Being a Christian on a very secular college campus on the “Left”
coast is not exactly a walk through the tulips. There are days, even weeks,
where my very spirit is twisting and turning in agony. Some days, it feels like
my tiny little prayers get sucked up into a bubbling, oozing tar pit of decay,
and other days I can feel the air electric in spiritual warfare. My heart grieves
for the vacant eyes I see walking by in search of what, they don’t know. I’ll tell ya, it can be exhausting and downright
uncomfortable.
This week was particularly tough. It was “sex week” on
campus and they had posters and booths set out in the quad with large crowds
gathered around. What I found a little more than interesting was a booth that
was set up right next to them with a prominently displayed sign that read “Homosex
is a God Damn Sin.” I wasn’t so sure how to feel about that booth, and I almost
went over there out of curiosity. It was still a few minutes before my next
class started and I could have gone over there for a few minutes, but I
refrained. I suspect some well meaning Christian or Christians decided to put
that up, and it drew just as large a crowd as the other “sex week” booths.
Let me first say, I am in total agreement that homosexual
sex is a sin, and so is any sexual intercourse outside of marriage. However, this
is not my judgment, but God’s judgment, so if others have a problem with it,
then it’s something they must take up with God, not me. Therefore, I don’t have a problem with the anti
homosexual sex message, but I do have a problem with the nature in which it was
delivered in this case.
What these vacant eyes I see passing by me on campus are
looking for is not more of the same empty crudeness they can find at the “sex
booths.” They are looking for the joy and the peace and the love and the grace
that we have. They can go anywhere and hear crude language. In these days of “political
correctness” simply saying “Homosexual Sex is a Sin” is plenty enough to shock
and awe onlookers. I would even venture to guess that the crowds would have
been larger if they weren’t trying so hard to use shock advertising to get a Biblical
truth out and draw crowds. What they did with that sign was open the doors to angry arguments rather than true discourse.
We should trust the Holy Spirit to be able to do the work
for us. People can go anywhere and get
anger, disdain, and condemnation these days, so they surely don’t need more of
the same from us. Yes, we must proclaim the hard truths of the Bible, truths
that people don’t want to hear, but we must do it in love. That is what this
world is so thirsty for, and that’s what we should offer them in Christ Jesus.