Stand Up

Hey guys, so I missed last week due to a short mission trip in the Big Apple, but I am back at it today with a little bit of a rant.  As you may or may not know, today is the day that the Same-Sex Marriage cases are going to court.  There are a bunch of details that are being discussed and looked over but the basic idea that is being combed over is whether or not same-sex marriages should be legal.  (By the way, I won't use the word "gay" in this post because that is a term that I feel defines a person, and nobody should be labeled based on their sexuality).

I woke up today and checked Facebook like most people do, and one of the first things that I, and probably most of you noticed were the insane number of red equal signs plastered all over my news feed is support of same-sex marriage.  OK great, you support same-sex marriage.  You're wrong and you don't really get it, but if you want to show that you support it, that's fine.  But the thing that really bugged me the most was the lack of red crosses and Facebook posts about standing up for what is true and beautiful, and that my friends is traditional marriage.  One mom.  One dad.  The way God intended it to be.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, what's the big deal?  Why get so upset about someone not changing their profile picture to a red cross?  And you're right, it's not something to get all worked up about, but it paints a bigger picture of the status of our faith right now. I think the Catholic church and the Christian faith as a whole does a pretty good job of speaking for our beliefs on our behalf and doing really BIG things, but the problem does not lie within the big institutions.  The problem lies within each one of us.  "But Josh I went to the March for Life.  I went to World Youth Day.  I did something.  I stood up for truth!"  Yes, yes you did and thank you for that, but at the same time, at these events you can be protected by the church and have the ability to hide yourself away from the public that wants to tear you down at your inner most core.  The real heroes are the ones that expose themselves to the individual people that want to rip them apart.

I think so often individuals are afraid of what other people think of them that when it comes down to issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, we find it so easy to just go with the flow.  It is just so easy to just be quiet instead of ruffling some feathers.  NEWSFLASH!  We are not  here to just be nice people.  We are not here to be politically correct and just do whatever the mainstream does. We are here to be beacons of light for Christ, and by hiding the truth from someone that has a different opinion than you, truly you are not being that beacon and are doing a disservice to that other person.  If you have a friend that thinks 2+2 equals 5 you surely wouldn't let them go on thinking that until they get embarrassed by someone greater telling them otherwise.  It's the same thing in this situation.  By letting our brothers and sisters walk around with a false idea of what is true, we let them walk around being totally wrong about how the world works.  But by telling them the truth, we give them an opportunity to accept or reject it.  And if they reject it, well...God have mercy on their souls.  But at least you tried, and that is all that matters.

So basically what I am trying to get through is the fact that we have to stop being quiet.  We have to stop sitting back while our brothers and sisters continue to spread the wrong message.  We cannot wait for the church or some other group to speak up for us, but we have to take ownership and do it ourselves.  Jesus didn't call us to be tolerant of our neighbor, but to love our neighbor.  And by keeping the truth to yourself, you are certainly not loving your neighbor.  Pope Francis can't speak to your friend across the hall but you can.  So stop being politically correct and start speaking the truth.  (Mic Drop)