This is the last straw!
Did you hear that the Obama Administration is trying to pass legislation to prevent Christians from owning a Bible without also owning a Quran?
It’s true. I saw it on Facebook. On the same page I saw proof that President Obama is really a Muslim terrorist. Guys we really need to take back our government from these liberal nuts. We need God back in the White House. So write your senator today and tell them “Quran? We don’t need no stinkin’ Quran!”
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The above snippet has never actually appeared on Facebook, but it might as well have. Every week there is some new report of the government taking away our religious freedoms. And 90% of the time they are shown to be gross exaggerations or totally false.
Ed Stetzer sums it up well:
Too often, Christians are in a state of perpetual grievance, where each passing day brings another new controversy about which we must act or else Christianity in America will crumble.
When we hear a story about government attacks on Christians and we disagree with the politics of those in power, we assume the worst about the individuals in the military and our government. We live out the exact opposite of James 1:19. We are slow to listen, not giving time for all the facts to come out. We are quick to speak, gullibly forwarding the emails, retweeting the links and sharing the Facebook photos.
We are quick to anger, behaving as if every rumor deserved our righteous indignation and called for temple tables to be overturned (at least on Facebook).
This concerns me. First it concerns me because it shows how little discernment we actually have as believers. Secondly it shows how much we are driven by fear instead of confidence in Jesus Christ to move along history. Such fear is ridiculous in light of a sovereign Lord.
What also concerns me is that we are becoming like the little boy that cried wolf. Every time that we cause an untruth to go viral, and then that lie is debunked, we start to look like the crazy uncle that talks about his night spent in a UFO. We cry “wolf” and then its discovered that the “wolf” was nothing more than a Chihuahua and our active imagination.
Then when real concerns actually show up we no longer have a voice. We’ve been branded the crazy uncle that sees a conspiracy theory everywhere. Everyone assumes that this cry of “wolf” will soon be exposed as another over-eager Christian, motivated by fear, over-exaggerating and getting all worked up over nothing. Then our freedoms get eaten.
My advice, stop being motivated by fear. Trust in the Jesus that rules history and you won’t fall for every new Facebook exposé. Don’t share something if it could be true. Wait until you are certain that it actually is true.
