“I had a friend that…got born again and evangelical, and it broke my heart.”

Leaving Jesus at Church

Frankly, we are at a cultural impasse with guns drawn. We sense it in our social networks, the workplace, classrooms, our extended families—a lot of Christians have decided, I think we’re losing. Jesus and Christianity aren’t very popular. I’m not going to say a lot. I’m just going to keep it to myself. My religion is going to be a very private, personal thing for me or my family. I’m not going to engage the people around me because their objections are pretty strong. I don’t know how to respond to them. I don’t want to put my faith on social media because I don’t want to pay the social and vocational cost.

In the eyes of popular culture, Christians have become bigots who are against equality. We are hypocrites who fail to practice what we preach. We are exclusivists who threaten anyone who does not accept our truth. As we assess our position, we have to admit we have lost many battles of the culture wars. The reign of Christendom has officially run its course. If culture is a game of musical chairs, then the music stopped playing, and for the first time in we lost our seat.

In this confusing new context, our new default is silence. And many Christians are second-guessing whether or not we are even correct on our issues. A mushrooming group of Christians is thinking, People freaking hate us. We’re lobbing grenades at each other. Can’t we make some concessions so nobody gets blown up? Can’t we negotiate this? Can’t we edit the Bible a bit and hope that God is okay with us waving the white flag on a few issues like gender, sex, and marriage?