To My Facebook Friends

To My Precious Facebook Sister in Christ….

Y’all gots grit girl!! Takes real spunk to LIKE someone who isn’t liked by the religious establishment. So thanks, sincerely, for the dozens of Facebook “Amens!” (A LIKE is an “Amen!”) What a strengthener and comforter you have been. (It’s kinda’ lonely out here, know what I mean?)

So I ask myself: If you LIKE many of my postings, why don’t many others? No, I don’t expect anyone to LIKE everything, but, given the fact I post to christians on many subjects, why doesn’t everyone LIKE some? Surely a few of my postings stir a big fat “Amen!” in the belly of many readers. I know two things: 1) friends and family do read my postings and 2) many don’t LIKE what they like and agree with. Again, I have asked myself many times, why is that? I think I got it figured out….. herd mentality.

Herd mentality? Yes, Precious, herd mentality. Within evangelicalism, herd mentality is the bunch being more concerned about the bunch than about Lord Jesus. He-she-they rule the behaviour of most. He-she-they often trump reasonable-true-right. It takes courage to call wrong wrong and right right when their religion decrees otherwise. Go-with-the-flow is the mindset of compromisers. We do what we do because everyone does it. Example, people call Pastor Whoever “Pastor” because everyone calls Pastor Whoever “Pastor”. Compromise has made the evangelical an evangelical. He/she has long ago learned unity at all cost. The alternative to compromise is integrity and integrity often induces TENSION. To all reading this letter, seriously consider: animus toward tension often prevents us from doing right.

Nobody likes tension. Tension arises when we don’t do what the bunch does. Or we do what the bunch doesn’t do. Decisions are often made according to what does and doesn’t bring tension. LIKE-ing what he-she-they may not approve is always accompanied by unease. Best to keep “Amens!” buried. And yet…. to be a faithful follower of our Lord Jesus often necessitates tension, and lots of it.

Many (most?) in every religion are dogged by he-she-they. They accompany their subjects wherever they go…. shopping, walking, driving, whatever. Herd mentality rules the church just as cruelly as it does the world. Many in the world will be forever regretful because they deferred to the he-she-they of secularism. And…. many in Christ’s church will be regretful at the judgement seat of Christ because they deferred to the he-she-they of evangelicalism. It takes more grit than most have to buck “tradition[s] of men” and follow Christ fully. Paul wrote (NLT), “If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Men-pleasers can’t be Christ-pleasers. Just can’t. Men-pleasers avoid persecution down here, but “suffer loss”, eternal loss, up there.

Jesus commanded Paul, “Do not be afraid, but SPEAK, and do not keep silent.” What moved Paul moves you and I, my sister-in-Christ; I speak by posting and you speak by LIKE-ing what you deem likeable. For your courage, thank you, thank you, thank you.

P.S. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps.37:4) Since your delight is Jesus, Jesus will give you your heart’s desires.