst.”

 

I think the desire to be loved by everybody is a driving force behind many of the Emergent Church leaders.  Above all, they don't want to offend anyone or drive anyone away from Christ.  This is not a bad desire in itself…except when it comes at the expense of truth.  The emergents wrongly assume that the highest good is that everyone love and respect Christians.  They also wrongly assume that if anyone does not love and respect Christians, then it is because the Christians have done something very, very wrong.

 

For Christ, the highest good was not to make everybody comfortable.  In fact, he drove away many of his disciples with his difficult sayings (see John 6:53-69).  Jesus offended them with the truth because it was the truth, and the most loving thing he could do (even though the rejection would no doubt hurt him) would be to tell that truth to those who needed to hear it. 

 

Compare Jesus' words to those of Brian McLaren (Emergent Church leader) from the article on Evangelical leaders in Time (February 7).  McLaren's response when asked what he thought about gay marriage sums up all I've said here:  “You know what, the thing that breaks my heart is that there's no way I can answer it without hurting someone on either side.”

 

Don't let your desire to be loved immobilize you.  It takes strength to suffer for the truth, and I admit that it's a struggle for me to not give in to the desire to make everybody happy and keep the peace at all cost.  Just remember that Jesus promised us that people would hate us in this world just as they hated him–hated him even though he spoke everything in perfect love.  If you have never suffered rejection, you had better make sure you're following the right Christ.

Related posts:

  1. Courage to Speak the Truth
  2. O Holy Night (9) – His Law Is Love
  3. Is Patriarchy Oppression?
  4. Modern Reformation #3: Settlers, Pilgrims, and Wanderers by Michael Horton
  5. “Is the Emergent Church a Threat to the Gospel?” or “Why I’m Concerned”
  6. The Conversation Continues

Category Posted in Amy's Posts, Culture, Main Page, Theology

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