The Joke Is On Us
A recent column by a conservative religious writer includes the following joke:
The columnist thinks he's making a joke about the liberal press. But it's a joke about Christians. Christians have never done anything to make those two fictitious reporters interested enough to crack open a Bible. We should be ashamed.
Reading conservative religious columns and even listening to some sermons in churches one often hears criticism of the “world” or “liberals”. The reports of the liberal media are not complimentary of Christianity, they say, and liberal politicians do not embrace family values. Hollywood movies portray Christian characters in a negative light, they whine. Of course one of the most often heard judgments against the world is that gay people are gay.
But when we make these criticisms, we are actually judging ourselves.
The Keith Green song “Open Your Eyes” starts off with Keith Green saying, “This generation of believers that you and me are a part of, we are responsible for this generation of souls, all over the world, we’re responsible for them. We’re responsible to pray daily for the needs of ministries around the world.”
When we criticize the media for being liberal and not reporting from a Christian perspective, we are criticizing ourselves for not having influenced the media and not having shown them how great our God is and how wonderful He is. When we criticize gay people for being gay, we are criticizing ourselves for not having shown gay people the love of God. When we make a joke about how liberals don’t even know what the Lord’s Prayer is, then we are making a not-so-funny joke about ourselves because we neither taught them the Lord’s Prayer nor gave them a reason to want to know it.
Did you hear the one about New York Times and Washington Post reporters having lunch and betting on who knows more about Christianity? Mr. NYT says, 'I'll bet you $20 that you can't say the Lord's Prayer.' Ms. WaPo says, 'You're on.' She bows her head and says, 'Now I lay me down to sleep. . . .' Mr. NYT hands her $20, saying, 'That's impressive. I didn't think you knew it.'
The columnist thinks he's making a joke about the liberal press. But it's a joke about Christians. Christians have never done anything to make those two fictitious reporters interested enough to crack open a Bible. We should be ashamed.
Reading conservative religious columns and even listening to some sermons in churches one often hears criticism of the “world” or “liberals”. The reports of the liberal media are not complimentary of Christianity, they say, and liberal politicians do not embrace family values. Hollywood movies portray Christian characters in a negative light, they whine. Of course one of the most often heard judgments against the world is that gay people are gay.
But when we make these criticisms, we are actually judging ourselves.
The Keith Green song “Open Your Eyes” starts off with Keith Green saying, “This generation of believers that you and me are a part of, we are responsible for this generation of souls, all over the world, we’re responsible for them. We’re responsible to pray daily for the needs of ministries around the world.”
When we criticize the media for being liberal and not reporting from a Christian perspective, we are criticizing ourselves for not having influenced the media and not having shown them how great our God is and how wonderful He is. When we criticize gay people for being gay, we are criticizing ourselves for not having shown gay people the love of God. When we make a joke about how liberals don’t even know what the Lord’s Prayer is, then we are making a not-so-funny joke about ourselves because we neither taught them the Lord’s Prayer nor gave them a reason to want to know it.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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