The courage to be adversarial; the conviction to be Christ-like

The New York Times is probably the most prominent of the various news outlets reporting the same story. Apparently, Proposition 8 (and its passage) in California has enraged the homosexual community. They are now into creating organized vehicles for influencing America to accept their version of truth. Their intent is to utilize “in your face” techniques to force America to accept the homosexual lifestyle as a valid way to live.

As believers in Christ, we will need to be prepared for confrontation. God’s expression of truth leaves us no option: homosexuality is against the way that God has created us and violates the standard of morality that He has given to us. We need to be prepared to voice truth whenever we are confronted.

Here’s where the problem lies. Often, in an adversarial forum, our tendency is to turn…well, adversarial. When an adversarial environment is created, conversation can quickly turn to insult and denigration. You cannot read the Gospels without quickly gaining an understanding of the character of Jesus. One of the most impressive things is His reaction to sinful people. We are in the season of the year when we think about His incarnation: holy God left heaven and lived among us. It is hard to imagine what just the least sin did to him – yet Christ remained respectful even as He dealt with people in the midst of terrible immorality.

So, as we approach this world where we live, with more and more encounters with militant homosexuals, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to have the courage to be adversarial, but retain the conviction to be Christ-like in our dialog.