Persecuted for Foolishness' Sake

There is an article at Crosswalk.com about a group of professing Christians who were arrested recently at a gathering of homosexuals during a "gay pride" celebration in Philadelphia called "Outfest." Four of the eleven originally arrested were detained for prosecution on several counts. Apparently, these people, who are members of a group which calls itself Repent America, were confronting the sodomites by reciting Bible verses through a bullhorn. The group claims that it was only exercising its free speech rights but city officials said that one of the members of the group had tried to disrupt an on-stage performance with his preaching and that the group disobeyed police orders to move outside of the perimeter of the "block party" in order to reduce the possibility of a violent confrontation. The details of exactly what happened are disputed but it seems no one is denying that there was a heated confrontation.

No doubt, many among the Evangelicals will hail these people as heroes of the faith and claim that they are being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. In fact, the group's lawyer is already portraying the event as evidence that public preaching of the gospel is being suppressed in American society. But there is no biblical basis for what these people are doing, and what they are doing is not preaching the gospel. It would be more accurate to say that they are assaulting people with the Scriptures. But Christians are not to use the Bible as a hammer to try to beat people into submission to God. Of course, preaching the gospel must include confronting people with their sins and telling them to repent of those sins. But once people make it clear that they don't want to know, then we should back off.

There is no one in America who does not have easy access to the Scriptures. If people want to know what the Bible says about homosexuality, (and everyone knows that it does address the matter) then they can easily read it for themselves or ask one of the millions of professing Christians in this country to show them what it says. The "gay activist" types know all too well that the Scriptures condemn what they do, and to shout biblical passages at them through a bullhorn is only to cast pearls before swine. Doing so may bring persecution but persecution for foolishness' sake shall bring no blessing from God.

The thing that I find to be very strange is the selective condemnation that many of today's Evangelicals make. Why is it always either abortion or homosexuality that they target? Why do I never hear of people doing this sort of thing outside of divorce courts or the offices of pornography publishers, for example? I suppose they might answer that they target the more heinous forms of sin. But where do they get this idea that Christians are to pick one or two particular forms of sin out of the Bible and then make a career out of condemning those who practice it? And I wonder if any of them ever consider the fact that while they are busy condemning unbelievers, sin in the professing churches is being largely ignored.