My thoughts are similar and I would try to steer the conversations to knowing The Prince of Peace. Peacemaking, imo, for a Christian is about a relationship with Jesus that brings peace to our hearts whatever else is going on around us. I don't see much value in denunciations as Jesus said He did not come to condemn the world but the world through Him might be saved.RZehr wrote:Maybe troubling would be a better word.
We can pray for the ones involved. If I lived in Charlotte, I suppose I would have opportunity to have conversations with people that are involved, perhaps on both sides of the issue. I would invite both sides to be willing to suffer wrongs, instead of fighting for that elusive "justice". Maybe listen to people, lend them my ear.
As it is, I don't really know what there is for me to say that would have any beneficial affect whatsoever on this situation.
I believe that we are most effective and most heard outside the national conversations where there are so many voices yelling that we have difficulty even being heard.
I would rather the spotlight find us for our good deeds, instead of running around to each national incident and trying to inject ourselves into the conversation.
But I'm really not dogmatic on this. I would be slow to criticize anyone trying to help the situation.
I don't think we need to go where we know there is a good chance to conflict but when we go to share our faith we should expect that in itself can create conflict. As scripture says the Gospel is offensive to hear until the person is receptive to the Holy Spirit convicting man of sin.
Some may argue that Jesus was 'in your face' with how He handled the religious leaders of His day and did denounce hypocritical religion and I would suggest to them that although He used some pretty blunt language, He did not use violence (and some here might use the temple cleaning argument against that) but He did tell His disciples that when the Gospel was rejected to just move on to seek those who would listen. I don't see where He supported continued 'in your face' evangelism.
If we really believe Jesus is the answer, I think we will focus on Him being the answer in how we respond to unpeaceful situations.