http://www.afa.net/culture/GetArticle.asp?id=353

Rights of the Religious Right - by Jeffrey L. Syrios, J.D.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Friends of God, the HBO documentary by Alexandra Pelosi isn’t very friendly to those who consider themselves God’s friends.

The movie documents Pelosi’s national travels as she interviews evangelical Christians in all walks of life. Pelosi (as in the daughter of the Democratic Speaker of the House) talks to everyone from God-fearing professional wrestlers to Christian husbands boasting about a great sex life. Whether the product of bias, misunderstanding or the painful truth, evangelicals look bad. Once again, Christianity as a religion and evangelicals as a power base are under attack.

It is becoming common place, even vogue, to assault Christianity. As secularists continue to push culture further away from a Biblical worldview, Christians have increasingly become the target of ridicule and opposition. But as truth wanes the stakes rise, leading evangelicals to ask: when do we exercise our religious rights? How should we defend our theological turf? Are we ever right to fight?

When attacked, many Christians reach for their spiritual weapons and prepare for battle. Others want to circle their evangelical wagons and pray for the rapture. For a segregated few, they are unaware of the assault or do not care.

But there must be a balance in the Believer’s response to opposition. It is a tension of contrasts that author John Piper calls the natural condition of the Christian soul—brokenhearted joy. It is within this union of extremes that evangelicals must respond to the assault of secular culture. Nothing less can be expected for those whose citizenship belongs in another kingdom.

So what should break our Christian hearts?

It cannot be the surprise of the attack or the resulting pain. Jesus warned us 2,000 years ago that not only would the world hate Christians, but that we should be glad about it. No, our sorrow should come from truth that our praiseworthy God deserves so much more, not only from the persecutor, but from the persecuted. Because of our failure as messengers of God’s glory, the message of God’s glory becomes so easily distorted and discarded. Pelosi’s Friends of God only highlights this.

However, it is on the joy side of the equation where evangelicals demonstrate what it means to have rights and not always exercise them. Christians live in a world we are not of. Our identity and value is not derived from anything the world offers. Despite our despair, the Believer’s hope and ultimate satisfaction is in the glory of God. And it is because of our “other” citizenship that Christians can be abused in one kingdom while resting in the weight of a glory that is now and will more fully be bestowed in another.

Piper says this, “The greatness of Christian exiles is not success but service. Whether we win or lose, we witness to the way of truth and beauty and joy.” Evangelicals can best serve this world not by returning the volley of rights and remedies, but by demonstrating a humble persistence founded in the rules of engagement of another kingdom.

Jeff Syrios, a freelance writer and attorney from Andover, writes a blog at www.syrioslyspeaking.com.