In all honesty, I have no yet finished Silence, but after yesterday’s discussion, I really want to. One thing that has stuck with me and is pushing me to want to read the story is one of the ideas that was brought up yesterday in class. The thought of a conflict between loving God and loving people.
For us, this is not a battle that we face often, if ever, and it is definitely not a struggle that we think about in our culture. We, 21st Century American Christians, have probably never had to make any decision where the options are: A) defame Christ with our actions to save others who had professed a love for Him at some point, or B) do not defame Christ and let the others be tortured with no hope.
My thought is merely that I cannot wrap my mind around the idea of this choice. Which is showing more love and devotion to Christ? Yes, trampling the cross to save others seems to be pushing Christ down. However, in Matthew, Jesus said, “...as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” This leads me to think that leaving people to be tortured is also pushing Christ down.
All day, these thoughts were going around in my head and I find myself at a common point with the honors alumni who spoke yesterday. Every time I think about this, I argue points with myself and my position on the issue changes...
PS I posted on Mallory Searcy's "Apostatize..."
Christians more willingly sacrifice their own lives than the lives of others, and that's what makes this an intense moral dilemma. If you save the people, you deny Christ. If you uphold Christ, the people suffer for your decision. Either way, you can't win.
ReplyDeleteI think one thing has not changed: most people have some sort of expectation about what is going to happen whenever they go overseas on a mission trip... Back then, being persecuted almost gave you a rockstar status. Nowadays, just going on a trip oversees or reporting that many came to know Christ can often have self-righteous effects...
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