I am not quite sure what to think of this article posted in a blog oriented towards liberal North Carolina politics (gotta keep up with the competition). Gist is that the author attended a High Point City Council meeting where there was a debate over the meeting's opening prayer. The most provocative part of this story to me is not the facts of the story, but the author's engagement with Christians - her obvious natural bias against Christians, and her grudging respect and even identification with the Christians attending the meeting. I haven't thought about it enough yet, but there is something significant embedded here.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
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Here are some thoughts, some possibly relevant:
I've seen this myself at the many small-town meetings I have attended over the years. The craziest "when Christians attack" movement I saw was in Brunswick County (NC) when a nudist colony wanted to build a fenced campground across the road from a rural Baptist church. Hundreds of church people came out to the public hearing on the issue, some arguing that a nudist campground, regardless of the height of the fence, could ruin their children (who might catch a glimpse of a naked person through the fence) forever. They argued that naked people could bring swinging, drug use and alcoholism that could essentially "infect" the same behavior into their children. I think there are some good arguments for not building a nudist campground near a church, but the people who attended that hearing were talking crazy.
I think many Christians argue at public meetings from emotion rather than sound research and come across as small-minded and out of touch with the real world. I think for me, even as a Christian, the discomfort comes from watching people get so worked up about issues that I wonder why they care so much about. Why not get so impassioned about poverty or domestic violence or low-quality education, which are rampant in parts of our communities?
I think non-Christians do think the general populace of Christians are small-minded and not forward-thinking, and I'll have to admit the crowd that comes out to public comment sessions sometimes appears that way. I think non-Christians may feel some discomfort in Christians' passionate tunnel vision in a time when the often unspoken "cool" (or "forward") way to be is tolerant.
For me, though, like the writer, I've got to admire their passion. At least they believe in something strongly enough to come out en mass to a public meeting and speak before the town's elected officials--an intimidating proposition. If you remove the issue of people's immediate bias toward Christians (which I see all the time as a journalist), I think watching other people speak passionately about something, regardless of their rationale (or lack of), may make us wonder what could ignite such passion in ourselves that we are willing to risk public ridicule. Sadly, we may come up emtpy.
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