My wife, Sue, and I were at the bank the other day, and we began talking with the teller, Jan, about Facebook.  We live in a small town, so we know Jan  a little, and there were no other customers, so we had a little time to chat.  I do not have Facebook, but both Sue and Jan do, and they were talking about their likes and dislikes of social networking.  Then Jan, who does not go to our church, but goes to another church in town, said something that made me very sad.  She said, “I have a cousin who is a ‘born again’ Christian, but he also hates Obama and is all about guns.  I don’t even bother reading his posts anymore.  I don’t like reading what he has to say.”

First of all, adjectives defining what ‘kind’ of Christian one is (in this case, 'born again'), is a first world / free world phenomenon.  Christians living where the Gospel is oppressed or not present don’t have the luxury nor the need to define themselves as born-again, red letter, liberal, conservative, and so on.  Even in parts of the world where the church has been around for centuries, the labels Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant seem to suffice.  In general, the word‘Christian’ should stand on its own merits, and it’s a reflection of our culture that we need to define what category of Christ follower we are.  But that’s not the part of her statement I’m writing about.

According to Scripture, and specifically the Christ of whom Christianity is founded on,  we are not to hate even our enemies.  While Jan’s cousin may or may not actually use the word ‘hate’, and perhaps he wouldn’t even say he hates the President, if it comes across that way on his posts, deep down he probably does.  I’ve written this before in one way or another, but this Obama-directed fear mongering in the name of Jesus is,well, kinda stupid.  He’s not Pol Pot,he’s not Joseph Stalin, he’s not Nero Caesar. He’s our President, fairly elected, and even in the midst of a few eyebrow raising recent events, he’s still better than anyone who was in the White House in the 1970’s.  Furthermore, if we profess the name of Jesus, let's get our eyes on the King of Kings instead of the kings of this world , like millions of believers before us have through worse times than anything we could even imagine.

As for guns, I’ve written about this, too.  Not having seen the posts, I don’t know for sure, but I doubt ‘Cuz’ is just an avid sportsman who goes hunting with the guys.  If he’s one of these Christian militia guys, someone needs to remind him that ‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (II Cor. 10:4) and we are not to “trust in horses and chariots, but in the Lord.”  (Psalm 20:7)  If he is like one of too many other believers whose fear is greater than his faith, he needs to reverse these qualities.  “There is no fear in love,but perfect love casts out all fear.” (I John 4:18)  When you experience that, it’s like, well…being born again.