Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Cultural shifts and the Conservative Christian Family

A disclaimer: Below I have expressed my opinion on current cultural changes and the response of a Conservative Christian Family. I am writing these opinions as a Conservative Christian mother. I realize not all of my readers are Conservative Christians or Christians. I am not meaning to offend anyone or cause any debates or arguments--I am just expressing my opinion on my blog (which is the blog of a Conservative Christian women). Yet please note I am not a crazy Conservative Christian that goes around with signs of hate at military and homosexual funerals (that would be weird since I am a military wife). I prefer love over hate.
Oh and if this blog posting does not interest you or you fear it will offend, please click off of this page and either come back when I post something cute and fuzzy about the kids or look at the many other cute and fuzzy postings of the children that are on the blog. Not all of my future postings will be political but I just had some thoughts I wanted to get down on cyber-paper. :) 
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So New York did it. They legalized same-sex marriage. On Sunday same-sex couples fled to the courthouse to get married. This morning I woke up to a text from my friend saying she was scared of what the legalization of same-sex marriage means for us as Christians in the United States. I also constantly receive e-mails riddled with fear of Muslims taking over and how Christians are becoming a minority in the United States. Some e-mails suggest that Christian families need to have at least four children to keep up with the ever growing Muslim population. Christians (especially Conservative Christians) need to come to terms with the fact that our country is (and has been) shifting away from it's Christian heritage. Our country will continue to pass laws and make decisions against the Word. Muslims will continue to out populate Christians and eventually we might even see a bigger cultural influence from them. I am not trying to preach doom and gloom. I just think this is reality.
Now as a Christian with the opinions I hold I have a choice: I can fear these cultural changes or I can embrace them. Since I believe fear is not of God (2 Tim 1:7). I choose to embrace the changes. Now I can see my more conservative friends who are reading this ask: What do you mean? Embrace the changes.
I see this as an opportunity to strengthen not only my faith but the faith of my children. As our society continues to shift away from it's Christian heritage, Christian families need to become strong and grounded in the Word. Biblical illiteracy is at an all time high in our country. Parents are under the impression that just as long as they drop their kids off to Sunday school on Sunday, have their children sit through children's church, and maybe come back to service on Wednesday their children are good to go. This is NOT true. As Christian parents we need to be about the business of teaching our children the Faith. How do we do this? We teach them to pray, teach them the scriptures, teach them to serve and love others, and teach them to stand up for their faith. Phew, this is a tall order. Where do we start? First and foremost we start by being an example to our children. We need to openly display our prayer life and personal devotion time. We need to include our children as we serve those around us. Granted there is much more we need to do. I realize I am going on a tangent, I could and probably should write a whole blog series of keeping the faith in the home. Yet, how will we as families know how to respond to these cultural changes if we are not firm in our faith? How will our children know how to respond among non-Christian friends if they are not firm in the faith? If Christian families are to remain strong during these cultural shifts then we need to be strong in our faith. Period. End. Point.
Secondly, I see these continual cultural shifts as an opportunity to serve and love others. I fully believe that Jesus would be right there in New York as everyone is getting married. He would not be shouting curses but shouting blessings. The way he won people over to Him is through love. He didn't scream at Zacchaeus "get down from that tree you ungrateful sinner, you are going to hell." No, instead he came to Zacchaeus in the tree and said, "Get down from the tree, I am coming to your house today. I want to eat with you. Commune with you and be your friend." (loose translation of course).  Our job is not to judge and curse others. Our job is to pray for our fellow man. Our job is not to just be friends with people like us. We need to be friends with people very different from us. Our job is to go out and love and serve everyone. Not just those who share our same political and religious views. We are suppose to be the light of Christ. That means we need to shine it everywhere--not just in the places we feel most safe (Matt 5:15).
I write all of this to say, as a Christian we should not be afraid of cultural changes in our country. I believe we need to stand firm in our faith and continue to love everyone. Most of all we need to trust in the Lord. God is with us throughout all of this. If He is with us what then shall we fear? NOTHING. We should not fear being a minority as a religion, but should be thankful that we have so many people we can win over to Christ. We should not fear our children having non-christian friends over to the house. We should be thankful that they have opportunities to test their baby faith while we are there to supervise and guide. 
The Lord is with us always. The Lord is still with our country. Yes I think times are going to get harder for the Christian church in our country. Yet I think it is an opportunity for us to refine ourselves and strengthen our swords. I am not fearful of what is to come. I am hopeful that soon and very soon I will be with the Lord in Heaven. Until then I have two jobs: to ground my children securely in the faith and to go out to love and serve others.
May God's grace and peace be with all of you--
A sister in Christ-
Heather

3 comments:

  1. Good post Heather. As I have been reading more and more about the cultural (and political) shifts in our country, I too have really felt an absolute need to make sure that my children are very well grounded in the faith through learning Scripture, prayer and serving others. Although I must admit I hadn't thought about embracing the changes. Your thoughts on that are convicting. We are the light of Christ and we should act like it.

    I hope you write more posts like this one. :)

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  2. Thank you both for your kind comments.
    Tegan--I would like to write more like the one above--but it just takes so much energy and thought--then my grammar is not so hot so I have to look it over a 1,000 times. I should just have my husband edit it and would make my life easy. But really I need to stop complaining--I need the practice and I like writing "opinion" pieces. :) But you have inspired me to give it a go. I enjoy reading all of your commentary and a variety of topics. I thought I could do the same. :)

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