Turning the Other Cheek

 I grew up in a home that taught the Bible and believed the Bible. My parents did their best to teach me the scriptures and many of their teachings stay with me to this day.

 One teaching was the Biblical teaching of turning the other cheek. You can find this teaching in Matthew 5:39 "But I tell you, do not resist and evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."

 This teaching has been taught in Bible believing churches for centuries. Many have used it as a reason to avoid any kind of violence, including protecting themselves and their families. Conscientious objectors have used this as one of the main reasons for avoiding combat. They simply could not harm their enemy.

 Although I respect those that have used this scripture in that manner, I have to say I strongly disagree. Not just with the thought of avoiding combat but with the idea in general that Christians should just let people run all over them and their beliefs. I have seen it in an even greater way with how we react to political attacks, make no mistake there is a war on Christians in the US, and attacks from the media.

 Today Phil Robertson, patriarch of Duck Dynasty, was skewered for sharing his beliefs about homosexuality. Although I personally believe he went too far by using explicit details, I believe in the core of his message, that homosexuality is indeed wrong and a sin. This does not mean I hate homosexuals or that their sin is in any worse then my own, it just means it made the list of sins against God.

 I make no apologies for my belief in God but what I will apologize for is that as a Christian I took the "turn the other cheek doctrine" to the extreme, I let is silence me. I believed that being a peace maker meant being nonconfrontational, unless of course I was arguing with other Christians.

 Sadly many Christians of my parents generation and before allowed the same thing to happen to them as well. They sat back and watched God be taken out of school, Roe V Wade get passed and a general eroding of ethics and morality. Why we turned the other cheek humanist and the godless started to decay the moral fabric of society. Now we are getting all our cheeks kicked.

 I can tell you for me the time has come to be like my name sake from the Bible, hopefully minus the stoning. Stephen was a man that spoke with such clarity and passion that his enemies could not even answer him because they were so befuddled. It's time to speak up Christians. Not with arrogance or hatred but with conviction and passion. Gods ways are not outdated or old fashioned, regardless of what the politically correct in society say.

Thanks For Reading,

Steve