There was some talk about boldness in Deke’s post a couple days ago on keeping your wits about you. In the post and the comments there are hints about that fact we need to be bold but also that nagging fact that we sometimes need to be cautious.

I think most of Christian folks mess up by being way too cautious. We hide our faith like some hideous oozing sore or embarassing old tatoo that we don’t want people commmenting on. Now when I say too cautious I’m not, like, saying you should go out to Iran and march through the streets preaching the gospel. That’s not the kind of boldness the average Christian needs to show. What they need to show is boldness in everyday conversation with people they hang with. People who may have been raised Christian but aren’t really born again because they haven’t really take Christ to heart. People who may be of different faiths. People who may be atheist. People who aren’t sure what to believe.

I’m not saying that Christians should wear huge crosses around their necks or plaster a bunch of “God is my co-pilot!” bumper stickers on the car. What I am saying it, let it be known that you are Christian. Believe me with anyone you hang out with regularly there will come a time when it is appropriate…and necessary…that you speak up as a person of faith and make yourself known.

Jesus isn’t cool with people who are afraid to admit they like him. Because if youre afraid to admit that, how much do you really like him, huh?

For instance…

…Your fellow lunching coworkers are talking, and someone mentions how tired she is of Christians trying to overturn Roe versus Wade.

Wouldn’t that be a perfect time to say something like, “I’m a devout Christian and I don’t really think it’s appropriate to overturn that. Religion shouldn’t be used to form our pubic policy. I do think that protestors have the right to complain about it though as long as they aren’t getting violent. We all have free speech.”

…Someone moans about how all those born-again Christians are always so hypocritcal and judgemental.

Wouldnt that be a nice opportunity to say “Have I been judgemental of you? I was just wondering, because I am born again. I wonder, do you maybe have a certain view of what that means? Because maybe I can help clear up what born again really means and it ain’t about ideological stances.”

…A person mentions how close-minded Christians are.

Isn’t that a time you might want to say “Wow, I never realized you felt that way about me.”

The problem is we don’t want to let people know we’re faithful Christians because we think they will treat us differently. So we walk that “I’m spiritual but not religious walk” even if that’s not what we really are. We go undercover and God forbid someone says something nasty about Christian attitudes or demeans the intelligence of them or paints them with some broad brush because then we curl into ourselves and shut up.

If I was having lunch with Deke and someone right next to us dropped the N-word and he didn’t say anything (having a black wife and biracial kids and all), not only would I give him crap for that, you can bet I’d be telling Mrs. Blue about it. I don’t think he would punk out like that, but I’m just sayin’ you know? That is something so important that he should feel obligated to step up. Considering that born again Christians owe their eternal salvation to God and to Jesus’ sacrifice, isn’t is more than a little punk-like to be covert Christians and let people make assumptions about us?

Between me and Sir Pink and Deke and Mrs. Blue, the lot of us know an awful lot of pagans, wiccans, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, potheads, straight laced folks, uptight people, party types and so on and so on and so on. Some of these folks we know might talk trash about Christians from time to time if they aren’t Christian themselves. But they are forced to think twice about us, and stop painting us as close minded idiots, when they discover that not only do we have formal and deep educations…

Not only do we have diverse political stances…

Not only can we think for ourselves…

Not only do we have a wide swath of friends and interests…

…but whoa! we’re also card carrying followers of Jesus Christ!

You don’t have to shout it from the rooftops like crazy person. But if you’ve been hiding your Christianity, stop doing it today. It’s the least you can do.