Extremists

"One of the most disturbing things about Church history is the Church's appalling track record of being on the wrong side of the great social issues of the day." - Richard Stearns, The Hole in our Gospel

This quote is the first sentence in the chapter titled "AWOL for the greatest humanitarian crisis of all time." Richard Stearns' main point is that the Church can no longer attempt to function as a G-rated ministry when we live in an R-rated world.

It's no secret that I grew up in a sheltered environment--and I have no regrets about it. You can credit this decision to the fact that my parents were protective, that we were homeschooled in order to base our education on scripture, or that our family wanted our foundation to be firmly rooted in God before our exposure to the world. Any of those reasons are valid and, I repeat, I don't regret it.

But to state the obvious, I'm grown now and can no longer chose to be sheltered from the world. It won't work and it's not what we're commanded to do as warriors for Christ. "Be in the world but not of it." I appreciate my academic education and my social education, both have helped bring me to think and discuss issues that are vital to our society. I can't hide, and I don't want to look back one day and realize that my lack of research or willingness to see each side of an issue resulted in me being on "the wrong side."

So I'm trying not to ignore or disengage from the important social issues. I am trying to watch the news, read different opinions, and just participate in this R-rated world.