Over the last few days I've read news accounts that, as a follower of Christ, have made me cringe.
Now, it seems like I'm always reading. My wife Jen pokes fun at me. She'll start telling me about something she heard, will stop mid sentence, and say, "of course you've already heard about this." I'm a bit of an information junkie.
The first, involving the recent crash of an Air France flight, is indeed a tragedy. Still under investigation, over 200 people lost their lives as their plane crashed into the Atlantic. Just days later, an older couple who missed being on that fateful flight were involved in a devastating automobile crash, killing the wife & seriously injuring her husband.
As I read about the couple's crash, I scrolled down to the "Comments" portion of the page. I get a kick of how even small news articles can generate hundreds of opinions. Some are obviously thoughtfully written, but it's amazing how, given a soapbox, the "nuts" come out. Instead of recognizing the pain suffered by this man, spared a plane crash only to have his wife taken days later, self-proclaimed "Christians" were trying to explain away the unexplainable, and tact or any sense of compassion was sadly absent.
"This is why I hate you Christians!" replied one of the readers, and his sentiment was not alone.
Example #2 - A former Baptist big wig was recently interviewed in a major news outlet. When asked about the current administration in Washington, he stated (and repeated when asked to clarify) that he was praying for the death of our president. When asked why, he answered that it wasn't wrong to "pray for something that God wants."
You should've read the comments posted below that article! Even worse were the multitude of folks who wrote how this only confirmed why they'd never want to become a Christian. Literally hundreds of lives potentially lost for eternity.
God, through His word, tells us to expect hatred & persecution for the sake of Christ. The American Church has escaped much of this while our brothers & sisters in other countries are persecuted, imprisoned, or killed because of their faith. I read another article (really? :-) that stated that Christians in the United States might see strong persecution for their beliefs within the next 20 years. The author of the article added that Christians are becoming perceived more and more as being ignorant, fanatical, and even dangerous.
4th Century Christian apologist Lactantius wrote, "God commands us to wait patiently for the day of heavenly judgement when He Himself will honor or punish all according to what they deserve...but let us work hard so that people will punish nothing in us but our righteousness. Let us strive with all our might so that we can deserve the avenging of our suffering and a reward at the hands of God."
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