As a Chris\u00adt\u00adian min\u00adis\u00adter, I apol\u00ado\u00adgize to the cam\u00adpus com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty for for my well-mean\u00ading but mis\u00adguid\u00aded broth\u00aders who bore the signs on White Plaza yes\u00adter\u00adday.<\/p>\n
You recall them, no doubt. They bore such charm\u00ading slo\u00adgans as \u201cThe sin and the sin\u00adner go straight to hell togeth\u00ader,\u201d and \u201cWarn\u00ading: For\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtors, Drunk\u00adards, Thieves, Adul\u00adter\u00aders, God Haters, Liars, HOMOSEXUALS \u2014 JUDGMENT.\u201d<\/p>\n
I know you find it hard to believe, but they were under the impres\u00adsion that they were act\u00ading with kind\u00adness and even love. They were try\u00ading to tell you some\u00adthing impor\u00adtant in the best way they could think of.<\/p>\n
Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, their method under\u00admined their mes\u00adsage.<\/p>\n
To them, and to all the sign-bear\u00aders scat\u00adtered across the cam\u00adpus\u00ades of Amer\u00adi\u00adca, I direct the next few remarks.<\/p>\n
I know you are doing your best to hon\u00ador God, but when you bring such signs onto cam\u00adpus and pro\u00advoke stu\u00addents you are not accom\u00adplish\u00ading your goal.<\/p>\n
In fact, I sus\u00adpect that a care\u00adful con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of the Bible will lead you to rethink your actions.<\/p>\n
Observe:<\/p>\n
Always be pre\u00adpared to give an answer to every\u00adone who asks you to give the rea\u00adson for the hope that you have. But do this with gen\u00adtle\u00adness and respect<\/strong>, keep\u00ading a clear con\u00adscience, so that those who speak mali\u00adcious\u00adly against your good behav\u00adior in Christ may be ashamed of their slan\u00adder. 1 Peter 3:15\u201316, NIV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gen\u00adtle\u00adness and respect may have been your aspi\u00adra\u00adtion, but the mes\u00adsages on the signs belied your intent. You may not under\u00adstand why, but peo\u00adple found your mes\u00adsages extreme\u00adly dis\u00adrepect\u00adful. Respect is mea\u00adsured by the recip\u00adi\u00adent, so if an entire com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty tells you that you are act\u00ading in a way that they find offen\u00adsive and insult\u00ading then you must take them at their word and rethink the way that you com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate your mes\u00adsage.<\/p>\n
Con\u00adduct your\u00adselves wise\u00adly toward out\u00adsiders<\/strong>, mak\u00ading the most of the time.\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf Let your speech always be gra\u00adcious, sea\u00adsoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every\u00adone. Colos\u00adsians 4:5\u20136, NRSV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My broth\u00aders, I humbly sug\u00adgest that you act\u00aded with a great lack of wis\u00addom, as any\u00adone who has spent time min\u00adis\u00adter\u00ading on the col\u00adlege cam\u00adpus could have told you. Indeed, we would have made the point with great fer\u00advor. Some\u00adthing like this hap\u00adpens once or twice every year and it always detracts from the work of God on cam\u00adpus \u2014 I have nev\u00ader once seen it help. <\/p>\n
If you doubt the effects of your vis\u00adit, I direct you to the unof\u00adfi\u00adcial Stan\u00adford blog\u2019s per\u00adspec\u00adtive on your actions<\/a>. <\/p>\n
If any place will not wel\u00adcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave<\/strong>, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a tes\u00adti\u00admo\u00adny against them. Mark 6:11, NRSV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And this, to me, is the clinch\u00ader. Jesus told his dis\u00adci\u00adples to move on when peo\u00adple did\u00adn\u2019t want to lis\u00adten. And that\u2019s the mod\u00adel we see through\u00adout the New Tes\u00adta\u00adment, par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly in Paul. Paul, con\u00adtrary to his rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion, was very can\u00adny and was a mas\u00adter at non-intru\u00adsive evan\u00adge\u00adlism. He sought to preach in places where peo\u00adple expect\u00aded to hear preach\u00ading. He went to syn\u00ada\u00adgogues, philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal venues, and lec\u00adture halls and talked to peo\u00adple who were ready to lis\u00adten.<\/p>\n
And so while I applaud your inten\u00adtions, I beg you to rethink your evan\u00adge\u00adlis\u00adtic strat\u00ade\u00adgy and see if there is not a wis\u00ader way to engage stu\u00addents with the claims of Christ.<\/p>\n
And to the cam\u00adpus com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty I reit\u00ader\u00adate my apol\u00ado\u00adgy. They meant well, but they act\u00aded in a way that caused many of you to have a low\u00ader opin\u00adion of Christ and His fol\u00adlow\u00aders than you did before.<\/p>\n
Ear\u00adli\u00ader today I was read\u00ading an arti\u00adcle about Ein\u00adstein\u2019s reli\u00adgious views<\/a> and I was struck by the fol\u00adlow\u00ading com\u00adment: \u201cI am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the lumi\u00adnous fig\u00adure of the Nazarene.\u201d<\/p>\n
If your per\u00adcep\u00adtion of Christ is shaped large\u00adly by the sign-bear\u00aders and oth\u00aders like them, then I urge you to look at Jesus your\u00adself. Read the gospels and ask around in your dorm. I promise that you will find some Christ-fol\u00adlow\u00aders who would love noth\u00ading more than to have a respect\u00adful con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion with you and help you to see why Jesus is still wor\u00adshiped after these many years and across these many miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a Chris\u00adt\u00adian min\u00adis\u00adter, I apol\u00ado\u00adgize to the cam\u00adpus com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty for for my well-mean\u00ading but mis\u00adguid\u00aded broth\u00aders who bore the signs on White Plaza yes\u00adter\u00adday. You recall them, no doubt. They bore such charm\u00ading slo\u00adgans as \u201cThe sin and the sin\u00adner go straight to hell togeth\u00ader,\u201d and \u201cWarn\u00ading: For\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtors, Drunk\u00adards, Thieves, Adul\u00adter\u00aders, God Haters, Liars, \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cAn Apol\u00ado\u00adgy For the Sign-Bear\u00aders\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stanfordministry-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-de","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}