In The World…
I’m thinking about this a lot lately. Politics, entertainment, social issues…how deep do we go in as believers? How much do we make our presence known? And in what way?
The web is already buzzing about this movie coming out called “The Golden Compass”. Written by an avowed atheist, who has stated in interviews how much he hates “The Chronicles Of Narnia” and wanted to write some fantasy from the “other perspective”. The movie is based on the first book of the trilogy “His Dark Materials”.
So, lots of prominent Christians have come out to denounce the movie and encourage everyone not to see it. But is that the best approach?
Numerous books (”unChristian”, “They Like Jesus But Not The Church”) are pointing out that the impressions most people have of Christians are negative. Judgmental. Homophobic. Too involved in politics. Pushing their beliefs on other people. Republican. Close minded. Backward.
So if we are only seen yammering about bad movies, politicians, and what we’re supposedly “against”, what is that really accomplishing? Dan Kimball points out that when the “normal”, loving, kind Christians just stay inside the church “bubble”, and only the loud-mouth radical Christians come out and yell at people, then that’s the only “Christian” most people know about.
How do YOU leave the bubble? How do you impact society in a loving, “Jesus” kind of way?
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Comments
I think you simply get up and go do something. Getting out of the bubble means going out of the bubble.
I always find it amazing that its ok for organizations to come out with agendas against Christianity/to thwart Christianity/to ’show the other side’ and yet the Christians defending themselves are the ‘bad guys.’ Who are ‘closed minded’ and such. That’s ‘in the world and not of it.’
I don’t think protesting the movie is going to solve the problem. I also agree, I tend to hate the “Finding God in things that non-Christians Have Published” is lowering the bar.
I think going out of the bubble is speaking out. But speaking out of love not anger. Out of compassion not hostility. Out of concern and not chastisement.
One last rambling, I don’t think we’re called to be balanced either. Christ was radical and that’s not balanced 
I don’t think that’s what your graphic was implying but I wanted to throw that out there.
Jesus didn’t instruct us to “protest” or in any way argue about being “right”, but instead to “love your enemies”, “do good to those who persecute you”, etc. Jesus was about His mission, meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs, not arguing with someone whether or not he was right. He told us to do the same thing He did while He was here. We need to stay focused on what we should be doing for His Kingdom, loving people so they can learn what God is like through us. If we’re loud and annoying then we’re turning people away from God.
It’s funny that after I read your post I get this email in my inbox this morning warning “All with children to read” and it’s the protest against “The Golden Compass!” HAHAHA.
I did find this at Snopes very interesting.
http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
I agree 100% with Soultatt that “If we’re loud and annoying then we’re turning people away from God.” It’s why I disagree with the loud boisterous condemning evangelicals that come every semester to LSU’s campus and yell at the students who pass by.
’sup PJ….first post:
Here’s what I do to break myself out of the mental bubble. I think of the person (atheist, homosexual, baptist, democrat, Larry, whatever…) and realize that Jesus loves that person just the way they are….so much so that he’d die for them. At that point for me to be upset or mad at that person is to hold Christ’s life sacrificing love as irrelevant. Then I try to behave accordingly and place their interests above my own. Be interested in them and they will reciprocate…every time…and be interested in you and your God.
ANT
I think that we should spend more time trying to subvert the system of the world as opposed to clashing with it. Instead of protesting abortion clinics, we should donate our time and resources to crisis pregnancy centers. Instead of protesting gay rights we should work on the fact that 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce. Instead of campaigning against a movie, we should simply avoid it.
What’s the point in telling non-believers to stay away form the movie - so they can go to hell without seeing a “dark” movie? Let’s concern ourselves with the bigger picture, their salvation.
Also - let’s not pretend that we’re somehow being “in the world but not of the world” by watching movies like this. It’s offensive to our God and we should stay away out of reverence for Him. Finally, we don’t need any “Finding God in The Golden Compass” books either!