That's Offensive

What was once a fear of rejection for boldly living a Christian life and mentioning the name of Christ has digressed into a fear of seeming "offensive." There seems to be a new "right" even among evangelical Christians that offers the protection from being offended. I was motivated to reflect on that fact after reading a BP (Baptist Press) article that said "those who now claim to be offended are generally speaking of an emotional state that has resulted from some real or perceived insult to their belief system or from contact with someone else's belief system." The idea here is that there is no real harm happening aside from the emotional response of being offended.

For the purposes of this article, I want to approach this issue from the back door. The next logical step for me to take would be to say that this supposed "right" is in fact not a right at all and that we as Christ following Christians should remain steadfast and bold in our witness and testimony, even in the likelihood that we will bump into other faiths and practices. After all, isn't that what part of this diverse culture that celebrates and protects free speech is all about? I am not a lawyer, and my brother and I typically get annoyed at people who try and talk cleverly about things they don't know anything about, so I am going to stay away from the implications of the 1st amendment. He promises not to publish an article on systematic theology. Nevertheless, I think I can say without violating that oath that the reason free speech needs to be protected in the first place is because it will at times offend. If it never did, why protect it?

So, the back door to my point is this: For us Christians to understand this is not only a cultural shift that we must avoid when it comes to ceasing the sharing of our faith, but it is also important that we recognize the right of other faiths to do the same thing. You see, we Christians also don't have a right to not be offended. That, my friends, is the cost of religious liberty. If we find ourselves complaining about the annoyance and offensiveness of any other faith group and seek to somehow shut them up, then we too must shut up. We can't have it both ways. Sadly, I think many Christians would opt for that route rather than accept the liberty of other faiths along side our own. However, we don't have that option, do we? The mandate from Christ Himself is clear and direct, uncompromising and without excuse. We are to speak openly and share our faith with others. Yes, we currently live in a country where we can still do that. Praise the Lord for that. The last thing we need to do is sound like stupid little brats who want to go to the party but not stay to clean up. You're gonna get offended by someone. Old news. Deal with it. And go share your faith.