Gun-tottin’ Christians

As I write this morning, the political climate in North Amercia is highly charged. Our neighbours in the United States have been in the process of Presidential nominations and the electoral process as the Obama-Biden team spar off against their rivals, the McCain-Palin force. Just recently our own Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper decided an election is in order and we are gearing up to go to the polls.

As I follow the Amercian elections, I saw a web coverage for the McCain-Palin camp. A woman was captured in the picture wearing a t-shirt that declared she was a gun-tottin’ Christian for Palin. I don’t have anything to say about the political realites around the American campaign. My concern is the spiritual ramifications of how we declare ourselves Christians. Sometimes, quite frankly, I prefer to distance myself from using the word Christian because there’s a whole lot of negative reaction to it. I am more inclined to agree with futurist and author, Leonard Sweet that it is safer to describe myself as a follower of Jesus. It clears up a lot of misconception.

My point is to encourage caution in how we promote and push our faith. While too many of us may be far more silent about faith than we should be, there are others who are extremists in their declarations and give the rest of us a bad rap. When we should be building bridges and strengthening relationships with non-christians (or non-followers of Jesus) we spend most of our energy trying to help people understand that all of us don’t adopt a position of being "gun-tottin’" or left-wing Christians that people are afraid of and not sure what to do with.

The Bible has something to say about all this. It says, "if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way." (1 Peter 3:15-16, NLT) Good answer. Balanced. Unobtrusive. Respects the boundaries, space; but still has an opportunity to have something to say.

Go out and witness. Jesus told us our responsibility as the Church is to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). But he warns in 1 Peter 3 that tact goes a long way in helping the messge (and messenger) be received.