Ask Uncle Brad: The Persecution Complex, The Snapchat Ghost, and Charity

Ask Uncle Brad is a weekly column in which pastor, farmer, and father, and Christ and Pop Culture writer Brad Williams answers your questions about how to navigate difficult and complex cultural issues in everyday life.

If you’d like to ask Uncle Brad a question, you can leave a comment below, or email your question to [email protected] with the subject line, “Ask Uncle Brad”. 

I didn’t get any questions sent directly to me this week, but I did get a lot of questions by way of search terms that brought people to our site. Probably they all meant to ask me but they just didn’t know how. Because I am ever-vigilant to help, I shall endeavor to answer those questions now as if they were addressed to me, as I am sure the folks meant for them to be.

Dear Uncle Brad,

How do I deal with persecution complex?

Signed,

Afraid That the Liberals Are Going to Kill Me 

Dear Afraid,

One of the first steps to dealing with a persecution complex is to admit that you have one, so I think that you are moving in the right direction. Another way to help with this is to realize that freedom of religion was not designed to protect only your religion, whatever it may be. If you aren’t for freedom of religion for everyone, then you aren’t really for freedom of religion.

For example, if you think it is persecution to remove the Ten Commandments from a courthouse, why would you be upset if the Church of Satan wants to set up a statue to Satan at the same courthouse? Wouldn’t it be better to just keep state and religion as separate as we can? If we don’t, things could get pretty ridiculous with all the statues and monuments to various gods and entities we’d have to erect at the courthouse. There’d hardly be room for a judge or jury.

Dear Uncle Brad,

Why is the Snapchat logo a ghost?

Love,

Anonymous Internet Searcher

Dear Anonymous,

The reason that the logo for Snapchat is a ghost is because snapchats disappear in ten seconds or less. They are ephemeral, like ghosts. Isn’t that cool? Bravo, marketing logo designers! Bravo!

Dear Uncle Brad,

Should one give money to the church or to the poor?

Yours truly,

Feeling Generous

Dear Feeling,

I’m not certain that this is an either/or proposition. At least, I hope it isn’t. For example, a portion of the funds from our own church goes to help people in the community with gas bills, electric bills, rent, or even groceries. Hopefully, your church has similar benevolence ministries that she helps out with. You might ask your pastor or a deacon if that is the case.

If not, I’d suggest lobbying for such ministries to be a part of your local church’s ministries. In the meantime, you should give some to the church and some to the poor. After all, if you don’t give to the church, then your pastor might become poor. Or the missionaries your church supports. Nobody wants that, right?

Seriously, your church should be concerned with helping the poor. Hopefully, that is not the only ministry that they are engaged in. Teaching the Scriptures, proclaiming the gospel to the community and the world, these are also things that are worthy of our support.