Why Do I Harp On Love (pt2)

I ended my last post with the idea that evangelicalism should adopt a new mantra, love is a facade. I say that not flippantly, or lightly, or even to mock the current Evangelical movement. My hope is that there are people within Evangelical churches today that will understand that there needs to be a change in how we respond to people. Recognizing that our actions can deeply wound some that come through our doors. But it is not just our lack of love inside the church, it is also our lack of love for those outside our well guarded cloisters of “religionism”.

In Scripture, it was the whore, the leper, the sick, the tax collector and other sundry societal outcasts and “sinners’ that followed after Jesus. And while He continually “spoke truth” in every circumstance, the truth was overshadowed by his deep love and compassion for the multitudes of “sheep without a shepherd”. They KNEW Jesus loved them.

So, if we are saying that we are following Jesus, then we must be the most loving people on the earth, with words and deeds of mercy, grace, and great compassion. Right?

Wrong.

Here are some of the things the “sinners” in the world see and hear us doing.

*Hundreds upon hundreds of Christians showing up at Chick-Fil-A to support “freedom of speech”. In reality they showed up to express their hatred and disgust of the LGBT community.
*An Executive in a well-known Christian lobbying group in Washington advocates “exporting gays” from the USA because we don’t “believe in that stuff here”. This same organization supported the Ugandan “kill the gays” bill which either calls for life in prison or death for someone caught having a same-sex relationship. It is interesting to note that it was American evangelists in Uganda that got this whole bill started. They of course have since denied they had anything to do with it.
*Evangelicals lying about the President, supporting the claims that he is not an American, he is a secret Muslim, a socialist, that he is trying to take all our guns away, and that his Affordable Care Act will have death panels to kill seniors.
*A well-known former presidential hopeful, lying about Muslims working in high rank in the US government, stating that they are terrorists or have links to terrorist organization.
*Bryan Fischer, an American Family Association commentator, stating that Native Americans deserved to die in the infancy of America because they were savages. He also continually says degrading and dehumanizing things against the LGBT community.

Where is the love?

Paul said that if we do not love, we are like clanging cymbals, a lot of noise, but no substance. If we cannot see the damage we have done to the Gospel of grace, and understand how deeply we have injured and driven people from God, we are most of all to be pitied.

“People need to know that TRUTH about their sin!” They will reject your truth if you do not first love them tangibly without condition.
“People are lost and going to hell and I might be the last person to tell them the TRUTH concerning their sinfulness.” God has not lost any that are His. It is not up to you and me to point out others sins or for that matter to save them.
“If I love him/her unconditionally, I am condoning their sinful choices!” No, you are loving them.

We cannot continue down this path. We cannot claim to know Jesus and that we are “little Christs” when we DO NOT show love. Pickets, protests, boycotts, newsletters and blogs and letters to the editor filled with angry and hateful words, these things DO NOT show love.

Why can’t we see our error?

Why?