Closeminded

One of the main accusations I’ve heard people say about Christians is that they are close-minded and/or narrow-minded. That one has always puzzled me a bit. I can understand that maybe if a Christian was unjustly judging someone, and yes that happens a lot in today’s church; however that’s not always the case. It bothers me that Christians tend to be painted as the villain of a story by standing up for what the Word of God tells them to do. I’d like to share a story with you…something that ingrained itself in my mind. When I was a senior at Ohio State in late 2007, I was walking from my car to the bus stop to get to class. I noticed some Gideons standing out in the rain handing out bibles to students as they walked by. The Gideons said very little if anything at all. They were just handing out Bibles. I found it touching that these men were braving the chilly rainy day to show these students love. When I got on the bus I sat in front of a girl who was on the phone with a friend cursing up a storm. She was complaining about these Gideon’s shoving God down her throat on campus and how they had no business being there. She continued her verbal barrage on Christianity all the way to class, constantly noting things about Christians that weren’t true. So the question I’m posing here is this: Who is really being narrow-minded? Who is really judging?

I saw a story recently about a group of Christians that were going to a district in San Francisco every week to pray for the people living there. One week, while there praying for the people in that district, a local man saw them and started yelling at them and asking why they were there. The group responded that they love the people there and are just praying for them. The man went after them verbally some more before leaving and bringing back friends. Eventually a mob formed around them and began to verbally assault the Christians praying there. It soon became physical and they began to do things like pour coffee on them, punch them, and kick them. All the while they spewed all kinds of verbal judgments on the Christians. Eventually the police, in riot gear, got involved. The police told the Christians there that they needed to leave but they initially refused before the mob grew even more intense. The police eventually forced the Christians to leave. A video on You Tube picked it up with the police escorting them out of the district and the mob hurling things at them, and screaming obscenities at them. In the video you hear one person commenting something along the lines of “You hate us, so we hate you. You’re not welcome here. Don’t come back!” These words were spoken to people who were there for one purpose and that was to share God’s love with them.

So let me ask you: who was really sitting in the judgment seat in these examples? Who was really being close-minded? It seems that as we grow closer to the end times and as our country grows further from God, the tide is turning. Christians are now the ones being judged more then before. That does not mean Christians don’t judge because we do…for all have sinned and fallen short, but its time for Christians to realize that we don’t get the benefit of the doubt any more. We aren’t seen with prestige but with mud on our faces. Its not just Christians who can be close minded, but the very same people who claim to be open minded as well.