Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)

I was asked a very difficult question 2 weeks ago that I have been thinking about and wondering exactly how to answer it. The gist of it is this, “As America is sliding toward Gomorrah, what are Christians to do? Should we fight to try to stop the slide and be hated; or do we quietly endure, turn the other cheek, and offer grace to those who have been caught in Gomorrah’s snares?”

It is a very hard question because there are times to fight, and there are times to shut up and take it.

A surprising and confusing story is when Mahatma Gandhi offered this piece of advice in a 1938 essay concerning the Jews undergoing Nazi oppression, “neither flee nor resist but rather offer yourselves up to be killed by your enemies, since your ‘suffering voluntarily undergone will bring an inner strength and joy.'” Years later a Jewish journalist asked Gandhi directly, “You mean that the Jews should have committed collective suicide?” Gandhi responded: “Yes, that would have been heroism.”

One historian later ridiculed the naivete of Gandhi’s impractical and extreme views on non-violence by saying, “If during WWII, had Gandhi convinced the English to lay down their arms and practice non-violence, the Jewish people would have been totally annihilated, democracy and human rights would have disappeared and our world would have been plunged into a new Dark Age of unimaginable cruelty.”

Gandhi was a fatalist. He believed in Karma. If you non-violently resisted, he believed you would be rewarded in a future life. (Check out Hebrews 9:27 to see if he even knew what he was talking about.)

But a Christian believes life matters now! God has made each of us moral agents; and as his stewards, he asks born-again Christians to be his “Ambassadors, Heralds and Messengers”. So from a Christian perspective, there are times and situations where a Christian must accept humiliation in silence, and there are times when the Bible says it is proper to raise your voice, and even, if necessary, take up arms.

A general rule of thumb is that on a personal level we need to be willing to “turn the other” cheek when people ridicule and offend us. But according to Romans 13, there are times when a state has the responsibility to suppress evil and protect innocents by “bearing the sword” and “punishing the wrongdoer.”

American Citizens

There also is another variable in play when considering this question: we live in a country that is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” In other words, our voice matters! We have the right to debate, disagree and try to persuade. If all Christians remained silent out of fear of offending, the only voices that would be heard are the ones who have not the insight of the biblical worldview. And that would be detrimental for all of us. Even non-Christians because they benefit from our practical grace.

Never forget what Edmund Burke has said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

To show you where the world is headed if our voices are not raised, I offer you two quotes that I read this morning:

– “According to Tumblr – the social media platform serving as the “intellectual” epicenter of gender fluidity and other “social justice” nonsense – gender terms range from the basic, like cisgender (“the feeling of being the gender you were assigned at birth, all the time”); to the confusing, like vibragender (“a gender that is usually one stable gender but will occasionally change or fluctuate before stabilizing again”); and to the genuinely bizarre, colorgender (“a gender associated with one or more colors and the feelings, hues, emotions, and/or objects associated with that color”).

“Just one generation ago, the universally understood term for the gay community was “LGBT” (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual), the acronym today has ballooned to “LGBTQQIAAP” (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer-questioning-intersex-asexual-allies-pansexual). The rationale behind this alphabet-soup is to increase inclusion of groups that otherwise make up statistically minuscule elements of the population when divided into such niches.  The practical effect is exclusion by inclusion. According to one of the “As” in the acronym – “ally” — anyone who is not sympathetic to the cause is automatically excluded from the movement –becoming, in effect, an enemy.”

Is this the kind of world you want? If it is, don’t say a word. Let your children be influenced by the popular media. If you disagree make your argument. You may not get a lot of people to listen, but you may get a few thinkers to hear your argument and change. Remember, you are an American too. So say something…

Is Anger Always Wrong?

One other question has to be discussed: Is it wrong to get angry? Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not – – but I don’t worry about it as much as I once used to. I find Jesus was angry a lot. I know, I know, he was God, we are not. But when you see a world gone mad; your convictions formed from truth will often fuel your emotion. Anger is often an outworking of the truth confronting the offending lies. I personally find indifference and stoicism much more offensive than anger.

Homosexuality is a case in point. I have seen so many people, vulnerable young people, people from broken homes, destroyed and exploited by our over-sexualized culture; especially when it comes to homosexuality. America’s call for “sophisticated tolerance” toward the homosexual lifestyle fills me with rage because it isn’t being honest at all. It ignores how vast numbers of people are being seduced, lied to, and ultimately destroyed by the sick perversions learned from older male sex addicts and progressive political agendas. Am I to just remain silent? The popular media wants us to. They want us to see wholesome Americana at Gay Pride parades. But if you really look, Gomorrah has arrived!

God cannot be happy about that. God cannot be happy when we tell a confused 7-year-old he is scared of girls because he probably is gay. We are delivering lambs to the wolves.

Are we God’s Ambassadors or not? Do we plead with others on Christ behalf to “be reconciled to God” or not? I find that Jesus says we should not be surprised when we are “excluded, insulted, rejected and hated” for his name’s sake. I find those who remain silent aren’t often rejected or hated. It is those who publicly and strongly oppose the slide toward Gomorrah who are not wanted around.

Gomorrah Revisited

In Genesis 19, the people of Gomorrah wanted to sleep with God’s angels. Lot warned the people of Gomorrah and said, “Don’t do this wicked thing!” The people of Gomorrah said to Lot, and listen closely, “Get out of our way…you came to our town as an alien, you don’t belong,  and now he wants to play the judge!”

Isn’t that exactly what is being said about us? We don’t really understand the culture, we have become relics of history, and above all, we are too judgmental! No, we know God and all we are doing is warning those who are heading off a cliff.

So, if you think it is time to stand up and fight, fight! If you think it is time to take it and shut up, take it. But to each Christian his own. And if you decide to fight, just be warned, people will fight back.