Articles about the American election like the one written by Toronto Sun reporter Eric Margolis Non Americans Dread Bush give me the urge to dash to my keyboard and fire off a ‘...but...but...’ rebuttal.
It’s not the fact he chooses sides but the reason for that choice which gives me, a professing Christian, a chill. He says, in part:
I haven’t followed the American presidential campaign carefully enough to make an intelligent choice for either side. However, Mr. Margolis’s inflammatory remarks attacking Mr. Bush not for what he’s done but for what he believes and who he associates with, leave me with the urge to defend him as a person with whom I share many of the same beliefs. His name-calling is characteristic of the religious chill in Canada and shows the Canadian media’s penchant to discredit and sideline evangelical Christianity."What deeply alarms many non-Americans is the prospect of a second Bush term dominated by a coalition of evangelical Christians, Christian "Rapturists," American partisans of Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon, and rural voters from the Deep South who reject evolution and think French is the native language of the devil.... politics is falling increasingly under the influence of extreme religious groups at a time when secularism is accepted across Europe and non-Muslim Asia...American’s fastest-growing cult, the Rapturists, believe once Greater Israel is created and all Jews converted to Christianity, they will be instantly transported to heaven while the world will be destroyed and all non-believers slowly burned alive....
As I said, the temptation is to fire off an email or letter to the editor. But yesterday morning as I read these words about the youth Samuel: "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground," then juxtaposed that thought against the above article, it occurred to me there are ways to use my words other than contributing them to the dust storm swirling in the media.
1. If I choose to respond, I can wait till I’ve cooled down, and then answer with words of restraint, politeness and thoughtfulness.
2. I can choose to withhold my words altogether, and be silent.
3. And/or, I can pray. I can pray for Mr. Margolis. More importantly, I can pray against the source from which his words were spoken - the spirit behind them. For doesn’t his diatribe sound a lot like this, and this - cases in which prayer rendered words scornful of God and His people, impotent.
2 comments:
I would suggest maybe two of your thoughts might be good. The very first of course is to pray, and then the second would be to cool down and maybe enlighten Eric Margolis with what the Bible says. In Matthew Jesus says (N.I.V.)"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a tesimony to all nations, and then the end will come." This passage drives me to go out and be a traveling missionary but you with your gift can put into words for many to see what we Christians really belive. So many who write reporters) have little knowledge of what they write about and only print their oppinions. Slowing burning alive would be merciful compared to living forever without God, without hope, without love and being completely alone.
Even though your words might fall to the ground, how about the parable of the sower? Do we not sow the seed so that one might fall one good soil where it can produce a crop. You have been given a gift, use it wisely. Thank you for your blog, for your words.
Yikes, John, is this a challenge? Are you calling my bluff?
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