Christians and Jews are increasingly disliked and targeted for the same reason. A conspicuous godly lifestyle creates a standard of comparison:
- Righteousness exposes wretchedness
- Right exposes wrong
- Light exposes anything hidden in the darkness
Exposure by godly believers triggers unwanted guilt, stress, disorder, and negative emotions in others. The reactions range from cynical criticism to powerful lawsuits and sometimes violence.
Believers are, or should be, the ‘light of the world’ [Isaiah 42:6; Matthew 5:15-16] exposing hidden wrongdoing to the extent that they live their lives as God intended. Because they aspire to live on a higher plane, the cultural impact of Christians and Jews greatly exceeds the number or proportion of believers in any culture. Unbelievers will respond or react even to the perceived righteousness of believers.
The impact of believers can be positive or negative. For the last 50 years, the American culture has been drifting away from God. The collective body of American believers has been caught in the backdraft of the cultural drift, always a few steps behind, but still drifting away from God. The light of believers has grown dim.
Large numbers of Christian and Jewish believers have compromised in every cultural, social, and family-linked controversy. Examples are legion and include the areas of abortion, divorce, cohabitation, “same-sex marriage,” and many others. As believers continue to drift away from God, the standard of comparison weakens. Unbelievers perceive the lifestyle compromises adopted by Christians and Jews as approval by God and license for even further compromises by the secular public. Believers are facilitating the destruction of the American culture and family.
Today, the drift has become a spiraling free fall into the storm of chaos as American believers have increasingly allowed themselves to be sequestered by the pressures of political correctness to within the four walls of their homes and the four walls of their places of worship.
Of course, God is still in charge. He is the source of infinite love and is always available. Believers can once again become the light of the world to the extent that they soulfully repent of their own wrongdoings and aggressively pursue the life that God clearly intended. Believers must be willing to personally go into the storm and publically let His light shine through them, regardless of the cost. Political correctness is nothing more than aggregated secular pressure to turn off God’s spotlight on their widespread and growing wrongdoing. It cannot continue. Believers must be willing to stand up and let God’s light shine through them once again.
It begins with YOU!
Are YOU willing to drive into the storm?
Your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren and God are depending on YOU.
Dr. Lloyd Stebbins 
The world is changing, and I believe people are changing with it. They are taking on new beliefs and what was once considered wrong is now the new norm. I believe the biggest problem is people being offended. Why does the world care who is offended lately. A long time ago when you got offended you just sucked it up and went on about your business, but now people want to sue and make a big deal out of nothing so now most people will just sugar coat their actions to avoid the repercussions of offending someone. The world is becoming an awkward place for a Christian.
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Good comments, Jamie. We have developed a huge body of common law based on requirements that you must or must not say or do something allegedly because someone might be offended. Anyone who has ever been married knows that you can’t get through the day or at least the week without offending your spouse–the one who is closer to you than anyone else in the universe. It is not possible to go through life without occasionally offending someone.
I tell students on the first night of my MBA courses that no topic is off limits for discussion. Regardless of the topic, I can’t control what others say or do. However, I’m the one who gets to choose whether or not I’m offended. Since my joy comes from the Lord, I tell the students that I choose in advance NOT to be offended regardless of the discussion. After that, the discussions are much more free flowing.
Children used to chant the jingle, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Today, people are so terrified about possibly being called an unkind name that they are unable to communicate honestly. Extreme political correctness is designed to shut down any opposition to a liberal/progressive/socialist point of view. What do you think?
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