I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Christians today to shy away from confrontation, to hide behind our own personal religious views, keeping them private.

We don’t want to offend anyone.  So many Christians tone down arguments so much we are nearly silent.

We’ll speak out in private church groups with our friends about the taking of innocent human life (i.e. abortion), our Judeo-Christian heritage as a nation, or the cultural ills that ensnare our society.  But so many Christians today would never dream of publicly speaking out for fear of offend an abortionist, an angry atheist, or the totalitarian “tolerance” police.

It’s as if we are scared that the light of Truth may somehow muddle or confuse the situation, that those blindly stumbling through the darkness in our society will somehow stumble across that Truth on their own and then it will be safe to quietly talk about it with them.

If you’ve read what I, or many of my colleagues at the ACLJ, write on a daily basis, you’ll know we don’t mince words.

Jesus certainly didn’t shy away from confrontation.  He was ready, willing, and able to issue a rhetorical takedown about the political or cultural fallacies of His day that would make John Oliver or John Stewart blush.

Show me a Pharisee (the cultural elitists of His day) who didn’t walk away from a conversation (attempted entrapment) with Jesus looking like a total buffoon.

The same Jesus that healed the blind, cared for the needy, and delivered the beatitudes also rhetorically emasculated the Pharisees – “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” – after point-by-point exposing their hypocrisy and cultural deception.

He shined the light of Truth into some very dark places.  And I believe we are called to do the same.

Love, yes, but never shy away from the Truth.

As our example, Jesus showed immeasurable compassion to the masses but was quick to chastise and excoriate those who pushing an evil agenda on the culture.  He lovingly taught those who were deceived and forcefully exposed the deceivers.

He unmasked hypocrisy.  He cut down the cultural and political arguments that were ensnaring the people of his day.

He refused to back down.  We too have Truth on our side and need not back down.

When faced with the cultural, legal, and political battles of the day, we are called to do the same.  In fact, it’s our duty.

We’re blessed to live in a land where our government is “We the people.”  So it’s our responsibility to hold that government in check.  We can vote.  And we must.

We have a legal system that allows us to challenge injustice.  And we should use it.  We also have the freedom of speech, the freedom to do just what Jesus did, to speak out publicly and forcefully when what is right is challenged.

When pro-abortion radicals seek to prosthelytize their culture of death in our schools, our laws, and our culture, we must speak out.  We cut through their rhetoric of “rights” and expose the wrongs, the evils of abortion.  When angry atheists demand we tear down every symbol of our religious heritage, misconstruing the Constitution we are blessed to live under, we push back.  When the Pharisees of “tolerance” excoriate us for sharing Truth, for making some feel uncomfortable in their misguided beliefs and actions, we can’t back down.

It’s our calling as Christians.  It’s the example our Savior set for us.  And it’s time for us to start living it out.