Let's Get Loud

Sometimes I feel like we need to speak up.
By "we", I mean Christians. And I know what some of you are probably thinking, "no you don't, you speak up enough, don't you remember Terry Jones and the Koran burning? I'd say that's speaking up enough." Those of you on the other side, however, might say "yeah you speak up enough, haven't you heard about Rob Bell and universalism and Love Wins?" And then I'd have to point out that yes, I do remember those two, and yes, I do know that they've spoken up quite loudly, but then I'd have to thank you for bringing them up because, ironically, that's my point. "Huh?" Yeah, that's my point: the only people who seem to be speaking up are the fire-breathing Christians who think hard-hitting evangelism is the only way to go (tell 'em they're going to Hell and maybe we can hate Jesus into them), or the ones who've decided to give up on Jesus completely and announce to the world that it's okay, we're all gonna go to Heaven and Jesus just died a gruesome death on the cross because He was a masochist and had grown tired of the luxurious life of being at the right hand of God. But those are just the extremes, they don't even represent the majority of Christians.
The majority of Christians probably find themselves somewhere in the middle: they will accept that those who reject Jesus as the path to salvation will go to Hell, but they will also vehemently declare that the only way that they will ever come close to accepting that is if we love them.

They will say that yes, people who are never saved and continue to live in sin will go to Hell; they will say that people are tempted and it's no one's fault what temptation they have to struggle with: some people struggle with lust, some with anger, some with homosexual thoughts, some with greed or with envy. And each of those struggles, if given into, turn into a disgusting and corrupting lifestyle that tears communities, families, and individuals apart. But the person who struggles with lust, it's not his or her fault that he or she struggles with that: it's a combination of their genetics and their environment and the situations of life that put them in a position to struggle with that. If they give in to those temptations and live a life of free love and rampant sex, that is their fault. What we as Christians need to do is get this message out: sin is wrong, and sin will take you by the hand and walk you straight into Hell if you give into it and refuse to let Jesus save you from it. But the desire to sin? That's natural and universal. We need to teach people how to deal with temptation and love them through it, no matter what. We need to speak up and shout louder than all those extremists and let the world know that we are neither haters, nor free lovers, but lovers who practice tough love.