Tim Tebow, Jason Collins, and Barney Fife.

This popular post has generated quite a buzz online and sums up the week greatly:

Tim Tebow: “I’m a Christian.”

Media: “Keep it to yourself.”

Jason Collins: “I’m gay.”

Media: “This man’s a hero!”

On Monday, April 29^th, NBA player Jason Collins came out publicly as the first active player in one of the four major American professional team sports to announce that he is gay. His announcement was followed by waves of support from the likes of NBA commissioner David Stern to a personal phone call from the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Obama called to express his support and commend him for his courage to stand up. The media coverage on this “coming out” has literally been remarkable.

Many have jumped to point out the very obvious “double standard” that is prevalent in our society today. For example (as previously stated) when a believer in professional sports such as Tim Tebow “comes out” with their personal beliefs, or stands up for their faith, the media doesn’t want to hear about it. Not only do they not want to hear about it, but they put forth as much effort as possible to look for ways to trash the individual. For example when ESPN writer Chris Broussard was asked what his opinion was on the matter, he replied,

“I'm a Christian. I don't agree with homosexuality," Broussard said. “I think it's a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is.

“If you're openly living in unrepentant sin”—speaking again of homosexual practice, not simply being gay—“that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ.”

The result? Many have called for Broussard’s head so to speak, demanding an apology and calling for his firing.

So we have a double standard, this is obvious, but as I was thinking about this morning I had the following thoughts that I would like to share…

1. Why is this a surprise?

Why does this seemingly double standard surprise us? Why does it seem odd to us that Christians are treated differently in the media and in public viewpoints?

Christ said, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake ” (Matthew 10). It doesn’t get more plain that that, but I will admit it is a hard pill to swallow, especially as an American were we traditionally have been treated with such gracious religious freedoms (unlike the majority of the rest of the world).

Hatred, misunderstanding, miss-representation, lies, on and on should NOT come as a surprise to us as believers, especially when we take a stand for what we believe.

“The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. ” -Jesus

2. Guard your heart.

Please don’t miss understand me. I believe we should take a stand for our religious freedoms in America. I believe that we must fight for our liberties and be on guard when we feel like they are being threatened. However as I was pondering on this current episode this week, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Don’t take on the ‘us against them’ mentality and allow your heart to become hard.” In the most gentle way, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the words of Paul to Timothy, “ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

You see our natural tendency in all of this is to take on the “us against them” mentality. Feeling like we are backed in a corner, we then feel the need to come out guns a-blazing ready to furiously fight for what we believe in. However we must be careful to not let our hearts become hard! If we do our message will lose its meaning.

When we face hatred and persecution, may our prayer be, “callous my knees and not my heart”.

If we allow the hatred and double standards we see to harden our hearts and cause us to become resentful towards people that Christ died for, then shame on us.

It’s ok to feel upset and desire to express ones passion, but remember “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

3. The Reality.

As Christians, we now must come to grips with the world we are living in. I have to realize that the world & society that I grew up in (not too long ago) is not the same as the one my 4 children are growing up in today.

I grew up 50 miles from a little town called Mt. Airy, NC, perhaps you know it by it commonly referred to name: “Mayberry”. Andy and Barney were some of my childhood heroes. However those day are long gone, and no matter how much “I miss Mayberry”…it isn’t coming back. Parents used to sweat the “birds and the bees” talk, however now we are faced with so much more.

WE CANNOT KEEP OUR HEAD IN THE SAND.

From the boy-scouts to now basketball the homosexual agenda is upon us, and we have to be prepared (at the right time) to have discussions with our children and prepare them for the realities of the world we live in.

Thank God we don’t have to face these challenges in the world alone!

Posted by: Randy Lawrence Jr.
Randy Lawrence Jr. leads the Communications team of the Pentecostal Church of God