A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on November 10th, 2008 in US News

My heart is with Candace Chellew-Hodge, but I think she’s missing the point.

Voters in California have twice – not one, but twice – approved a ban on same sex marriage. It smacks of poor sportsmanship, no matter how high the stakes, to hold protests and threaten legal action from losing an election. Especially when the effort was well financed and hard-fought.

It isn’t that I advocate giving up and going home – but there’s a world of difference between going home and protesting outside a church. It’s the wisdom contained in the old saw: “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Or think of it this way – most people don’t respond well to being told, “You’re wrong. Not only are you wrong, but you’re a pig-headed fool and a narrow minded son-of-a-bitch, too!” It doesn’t matter if anyone actually says those words, that’s how the actions are going to be interpreted.

What if, instead of protesting at churches that supported Prop 8, they organized prayer vigils at those that did? Yeah, I think the media might not cover it as well. Or they might. We won’t know, of course, because the knee-jerk reaction was for the former action.

Racial minorities and frequent church-goers were the strongest supporters of Prop 8. It seems logical that the outreach that is needed is to those groups – the Black and Latino church-goers who just might be willing to listen if the argument is presented in the right way. The “right way” isn’t going to be “shouted through a bullhorn”. It will be in thoughtful and prayerful little groups of two and three. It will be in intellectual circles and in outreach circles.

To draw a Biblical comparison, it must be fought the way Jesus fought, not the way Ceasar fought.

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