Good words

I'm going to reproduce something a bit longer than usual for this blog. It's from the liner notes from a CD by the late Christian recording artist and Christian music pioneer Larry Norman. Despite what you may think about Larry Norman himself, good or ill, I believe that he spent a good deal of his time converting the converted, or trying to, rather than trying to convert the unconverted. And he did it well and didn't mince words. He wrote this about a 3 hour concert he did (prior to 2004) to which a mixed group of Christians, non-Christians and Mormons attended:

"...All conversion comes through revelation. God must reveal it. Man can't. Why don't we Christian understand that?

Why do Christians stand outside abortion clinics and scream at the doctors arriving for work, then yell and scream at the mother's (sic) going into the clinic for a consultation?

Whatever happened to love? Can we show people that God is a God of love by being hateful? Can we explain that their baby is important to God, and is loved by God if we are busy condemning the mothers when we should be showing them love?

Have Christians become labeled a "hate group" because sometimes that's exactly what they act like? And because sometimes one of these angry people murders a doctor from a clinic? Is violence and anger and hatred part of God's message to women who don't know what to do about being pregnant and are just looking for someone to talk to?

How many mother's (sic) have we "pushed over the edge" into having an abortion because a screaming, spluttering crowd is being held back by police and then s a soft spoken doctor is encouraging the mother that abortion is the best answer to her questions. And how many people have been able to escape from the mind control of a cult they've been in all of their life because argumentative and fractious Christians are telling them that they're deceived? Probably not many, because "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." Love is the core of God's strength and power in our lives. God's love. Not internecine anger and opposition.

Whatever happened to prayer? Have Christians forgotten that prayer actually works? And that God is more powerful and effective than our own schemes, Rube Goldberg inventions and invective diatribes?"

Amen.