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{"id":2734,"date":"2011-07-01T23:27:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T06:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepangeablog.com\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2011-07-06T18:59:10","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T01:59:10","slug":"what-good-does-it-do-when-christians-are-offended-dale-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thepangeablog\/2011\/07\/01\/what-good-does-it-do-when-christians-are-offended-dale-best\/","title":{"rendered":"What Good Does It Do When Christians Are Offended? (Dale Best)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>The talk in some circles of American Christianity this week is what NBC did, or rather didn\u2019t do, this past Sunday afternoon during their US Open broadcast. Because the golf tournament was held in Washington, DC, the network put together a short montage of patriotic clips with an audio byte that included a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n

Only one thing: they forgot to include three little words \u2026 under God, indivisible. Two of which are words that throw ~~all<\/del> ~~most<\/del> some Christians into a tizzy if someone messes with them.<\/p>\n~~~~

NBC has since apologized.<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m one of those Jesus followers who happened to not<\/em> be offended. Because I don\u2019t think it does any good.<\/p>\n

You see, I\u2019ve never met someone who was offended by something and they haven\u2019t told at least one person about it. When we\u2019re offended, the emotion that\u2019s displayed is very outward and vocal. And in this age of social media, it\u2019s easy for our anger over a\u00a0 mistake or mishap to spread quickly. (In fact, FB and Twitter talk had spread so quickly, one of the commentators apologized before the end of Sunday\u2019s broadcast.)<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re offended by things, it\u2019s obvious that we take our time and influence and energy and devote those things to tell others about how horribly we\u2019ve been wronged. The flipside is bottling that offense inside and letting it stew and simmer into resentment. And let\u2019s be honest \u2026 how healthy is bitterness to someone\u2019s emotional and spiritual well-being?<\/p>\n

But how much good does it do? If we call ourselves Christians and we identify ourselves with the One who came and forsook his own rights and his own life and gave himself for others, should instances like removing \u201cUnder God\u201d from a pledge really matter?<\/p>\n

Jesus spent his time and influence and energy building a Kingdom that transcended anything this world had to offer. The world, essentially, has it\u2019s own way of doing things and it never surprised him that things weren\u2019t right. He came to reconcile those things that weren\u2019t right \u2026 through serving and giving his life and ultimately defeating death.<\/p>\n

Jesus didn\u2019t come to tell everyone what he was against. He had one mission and that was to usher in His Kingdom to a world that was broken. He showed us love in a way that seemed so counter-cultural. He didn\u2019t waste his time worrying about whether or not his Abba\u2019s rules were posted in the town square. He taught that to be first, you have to be last. And to not expect the world to make it easy for you along the way.<\/p>\n

I wonder. I wonder about influence. And I wonder about energy. And time, too. We\u2019re only given a certain amount of each and I wonder about how we use all three.<\/p>\n

What would\u2019ve happened if we, instead of being vocally offended about what a dumb TV network did or didn\u2019t do, devoted our time, influence, and energy to help build clean water wells in Africa<\/a>? Or help pull young girls out of the sex trade in southeast Asia<\/a>?<\/p>\n

And what if we dedicated our Facebook statuses to telling the story of Gerry McIlroy, the father of US Open champion Rory McIlroy? Gerry sacrificed a lot as Rory grew up, often working 3 jobs at a time, so his family could afford Rory\u2019s passion for learning how to golf well.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if Gerry\u2019s life is led by the Holy Spirit but the others-first attitude is a Kingdom quality that should be esteemed by Christ followers. What if Christians were so vocal and supportive of Gerry as a Dad and shared his story? Do you think it would change the way the McIlroy family thinks of Christians? (Again, I don\u2019t know what faith background Gerry McIlroy has \u2026 I\u2019m just talking hypotheticals.)<\/p>\n

My point is, I think we do a disservice to the Kingdom when we get offended over the things we can\u2019t control. I understand why \u2018Under God\u2019 is so important to so many in America. But you want to know who\u2019s really \u2018under God?\u2019 I am. You are. Because we\u2019re made in His likeness.<\/p>\n

The way we spend our actions, our emotions, our time, influence, energy, and resources matter. In our joy and selflessness, His kingdom comes. Or we hinder His kingdom coming in our anger and outrage.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Dale Best<\/a> is a media junkie and works in the Radio industry.\u00a0 He is passionate about wrestling with how better to follow the way of Jesus in a postmodern world.\u00a0 You can catch up with him on Facebook<\/a> or Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0 He also attends the same small group as Kurt \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"