Nothing seems to annoy me more than this statement. I often feel like it’s code for. “Look I know that what you are doing is obviously and demonstrably helping other people but I wish that they didn’t need your help in the first place”.
To me it’s bit like Pharisees saying we should rest on the Sabbath (a good thing) and because healing is work we therefore shouldn’t heal on the Sabbath either.
The term “it’s sending the wrong message” has been applied to needle exchanges and recently applied to agencies who are making condoms available to School Leavers. The thought is that by providing these things that “we” are sending the message “that “we” accept or even encourage these things.
Now I’m not the sort of person who thinks that taking drugs or having promiscuous sex are good things I just don’t think that giving people clean needles or condoms sends a message.
The two things underlying this statement that annoy me are.
1) As Xns we live in a democracy and we are not the majority of the population. And just because we disagree with something doesn’t mean that therefore the majority of people do.
2) Issues of personal freedoms (like taking drugs or having consensual casual sex) are different to issues of oppression (rape, murder, locking up refugees). This is a really important distinction. On the first, as Xns, we need to change peoples hearts not legislation, on the second we need to try and change both. We cannot change peoples hearts merely by introducing legislation to ban dispending condoms or clean needles. Often Xns will tell people all about the dangers of drugs or casual sex. Now both these activities can have dangers. The problem is that this is only half the truth. These activities can also be a lot of fun. People do these things because they find them enjoyable. And when Xn people say that drugs will only give you pain and that casual sex will only give you heart ache they are only telling half the truth. As soon as someone who hears this finds out from a friend that this is not their experience then they will dismiss everything that the Xn has said.
My thought is that God has promised us life to the full. The reality is that other ways of life may not be life to the full but may still be enjoyable. Eating chocolate cake only all day every day may be really bad for you but it is not going to stop doing it from being enjoyable. Our role is to let people know of the way of Christ the way of living life to the full not to tell them that any other way of living is evil and bad and to try and change legislation to ban it.
To me it’s bit like Pharisees saying we should rest on the Sabbath (a good thing) and because healing is work we therefore shouldn’t heal on the Sabbath either.
The term “it’s sending the wrong message” has been applied to needle exchanges and recently applied to agencies who are making condoms available to School Leavers. The thought is that by providing these things that “we” are sending the message “that “we” accept or even encourage these things.
Now I’m not the sort of person who thinks that taking drugs or having promiscuous sex are good things I just don’t think that giving people clean needles or condoms sends a message.
The two things underlying this statement that annoy me are.
1) As Xns we live in a democracy and we are not the majority of the population. And just because we disagree with something doesn’t mean that therefore the majority of people do.
2) Issues of personal freedoms (like taking drugs or having consensual casual sex) are different to issues of oppression (rape, murder, locking up refugees). This is a really important distinction. On the first, as Xns, we need to change peoples hearts not legislation, on the second we need to try and change both. We cannot change peoples hearts merely by introducing legislation to ban dispending condoms or clean needles. Often Xns will tell people all about the dangers of drugs or casual sex. Now both these activities can have dangers. The problem is that this is only half the truth. These activities can also be a lot of fun. People do these things because they find them enjoyable. And when Xn people say that drugs will only give you pain and that casual sex will only give you heart ache they are only telling half the truth. As soon as someone who hears this finds out from a friend that this is not their experience then they will dismiss everything that the Xn has said.
My thought is that God has promised us life to the full. The reality is that other ways of life may not be life to the full but may still be enjoyable. Eating chocolate cake only all day every day may be really bad for you but it is not going to stop doing it from being enjoyable. Our role is to let people know of the way of Christ the way of living life to the full not to tell them that any other way of living is evil and bad and to try and change legislation to ban it.
