Great article on how to engage hateful non believers

[DRDS]

This works well for online as well as real life "offline" conversations. I found it to be very helpful. Thanks for your time, GB.

http://www.premodernwisdom.org/christia ... christian/

[Danieltwotwenty]

I am more worried about the hateful believers, I seem to attract them for some reason.

Just the other day I was told that homosexuality is the second unforgivable sin based on their faulty understanding of Romans, talk about proof texting.

Sorry I digress, haven't read the article yet but I am interested.

[Danieltwotwenty]

Now that I have read it I can comment on it.

I think it is a great article that everyone here should read and spend time absorbing the points made.

[1over137]

Thanks for sharing. Nice reading. Gentle response.

[bippy123]

This works well for online as well as real life "offline" conversations. I found it to be very helpful. Thanks for your time, GB.

http://www.premodernwisdom.org/christia ... christian/

Nice article . I need to work on this also

[RickD]

DRDS,

Good find! I like the article. The list of controversial topics certainly hits home with me:

Hell (an inflammatory topic, no pun intended)
Young-earth creationism (especially if you believe in this)
Evolution (if you don’t believe in this)
America having been a “Christian nation”
Christian dominion, or taking back America for Christ
Other religions
Feminism (whichever side you’re on)
Politics

I've been in heated discussions with all of those topics at one point or another. But usually with another believer.

The "America as a Christian nation", and "take back America" are two heated topics here where I live.

[B. W.]

My only concern with the article is that it could be mistaken as promoting isolationism. Just being a Christian - well the world hates you anyways...

John 15:18-25 NLT, "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause" New Living Translation (NLT)

Though the article has good pointers, it is well suited in telling Christians not to be obnoxious It is this style of obnoxious that stains the name being 'Christian' and the author of the article addresses this well. But as for ministering to Haters - well - they'll hate you and I anyways. In this, not loving our lives unto death comes into play. If we do real good, and actually learn from the Lord how to love each other, that changes folks from being haters into curious. Christians were tossed to the lions and killed in droves in ancient Rome and for what reason - being obnoxious or caring for each other? In that is our answer to become a better witness.

However, the question of salt comes into play. Christianity in America and the West was once the salt that kept depravity at bay. If we lose that saltiness for the sake of - just getting along - well, into depravity a nation and people slip and the haters reemerge and vitriol hate increases just as was written about concerning the last days. Being non-offensive then does no good against such reckless insanity. Christians once stood for Christ. Now were are being told to stand for non-offending. Non-offending will not shelter anyone for long from the reckless hate mentioned in John 15:18-26. The human heart is truly insidious...

"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." John 16:1,2 NKJV

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and times illustrates what happens to a church that - does not offend - and thoroughly secularized by state mandates. He would be considered today, as obnoxious, for discussing politics but we all too often repeat the sins of the past choosing instead what the state and world mandates for us; therefore, we acquiesce, and certainly not offend those that seek our ruin / demise who pit Christian concepts against each other so we do not react to our own decimation. The one main item left out of the article discussed is the theme from Eccl 3:1-9 on how to tell the right time.
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[1over137]

B.W. You can offend someone with gentle words. You do not need to use harsh words. Of course we should stay strong. But first try can be with gentle words. Then when dealing with someone really negative you can be more strict.

[Gilligan]

A good article, but when someone is not interested, Matthew 7:6 & 10:14 come to mind.

[B. W.]

+
Another Interesting Article quoted below... and the real offenders are who????

Why is New York City bullying Christians?

By Todd Starnes
Published April 07, 2014
FoxNews.com

A federal appeals panel has ruled that New York City has a right to ban churches from holding worship services in school buildings. In essence, it means Christians have officially become second-class citizens in the nation’s largest city.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District is just the latest twist in a legal saga pitting the Bronx Household of Faith against the NYC Board of Education. The court found that New York City’s ban on renting schools to churches for weekend worship services did not violate the First Amendment right to free expression.
Circuit Judge John Walker was the lone dissenter in the 2 to 1 ruling on Thursday. He said the board of education “plainly discriminates
against religious belief and cannot be justified by a compelling government interest.” “The opinion uses the establishment clause as an excuse to treat people of faith worse than everybody else,” said the Bronx Household of Faith’s attorney, Jordan Lorence of Alliance Defending Freedom.

Circuit Judge John Walker was the lone dissenter in the 2 to 1 ruling on Thursday. He said the board of education “plainly discriminates against religious belief and cannot be justified by a compelling government interest.”

“Shutting the door to religious worship services in such a setting where every other activity is permitted strikes at the clause’s core,” he wrote in the dissent. “Of the 50 largest school districts in the United States, New York city alone entirely excludes religious worship from its facilities.”

It’s not clear how many churches rent space in public schools, but Lorence said most of the congregations are based in impoverished sections of the city.

“Many of them are meeting in some of the poorest areas of New York City, ministering to people who are the most needy, and they are being told, ‘You have to get out of the schools – we’d rather them stay empty than you be there and helping people because you are engaging in religious worship,’” he said, vowing to appeal the decision.

The New York Civil Liberties Union hailed the ruling as a victory for religious freedom.

“When a school is converted to a church in this way, it sends a powerful message to students and the community at large that the government favors that particular church,” executive director Donna Lieberman told The New York Times.

She told the newspaper that the case is really about a group of “religious congregations that were dominating public schools across New York City Sunday after Sunday, year after year.”

Somebody should explain to Ms. Lieberman that there’s a difference between freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

Groups like the National Association of Evangelicals and the Southern Baptist Convention denounced the ruling.

Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called the ruling an “atrocity.”

“Church plants [aka new churches], operating within the rules and doing nothing to disrupt others, have been tossed about by the courts on the question simply of whether they can rent facilities in which to worship,” Moore said in a prepared statement.

Left unchallenged, this ruling could have a chilling effect on religious freedom.

What’s next? Will Christians be banned from reading their Bible in Central Park? Will congregations be forced to obtain liquor licenses for communion?

This blatant discrimination against good people of faith cannot and should not stand.

Article to this Link

Yep, I guess Christians are the real bullies who better shut up and just get along...

First come marginalizing, then more mocking ridicule to disdaining ridicule. Then hate and bias increase justifying acquiescence to the world or face imprisonment and maybe the gas chamber. Nothing has changed. Oh no, I forgot, this is America, that can't happen here...oh no... just don't offend - pretend...
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[1over137]

B.w. That is not about debate on the forum. In that case one is not to be silent.

[Kenny]

This works well for online as well as real life "offline" conversations. I found it to be very helpful. Thanks for your time, GB.

http://www.premodernwisdom.org/christia ... christian/

Excellent article. I only wish more people would take this advise.

Ken