TOD 01.11.08

We Christians in America shudder when we imagine the oppression against our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. In some countries, becoming a Christian could cost you your job or your family. In other places, it could land you in jail or get you executed. Owing a Bible is a crime in many locations, and evangelizing is forbidden in even more.

When we consider the possibility of such things happening here at home, we are outraged. We would fight tooth and nail to preserve the sort of freedoms that our fellow Christians lack elsewhere in the world, and rightly so. And yet, in spite of our powerful lust for religious freedom, I wonder how many of us have married ourselves to the concept in such a way that, were our lifestyles transplanted into those other areas, they would get us arrested.

Just as has been said about literacy, the Christian who does not spread the Gospel has no advantage over the Christian who cannot spread the Gospel. Why bother screaming to keep a right which we then nullify with our silence?