We all love to hate spoiled rich kids. Whether it’s secret envy at their privilege or shock at their lack of awareness of the material struggles most people endure, we really enjoy disliking them. Surely one of the biggest causes for despising them is their utter lack of appreciation for what they have been given. We can stand people being given much more than what we have had to earn.
But what is truly offensive is their ingratitude for the lavish gifts, especially if they complain whenever they suffer a setback from the gluttony of their general prosperity. “Oh, woe is me that I must settle for a Mercedes instead of the Bentleys we’ve always driven.” It’s repulsive. But sadly, I worry that this is how Christians in much of the world view us Americans.
Our churches are often planted in government-provided schools. All of our major cities have several Christian radio and television stations. And none of us have ever looked over our shoulders for fear that the secret police may snatch us for preaching the Gospel. And we have the audacity to complain about persecution here at home? Shame on us.
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Email: andrewtallman16 (at) gmail.com
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- Andrew Tallman
- A philosopher and former agnostic who hosts a Christian talk radio show on AM 1360 KPXQ weekdays from 6pm to 7pm in Phoenix, Arizona.
1 comment:
Ingratitude may be a sin, but suggesting that, as an American Christian, I should be so grateful that I am not being rounded up and fed to lions for my faith that I ignore erosions of civil liberties and do nothing to prevent them would also be shameful. I tend to view our freedoms as a threshold or floor, but I suspect that many of the governments in the world view our civil rights as a ceiling, to which they feel compelled to compare themselves, but above which they need not aspire. I do not serve persecuted Christians under hostile regimes by being so grateful for our freedoms that I stand by and allow our threshold (their ceiling) to be lowered without challenge. More than ingratitude, the sin of which I am guilty is complaining without taking meaningful action to rememdy the situation of which I am complaining.
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