Where’d that week go? Sorry for the silence on this end, it’s been quiet around here since Doug’s at Cornerstone. Well, quiet until today. Warped Tour in San Antonio was today, in case you missed my 38 zillion Twitter updates.
Kelly and I will have a review of the event up tomorrow and I’ll post a bunch of pictures. I took 620 total so I think I might have a few to share.
My body hates me right now,
Corey Erb
“Where there is love there is life.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
I’m not saying I necessarily agree with everything about this organization, but this commercial made me think:
Should Christians be careful with their words too?
In general, if someone said, “That’s so ‘jock who can complete a pass but not a sentence'” (the website‘s example), isn’t that just as mean as saying “That’s so gay”? Let me put it differently. If someone said “That’s so autistic,” for example, would that make you uncomfortable? If so, why would equating autism with displeasure be more offensive than equating a specific lifestyle with displeasure? This is not the arena to discuss views on homosexuality; my point is simply this: Do our words have the potential to be unloving?
I’m kinda frustrated that we Christians are still dealing with this issue. This ad campaign is aimed at school children, yet we still hear these derogatory terms while hanging out with Christian friends – I’m 21 and in college, and hear it in people my age and even sometimes Christians much older than I, including a pastor once – and worse, in our churches. Not that I think churches are somehow holy ground, but if there’s one place we should be thinking, “How would my Savior want me to act?” it’s in the place where we come together to worship Him. Even if you disagree with the lifestyle, is there anything loving about bringing harm to someone who adheres to said lifestyle with your flippant words? Yes, I’ve heard gay friends say people using homosexual slang as insults doesn’t bother them. But consider, if someone were to call me a communist right now, I would laugh and say “thank you.” In 1950s America, however, them woulda been fightin’ words. Similarly, I’ve also heard other people of similar orientation say it does bother them. One friend said that he hadn’t thought much about it, but in considering it he discovered that it made him feel looked down upon, though he had never really noticed it because these slang words are so prevalent.
What does Scripture say about subtly condemning another person, even for something you believe to be wrong? Doesn’t God’s Word instruct us to be agents of love rather than condemnation, even (if not especially) toward others who hold different beliefs? Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” His disciple John very plainly expounds upon how we’re to show love in 1 John 4:8-12: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do, as that’s the Holy Spirit’s role – to deal with your heart individually, and work through you to bring you in line with how God would have you act and think and speak. I’m just bringing the issue up so you can think about it. That’s my job – providing wacky rants out of left field to bring issues into your consciousness.
Please don’t take this as a passive-aggressive attempt to call any specific person out; it’s simply a reflection on a trend I have noticed among even believers in the almost four years since I became one, brought on by seeing this commercial and realizing that I’ve noticed it a good amount in Christians’ conversations in the past few months. Trust me, I’ve used many a potentially hurtful term to mean “bad” or “unpleasant,” and it’s still sometimes difficult to restrain myself from using the r-word when I mean I don’t like something. But I think the first step in correcting what may be an issue in our own lives is noticing it when it happens, and then God can choose to help us change our actions from there if He so desires.
What are your thoughts?
Corey @ HM Magazine 