{"id":9170,"date":"2021-08-09T10:38:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T15:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=9170"},"modified":"2021-08-09T10:38:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T15:38:55","slug":"christians-hating-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=9170","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTIANS HATING ONE ANOTHER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>We live in turbulent and divisive times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We may be tempted to focus only on the ungodliness of the &#8220;culture&#8221; in general, but ungodliness is hardly limited to those outside the\u00a0church.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Inside the church there is suspicion among Christians, even hatred.\u00a0Christians have told me that they can\u2019t talk about their differences on important\u00a0issues\u2026with their best friends!\u00a0 How much hope is there then to discuss controversial matters with those we don\u2019t know?\u00a0 Growing numbers seem pessimistic about the prospect.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The gadfly sensation, Jordan Peterson, likes to tell young people that they have no credibility to protest in public unless they first keep their own bedrooms neat and tidy.\u00a0 It is good counsel and one we Christians ought to take more seriously, even if others don\u2019t.\u00a0 To change the imagery a bit, I like to say that we Christians regularly want to start a landscape company when the weeds in our own backyard need serious attention.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Consider the following not so hypothetical conversation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Life Christian: I can\u2019t believe that people think partial-birth abortion is okay.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Choice Friend: How come?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Life Christian: Because it is the killing of a human being!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Choice Friend: Why do you believe anyone two and younger is human?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Life Christian: Because the Bible says so!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Choice Friend: Would you show me a few of those Bible verses?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pro-Life Christian: Uh, let me see\u2026I know they are in there somewhere\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Whether it is engaging in conversation with those inside or outside the church, we ought first to consider whether we are adequately literate to speak with such confidence and conviction.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The final chapter of\u00a0<em>Stuck in the Present<\/em>\u00a0offers a way forward&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stuck in the Present: How History Frees and Forms Christians\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"625\" height=\"550\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"clipboard-write\" style=\"max-width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/read.amazon.com\/kp\/card?asin=B08YFJXDTK\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We live in turbulent and divisive times.\u00a0\u00a0 We may be tempted to focus only on the ungodliness of the &#8220;culture&#8221; in general, but ungodliness is hardly limited to those outside the\u00a0church.\u00a0 Inside the church there is suspicion among Christians, even hatred.\u00a0Christians have told me that they can\u2019t talk about their differences on important\u00a0issues\u2026with their best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,43,122,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-christianity","category-controversy","category-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9171,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9170\/revisions\/9171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}