Christians, the New Enemy

This past weekend, I got to participate in Providence Church's men's retreat at Camp Amon Carter in northwest Ft. Worth. Aside from tons of junk food, Rock Band on the XBox 360, flag football, chilly weather, goofing off over cups of Starbucks, and typical "camp food" (think 4th grade school lunch, here), our speaker was an incredibly gifted guy named Steve Farrar (www.stevefarrar.com). Mr. Farrar's primary focus when he speaks and writes is leading Christian men to be better husbands, fathers, and overall leaders for Christ. It was so great to hear all that this man challenged us with!

In the second session that Mr. Farrar was speaking, he mentioned something fairly quickly that I had to chew on for some time (in fact, I'm still chewing on it as I write this). It wasn't something that really surprised me or anything like that, since I totally agree with his point on it, but it still just got the gears going. I didn't get a chance to really bring it up with the rest of my Home Group guys, but I plan on it over the next week or so. Anyway, what he said was this:

"In modern America, Christians are the new enemy."

I immediately began to think of the subtle ways in which Christians in our "Christian nation" are beginning to be persecuted, but how many more remain mired in apathy and don't really care. True, passionate and zealous Christianity stands opposed to the way that our nation is going, and that scares a lot of people. Far too many people who claim to follow Christ don't want to rock the boat and remain silent in their lives. We don't want to be seen as going against the flow of everything else that is going on around us, so we masquerade.

Does the statement that we Believers are the new enemy strike fear into our hearts, or does it embolden us and cause us to take strength to press forward? Although it's very subtle, Christianity, I would say, is much more of a threat to people than remote terrorism that we fight in faraway lands. I'm not meaning to sound completely callous towards the tragedies that our nation has faced and the fear that there are terror cells growing from within, even now; but, I would say that most people are more afraid of people with a burning desire to glorify Christ in every area of their lives. The main reason is that this will bring light to the darkness that too many of them are living in, and they're not happy with that.

Are we content with living in darkness, or do we truly desire to be that city on a hill?