Katrina – Your example of Jesus in his home town isn’t a great example because it doesn’t answer the question as I posed it (or intended to pose it).  The people in Jesus’ town were Jews.  They were “insiders,” as they had always worshiped one god, they had the law, knowledge of the sacrificial system put in place to atone for their sin, along with prophecy of the Messiah.  They had no excuses.  Although all are sinners in need of redemption, Gentile sinners had to be brought to an understanding of one true God worthy of their worship, their inherent sinfulness and need for a Messiah.  It was (is) a much longer road in many cases.

With a better understanding (I hope) of my question, I’ll ask again if you can you point me to one place where Jesus was hated by a lost sinner because He pointed out their sin and bad theology?

And CS – you make a good point that you were referring to tolerance and acceptance of sinful behavior now that it’s out in the open, as opposed to quantity of sinfulness.  A follow-up question would then be, if we assume that the “quantity” of sinful behavior has remained the same over centuries (an impossible point to prove or disprove), was our society better when it was hidden or when it was open?  One could make a case that with sinful practices open, we (as Christians) have been given a much better opportunity to talk to people with whom the Lord leads us into relationships, if we would do that instead of railing against them.  Talking does not mean passing anti-gay, anti-abortion laws.

I completely agree with Bruce, since marrying our political position with our faith, Satan has succeeded in pulling many of us off mission.  We have persuaded ourselves that railing against and passing laws to prevent all sinful behavior IS preaching the gospel.  As a result many have not only failed to preach it, but in so doing have unnecessarily alienated the very people God has called us to love and reach.  The stats from the young non-Christians makes the point.  Jesus had favor with ALL MEN.  I don’t think His stats would have looked like ours.

I repeat the admonishment of Paul in 1 Cor 5:12 – we have no business judging those outside our faith.

Wendi

Wendi:

“A follow-up question would then be, if we assume that the “quantity” of sinful behavior has remained the same over centuries (an impossible point to prove or disprove), was our society better when it was hidden or when it was open? “

What’s worse: a society that is aware of its sins and at least tries to hide them or suppress them in some degree due to conviction, or a society where the consciences of people have been seared with a hot iron that causes them to openly praise sin?  Don’t get me wrong--sin is still sin--but I would say that the former shows at least people who were aware of what they were doing and did not promote it openly.

“One could make a case that with sinful practices open, we (as Christians) have been given a much better opportunity to talk to people with whom the Lord leads us into relationships, if we would do that instead of railing against them.  Talking does not mean passing anti-gay, anti-abortion laws.”

That could be true.  But when we, as Christians, are presented with laws and civil matters to decide on, such as Colorado’s Amendment 48 that gives personhood to the unborn, shouldn’t we vote in a way that would be God-honoring?

--
CS

Bruce,
Good talking with you and exchanging thoughts. Man, it would be fun to sit down and talk of these things futher. But not to be until heaven, I would guess. Well, of course, I am sure we will meet again in this blog room and have more exchanges.

MAKE IT a great day, tomorrow, brother.
fishon

Anti-homosexual?  For the most part, Yes.  We say we hate the sin but love the sinner but when it comes to homosexuals the truth is a lot of us (Christians and Churches) hate the sinner and we show it.

Our Pastor was recently preaching about family and marriage and addressed homosexuality this way.  When you marry you leave your mother and father and are joined with your spouse as one in covenant with God, you invite God into your marriage and ask Him to bless your union.  When you forego the covenant of marriage and decide to just live together, you are not inviting God into your relationship in the way God designed, and you are not asking God to bless your relationship.  Are you going to be surprised if God does not bless your relationship when you do not ask him to.

And if your relationship is with someone of the same gender, you are again foregoing the God-designed covenant of marriage, you are not inviting God into your relationship in the way He wants, and you are not asking God to bless your relationship.

Is homosexuality sin?  Yes, but so is gluttony, greed, plain old lust, and a bunch of other things that churches don’t condemn nearly as loudly if at all.

We can continue to shout from the rooftops that homosexuality is sin and they’re all going to hell, but if they’re going to hell because of their sin then aren’t we all?  We are all sinners.  No, if they are going to hell it’s because they aren’t inviting God into their lives, they’re not repentant, and they’re not asking for forgiveness.  This is where we as the church fail so often, we condemn them for their sin but we do not reach out to them, do not invite them in that they may come to know Jesus and invite him into their lives that they may be redeemed.

Should we care what non-christians think of us?  In that it affects our ability to carry out the Great Commission and reach them, yes.

As for the statistics, I’d say most of them are true to some degree, more so in some churches than others and more so in the hearts of some Christians than others, but overall not to degree that the opinions of non-christians indicate.  i.e. there are hypocritical Christians among us, 85% of non-christians surveyed believe so, but I don’t think 85% of Christians are hypocritical.