When will we learn

I’m currently sitting on an aeroplane on my way to Israel for a couple of days and I noticed something in the paper of the lady next to me (terrible habit I have of reading over other peoples shoulders). Anyway it was about a female model who is one of the models used extensively by Marks and Spencer’s (a big retail store in the UK). The article is basically about her posing “nude” in playboy magazine and how she is defending this as “art”.

Anyway, I have to confess I did not read the full article but only got the gist of what it said. However there was one part of it that caught my attention. In this article there was a quote by a spokesman for a Christian organisation (I shall not name them – but they are reasonably well known in the UK for their “legalistic” stance on various issues) who was suggesting that because this young lady had posed nude, people should therefore boycott Marks and Spencer’s.

OK, now I do not want to comment on the merits of the article, or the story itself, or if it is appropriate for her to be a model for a leading retailer and in playboy, instead what I would rather focus on is the reaction and statement by the “Christian Organisation”. Firstly I would ask why did the paper in question feel the need to get a “statement” from a Christian organisation on this and secondly why them?

Well, my theory is that most (not all but a large proportion) of the mass media in the UK are “anti” Christian and will do anything they can to show Christianity as out dated, out of touch, irrelevant and something that has little positive to say to society generally. If you look at most of the portrayal of Christians in the media that’s what you get. If you accept that is the case, the reason they asked this particular organisation becomes clear – they know they will get the exact reaction they are looking for and further reinforce the stereotype they are building.

Now here’s the rub – why oh why oh why do we as Christians keep playing the game!! When are we going to learn that by saying what they want to hear (the negative condemnation etc) we are doing our cause further damage! Now I’m absolutely not suggesting that we don’t embrace opportunities to enter into the mainstream debate in fact exactly the opposite - but what I am suggesting is that rather than taking a negative approach and a condemnatory tone – lets start surprising people by what we are FOR rather than what we are AGAINST – maybe showing slightly more Grace would be a good thing.

The Gospel is GOOD NEWS – not bad news, its not about the law anymore but about love and forgiveness – lets make that the top of our agenda – then when the media come knocking on our doors for comments we can be positive and affirming. It really is a lesson we MUST learn or the Christian faith will increasingly be marginalised, ridiculed and made to look totally irrelevant to those who don’t know better.

We must take every opportunity to comment – but I do genuinely believe if we cannot find something that makes Christianity and Jesus look like he really is – accepting, loving, forgiving, desiring to know you – after all he laid down his life for sinners and he certainly never condemned and judged those in sin – just the religious who were doing the judging and setting themselves up as “holier than thou” – he offered love acceptance and forgiveness – if we cannot come up with comments and statements that do the same then can I suggest we would be better off offering no comment at all.

What do you think, am I being overly harsh or is it time we woke up to the media agenda and stopped playing directly into their hands – how should we respond, I’d love to know your thoughts – do you have any positive stories?