More About Ryland and his post
At the foundation of Ryland’s comments is the question, “What is a Christian?” and the what of the expectations of how that looks in action in the real world.
How Does Love Act?
Anyone can say they love you, but you have particular ideas and concepts about how love acts and looks and whether something really qualifies. That is the same thing at work in defining “Christian”.
Along the way we get an awful lot of smoke, mirrors, and disguises. That is why we get so confused. I say we, because I have had more than a few times when what I thought was a lamb took a bite out of me.
Who Is The Silent Majority?
But on the big scale that Ryland is talking about it helps to look into some definitions of “fringe elements” and “silent majority”. What were they? What are they now? And how do they fit with “Christian” in the real sense of someone who wants to follow and obey Jesus in this hard-bitten world. Lambs among wolves, it’s been said.
What is the silent majority in the USA?
Do Christians want to hurt anybody? What are they willing to do or not to do in that context?
The Political Animal
First, I think the silent majority is no more. I think that was a reality only after the long cultural siege of the liberal politics and religionists had assassinated much of the idea of God and the old style patriotism of the fifties. The old ideas of “God and Country”. At that time there was a long silent majority of people who still held such concepts as a priority, but they held it in individual mixes.
The New Christian Politicos
I believe that that ‘majority’ broke down into the various conservatives, new-cons, Christian Conservatives, and fundamental groups of today. Maybe even some of the different sorts of liberals that you see, but that have strong ideals of religion and country.
Now such groups are aligned more along their priorities, whether political/cultural or religious. Although there are no definitive lines that you can count on.
So, I have to say you can’t really call on a movement of strongly allied ‘silent majority’ in either the cultural or the religious sense.
In fact, of the two, I think the religious community is going through some serious throes in defining their concepts and priorities.
Do Christians want to hurt anybody? What are they willing to do or not to do in that context?
The second question is one that requires more of it’s own post.