“Post this if you’re not ashamed…”

Like many of you, I’m bothered by mass e-mail forwards. Jokes are fine, funny links are welcome… but those annoying “send this to 20 friends… blah blah” forwards just bug, especially when they play to my faith as a Christian.

The social networking version of e-mail forwards are status updates that “challenge” others to re-post a message. Here’s one that particularly irked me:

“I am NOT afraid….. They may want to take Christ out of Christmas, but they can never take Christ out of me. If you are proud to be a Christian and are not ashamed of Christ then post this to your status for 1 day as a light to the world. Most people will be too ashamed or scared to do it. God Bless those of you who can do it”

First, choosing not to repost does NOT mean one is necessarily ashamed, or scared. Second – who is this crazy “they” that so desperately wants Christ out of Christmas, schools, the world? This perceived persecution by Christians in America is false, and does more damage than good.

Imagine if you would, a kid who gets 20 gifts each birthday – then, after the family changes, and little sister is born, he only gets 15 gifts. Spoiled brat whines, complains, blames his sister, his parents, the world… but the kid is still loved, still celebrated, and still receives a gluttonous number of gifts. Christians in America are that spoiled kid – and guess what folks? Our family has changed. A great majority of younger Americans are NOT CHRISTIANS. This is a fact we must deal with, not by railing about the five gifts we no longer get (i.e. saying happy holidays instead of merry Christmas, removing religious symbols from public areas, etc), but by graciously and thankfully loving the gifts we have. There are places in the world where it is genuinely dangerous to worship Jesus. California is not one of those places. Alabama is not one of those places.

We are not a Christian nation. We are nation of people free to worship whomever we so choose. This is a beautiful and amazing gift. Complaining and whining about little things only furthers the negative perception that many people have about Christians today. We can’t change the hearts and minds of people by yelling louder, we can only love as Christ would love.

So I ask you – does posting a message like the one above show Christ’s love? Does it change the fact that fewer and fewer young Americans identify themselves as Christians? Or is it simply a little child’s tantrum after he realizes he only gets 15 gifts this year? Why would I repost that?