Opus 2021-271: Go Ahead, Say it

Have you noticed how all the political correctness is seeping into everything we do and say?  I was recently looking at an article in a site called The Post Millennial.  The main point the author was making is that there are some things in life that you cannot do virtually.  You need to be there in person.  I can buy that theory, so I had no problem with his basic point.

However just before I got bored and stopped reading he made this comment:

“Attending a faith community is one of those things.”

When someone uses terminology like that it tells me one of several things.  It could be that this person is part of a “faith community” that he knows his readers won’t approve of such as a snake handling congregation or the local mosque.  It could be that he is too sophisticated to have any faith and doesn’t want you to know you are being talked down to.  It could be that he considers himself a believer but is afraid to use the word “church.”

Let me go with that last one.  How many terms are we becoming afraid to use?  How often do you find yourself looking around and whispering to the person next to you?

Sometimes the reluctance is because the label or adjective I want to use has been hijacked by the God haters in the crowd.  Church is actually becoming one of those words.  It is used by the world to indicate any building that has a sign out front and wants a tax exemption.  “Christian” is becoming the same.  Most people are Christians because they don’t think they are Buddhists or Muslims.  It is a cultural term.  The examples are legion and I have mentioned some before:  Love now means lust or do what I want.  Discrimination now means you have no taste or sense of proportion, Denny’s is as good as Flemings.  The list goes on.

It is amazing how many churches are afraid to use the term “church” on their signs.  Many will not tell you they are a part of a denomination.  It is based on a desire to appear to be something they are not.  It is a deception.

We need to learn to stand up and speak.  It used to be you could speak your mind and if someone disagreed you would have a spirited discussion without getting nasty.  You could differ without fearing for your physical well-being.  We have lost that in our culture.  The only way we can get it back is to get in the habit of looking for opportunities to speak up.  I am not advocating that you go into a gay bar and read Romans 1.  I am not asking you to go to a group of Democrats and talk logic and common sense.  There will be times to speak up.  We need to look for them.

homo unius libri