A Manifesto for Christian Living Today

HERE IS A BIG AGENDA FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINORITY IN AMERICA

• 1) We must insist on equal and fair treatment with other minorities in such matters as jobs, right to live free of harassment, free speech etc.
• 2) We must insist that we be treated fairly and accurately by the news media, and entertainment venues. Christians have kept quiet for too long while we are satirized, or described in woefully inaccurate ways to the majority by the media.
• 3) We must insist that schools and textbooks treat Christianity accurately and fairly, that we not be mischaracterized. Today Christians are treated much as blacks, Jews and others were treated a century ago.

• 4) We must insist on our right to proclaim our message and to have it heard alongside other messages in the public square.
• While insisting on these things, we must also
• 1) Model and live out a way of life that is completely biblical.
• a) This means living out values that are very different from our neighbors—noticeably different.
• b) This means showing the world a habit of giving, service, and self sacrifice that they don’t see elsewhere.
• c) This means going to bed earlier than most people, getting up earlier (to read the Word), and spending our “leisure hours” in ways that most Americans don’t (visiting those who are lonely or in need of help, interacting with our children and neighbors, engaging in SERIOUS Bible Study and prayer).
• d) This means changing the way we handle money and possessions, seeing them as a trust from God, to be used in ways that affirm life and community—in other words, I will buy things, not just to make me happy, but in order to have quality time with family, to make more time for neighbors and the needy, to enhance opportunities to be a vital part of the community.
• e) We must begin to practice, and teach our children, a completely different understanding of priorities in life:
• i. We must honor the elderly and teach our children to do so—-we must confront the “culture of youth” in America with a better alternative and show why it is better! And lead our children and grandchildren to do the same!
• ii. We must live out and teach a lifestyle that values the past, that values tradition, that values continuity—Americans always look for something “new and improved.” We must stand against this with a better alternative, and again we must teach our children the same.
• iii. We must learn to honor the creation—as God intended it to be. This includes not only ecological responsibility, but also recognizing God’s sovereignty in the world and looking for it. Let us teach our children to see God’s hand in all things—and live like we believe it too!
• 2) Advocate a biblical view of the world in all areas of public life. The Gay and Lesbian lobby has won the day over the past 20 years, and they are a smaller minority than we are. But they have been willing to confront the larger culture and make a difference. We have just sat by and groused about it. There are more of us than there are of them! We should be able to make a bigger impact! We need to discover what the Bible says about many things, and then get organized to advocate it across the board.
• I know this is a tall order, and challenges many things that we as Christians assume is true about the way things are. But until we face realities, we cannot change them. I know this reads as something of a manifesto, but I intend for it to.