peter bothered me, so here's a post

not a great one, just a rehashing of something I've been discussing lately with a friend of mine.

It has been noted lately I am to listen and perhaps give even more credence to people that I disagree with than I am to listen to the voices from my own background. Part of this is that I've heard enough from my own background to know what I believe and what evangelical Christians think, and frankly some of the loudest evangelical Christians are some of the most ignorant and unhelpful (see "Letter from 2012" and anything on talk radio.) I blame this tendency a lot on the fact that I've been listening to a lot of Tim Keller in the last few years, and he is always very generous to non-Christian worldviews and philosophies whenever he can be, because he can use the truth he sees in them to eventually undercut their worldview 5 minutes later. Also, I have learned that someone is more likely to listen to you if they feel like you've listened to them. This is, I think, a basic principle of communication, but it's one that we forget a lot of the time.

It seems to me that everyone who believes anything passionately treats their opponents like they are reprobate, twisted, evil, or out to ruin other peoples' fun. If you think you're right, somehow that gives you the right to be obnoxious. But Christians are the only group who don't have a right to be obnoxious (especially if we're Reformed!), and if we live that winsomeness out consistently I think it would have the power to make a difference. We as evangelicals should also be our own harshest critics-- this is why I'm often harder on Christians than on unbelievers on my blog and in my speech-- because Jesus & Paul & the Prophets are all harder on God's people than they are on non-believers. Why? They (and I) are jealous for the reputation of Christ and the purity of His Bride. Also, our words will have the most effect on people with similar beliefs, and it doesn't do us much good to spend all day talking about how our opponents need to change because that doesn't really get us anywhere. It could be entirely true that all the problems in America are caused by stupid liberals. But if we can acknowledge the problems within ourselves and our own tribe, we can (a) deal with the problems that are actually our fault and (b) be listened to more effectively by people who think that we are the problem. I certainly don't want us to be groveling about how terrible we are all the time-- but even the pagans spend all their time talking about how everyone who believes differently is the cause of all our problems.

If we can't vigorously condemn inappropriate rhetoric in our own camp (in a loving way, of course), the world isn't going to take us seriously. If we don't acknowledge how we've made politics an idol and desired to have power over others inappropriately, no one is going to listen to us because we aren't addressing the concerns that drive people to ignore us. We can talk 'til we're blue in the face about human dignity and civil rights for the unborn, but we'll be talking past our opponents-- heck, we'll be talking beyond them, really-- until we meet them where they are stuck: concern for the health of women and fear about the misuse of politics to exert power over sexuality. You could call that kowtowing to the other point of view (and some of you probably will), but I want to say something and have it be heard. Otherwise, I might as well not say anything at all.

Reputation is the next point I wanted to make. Reputation is what other people think of you; it is not what you think that you do well. Our political rhetoric still overshadows the good that is done in CPCs and the like; I don't think that we can drown out the political rhetoric and I certainly would never say that we need to do whatever it takes to be liked (we have had this argument before and don't need to have it again.) Evangelical Christians don't need a PR campaign, but they need to repent and be faithful. And if we are willing to do that publicly, I think that will be better than talking up all the good works we already do (do you believe non-Christians when they talk about the good that they do and the evil that Christians do? exactly.) Most of you have already heard my rant about the crisis of faithfulness and discipleship in the American church and the scandal of the evangelical conscience, so I don't need to reiterate that.

Someone recently pointed out to me that most people need to hear 8 positive things about them for every 1 negative thing. Let's face it: Satan hates the church and there are plenty of his shock troops out there denouncing us. But we won't do any good by yelling back (as some conservatives do) or by pouting about how dreadfully unfair it is that the sorry excuse for a mainstream media simply won't ever tell the story from our perspective with their terrible bias. Oh, woe is us! (Or so it goes for other conservatives. And it certainly won't do us any good to play along with the culture like many liberals have done. Instead, I think we can do a lot to make Christ glorious and beautiful in the eyes of those around us by being faithful to Him. If we can do 8 good things that bring glory to Jesus for every 1 thing that brings His name shame (and that'll be tough, there are a lot of wingnuts out there), I think we'll do well.

To summarize: basically, I think that being winsome will go a long way in engaging with people that disagree with us, and it doesn't matter how right we are... until we can find a way to communicate with the culture and uphold the truth about abortion in a way that meets people where they are, we're just going to be a bunch of clanging gongs.