It is remarkable with what Christian fortitude and resignation we can bear the sufferings of other folks.
—Jonathan Swift

It doesn’t require a crystal ball to know that—in terms of the future—believers are sailing into stormy seas. Our culture is changing. No longer do followers of Christ hold a privileged, honored position in our society. The people around us don’t thank us for being good. They don’t appreciate the morality by which we try to live. They aren’t impressed by the truths we uphold.

Far from it. Christians are increasingly held in disdain. Just ask some of the people you meet day to day. Christians are seen as intrusive, proud, lacking compassion. Our morality is judged as a veneer for hypocrisy. Our “truths” are thought to be narrow and self-serving. Our time—many believe—has come and gone.

Count on it. Believers today are living in a post-Christian world. And attitudes toward us are only going to harden and become more prejudicial.

Some of it, of course, is our own fault. For the past 25 years, we have borrowed a page from the world’s playbook in an effort to flex our moral muscle, and now it is backfiring on us. We thought we could ballot our way to a higher ethic and boycott others into adopting our standards and politic our beliefs into cultural realities. We baptized certain political parties and demonized others. We confused a conservative social agenda with God’s kingdom agenda. Much of the prejudice that will dog God’s people in the years ahead will be a direct result of our trying to achieve heavenly ends using worldly means. We forgot that worlds change only because of crosses, not through constitutional amendments and power politics. Our culture has watched us make that mistake and will hold it against us in the future.

And, God forgive us, they’ve listened to the travesty we’ve made of the gospel: faith as the royal road to health and wealth . . . prayer as wish fulfillment . . . good deeds the guarantee of a happy life. In so many churches, the gospel has been portrayed as God’s way to achieve the American Dream—not a call to transcend this world, but the secret to living well in it. So not only is our culture mad at us for trying to force ourselves down its throat, it is repulsed by a kind of greed and worldliness we try to disguise as God’s will for the faithful.

A Surprising Opportunity

I contend that the accumulation
of all that anger and prejudice and revulsion offers the greatest opportunity for the church to come along in 150 years. It offers an opportunity for us to repent and return to the true nature of God’s gospel: to embrace the way of the cross once again, to wake up from our materialistic daydreams and live out our true calling.

But it also offers the chance for us to practice what Jesus crowns as the pinnacle of spiritual maturity. If poverty of Spirit is the beginning of Christian growth and development (remember Matthew 5:3?), then suffering persecution “for righteousness” (Matthew 5:10-12) is surely its culmination. And suffering such persecution in Christ-like ways is the opportunity of our lifetime.

When the world hates us and spits at us and ridicules what we stand for, how will we react? When our culture screams “Away with the Christians!” and tries to silence our voice and mocks our faith, what will we do?

Suffering Well

If we can confess our spiritual poverty rather than point out the moral deficiencies of our persecutors, if we can mourn our own sins rather than lamenting the sins of those who oppose us, if we can remain submitted to God when we are tempted to submit to the urges of our pain, if we can demonstrate a passion for righteousness that will not be quenched by wounds and troubles, if we can show mercy even to our enemies, if we can live with integrity among those who do not, if we can build bridges to people who are equally intent to build walls—if, in other words, we can be Beatitude Christians even in persecution, especially in persecution—then we will become living proof that good really does overcome evil, that life can swallow up death, and that right is more powerful than might.

Our culture will not be won by our nice buildings or eloquent speeches or monolithic voting blocs. But it may be captivated by our suffering well—suffering gladly—suffering with forgiveness and character. That’s precisely how Jesus won the world. And it is this that may provide our best opportunity for turning the attention of our culture away from our own mistakes to the majesty of the one we serve. |L

Dr. Tim Woodroof is senior minister of Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells