*Raises Hand* Excuse me, I have a confession to make. Sit back and relax while I have a little rant about another sin I see in the western church, maybe even get some tea or coffee while reading! Just allow me to speak my mind on an issue that has bugged me for awhile. Now what is this issue you ask? Ahh, allow me to tell you with a story.
Carrie Prejean. Miss California. You all know her. For the past weeks she has filled the TV screens and the news headlines. She has also crept into the hearts of Christians across America and most conservatives for her strong views on same-sex marriage. She boldly proclaimed that she believed in traditional marriage and then later stated that she was a Christian and was soon after jumped on by the conservative/Christian world faster then a brownie in the midst of teenage girls. They loved her and praised her and though her answer might of made her lose the title of Miss America she won the approval of Evangelicals.
Then it happened. For me it wasn’t much of a surprise. Somehow some horribly racy pictures of her got out on the Internet. The liberal world jumped on that like teenage girls with brownies as well. And I don’t blame them. It’s sickening the hypocrisy that comes from many Christians in America that “homosexuals are the worst sinners in the world but I can be proud, immodest, and hateful and it doesn’t matter”. Now I am not saying that homosexuality is right, it’s obviously against what the Bible says. But so is pride and immodesty and judgemental attitudes. Yes, certain sins have worse consequences but they are all high treason against a holy God and all are deserving death.
What really frustrates me about the Miss California situation is how Christians dealt with it. It’s nothing new though. When someone who is popular, beautiful, successful in the world’s eyes, and has a huge hunk of change to their name and can still manage to tack on the name Christian and some good morals the church pounces. I’ve seen this in so many realms of the church. We often do not pick the poor, unattractive, and unpopular person who has a fire for God and the gospel to emulate and admire but the person who has it all in the worlds eyes.
In Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s article on Miss California she states it this way:
“Sadly, Carrie is the product of a Christian sub-culture that has lost a sense of what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of God and has embraced the values and thinking of this world.
By and large, young adults who have grown up in our evangelical homes, churches, and schools, are buying into a message that they have seen modeled by those around them who call themselves Christians—namely, that Christianity can be divorced from Christ-likeness, and that practical holiness in everyday life is out-dated, irrelevant, or optional.”
Simply put, we like being comfortable with the world, to sit down and have some lemonade with it, but little do we know that the lemonade is seriously sour and wont quench our thirst. We look at those that are living a life abandoned to Christ as being a little over the top and freaky. We think that being Christians in name while still having our lemonade with the world wont hurt us. What many don’t know is that the sweetest lemonade, the one that can quench our thirst, is found in a relationship with Christ and laying down all that we are, picking up our crosses, and following Him. It might mean being hated and despised by this world, but it will satisfy.
While I don’t think that Prejean should be a role model, we can still learn from her. I know that she has taught me that I need to seek sweeter lemonade and to emulate those that are doing so themselves.
{Recommended reading: Nancy Leigh DeMoss on Prejean, “Miss California, Meet Miss Beautiful Morals” by Hannah Farver, and “Women Who Fear the Lord” by Your’s truly. }
Nobody416 