I see many signs that Christianity in America doesn’t appear to be close to the model that God intended. Not in every aspect, of course, but in some aspects I have to wonder why we aren’t closer to what the Bible says about a given subject.

For instance, when we see someone commiting an obvious sin (adultery, lying, cheating, supporting lifestyles or ideas that are obviously contrary to what Scripture teaches), the first thought in the mind of many Christians is “Well, I can’t judge them.”

Hogwash!

First off, to judge someone means to condemn and pronounce a sentence on that person. To blatantly tell someone they’re going to hell is to judge that person, I believe. Number 1, that’s not our place, it’s God’s place, and number 2, you don’t know what will happen in the midnight hour of that individual’s life with regard to their relationship with God. There may be other examples, but that’s the one I use to keep me from “judging” others.

That doesn’t mean, however, that when we see someone in sin, that we can’t address it with that individual. The Bible is quite clear that we’re to encourage one another, to lift one another up, to be the “iron that sharpens iron” in both word and deed. We’re to carefully instruct each other in the Word. The experienced Christians are to pass along lessons in life and Christian living to the newer Christians, especially. For me to point out that extra-marital sex in a person’s life is sinful isn’t judging that person, it’s reminding them that the act is sinful, and that God will judge them if they don’t repent. Those who believe differently are believing a diluted version of Christianity, in my honest opinion.

It’s my firm belief that we have somehow abdicated this role in our lives, especially in conjunction with fellow Christians — it’s like we’re afraid to speak.

How refreshing it is to me, then, to read this morning that a priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners that they must refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama, because of Obama’s unbridled support for abortion:

A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

Now that’s boldness! I believe that it’s absolutely scriptural, too, if you look at the instructions for taking Communion, or as some denominations call it, the Last Supper. We must take the place in society that Christ intended for us to take when he made His sacrifice at Calvary. How dare we do anything less?

In another example of what I believe is our failure to live up to our high calling, homosexual activists actually invaded a church service, throwing condoms and shouting blasphemies, while church members did nothing:

Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church in Lansing, Mich., were stunned Sunday when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit.

According to a blog posting by Nick De Leeuw on Right Michigan, the Bash Back organization orchestrated a protest in front of Mount Hope Church to draw the church’s security staff away from the sanctuary.

Then Bash Backers who had dressed up and mixed in with church worshippers took action.

According to De Leeuw, “Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony.

“‘Jesus was gay,’ they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss,” he wrote.

He cited the Bash Back organization’s own announcement of other items members brought into the church, including “a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. …”

Where is the righteous outrage at this despicable behavior? Have we as Christians become such sheep that nothing enrages us? I picture Jesus in the Temple, twisting cords together to form a whip and driving the moneychangers out, can we not even emulate the example of our Lord when our houses of worship are defiled and desecrated by Sodomites? Why did the men of that church not remove their belts and whip those people out of that church? For fear of what the world would say? What about what God would say, are they now answering to the world rather than Jehovah?

We need to follow God’s Word in all aspects, and to do so, we must become more familiar with it. This idea that Christians are always meek, mild, and never answer wrongs with anger isn’t exactly what Jesus intended, is my belief. There are times for righteous anger, we just need to be sure it’s righteous, and not our flesh rising up. In the two cases I’ve mentioned here, the priest behaved appropriately, I believe, while the church in Michigan has got to learn to stand up and condemn (and eject from the church, if necessary) sinful acts.

And we must learn where the line is, and how God would have us respond.

TD