Controversial Issues: A Guide for Christians

Someone is Bound to Be Offended Today, So What Can You Do?

Our current culture requires “trigger warnings” for almost everything. People are trained to be easily offended and consequently “unsafe” outside their cocoon of bias.

I understand these people, and I feel sadness for them. They want to control or cancel anything they disagree with or are fearful about. They are blind to the fact they are just reinvented Calvinists seeking new witches to burn.

Christians must be more emotionally and spiritually stable and avoid being triggered by anything. If something outrages you, find a constructive way to right the wrong. Be like Jesus and thoughtfully turn the discussion to the spiritual condition of the person you are engaging. We must remember that each human problem results from a spiritual problem. Like Jesus, we want to help individuals and humanity with kindness and humility.

Controversy is everywhere these days. It has always existed, of course, but has become more pervasive with the rise of Social Media. People write in isolation, so they feel free to engage in mean-spirited free-for-alls about controversial topics. Sadly, many Christians engage in this behavior because they have a self-righteous attitude and want to demolish those who disagree with them.

Thus, a first principle for writing about controversial issues or responding to them could be that righteousness in Christ (Romans 5:1 ) is the opposite of self-righteousness (Luke 18:9–14).

Controversy Plain and Fancy

There are two common ways we see Christians argue today.

Plain Controversy

The plain way is to make an assertion about a viewpoint not supported by the Bible. For example, I met a group of Christians who said drinking alcohol is always wrong for Christians. They had their mind made up based on their own tradition and bent the Bible to support their opinion. They had no consistent method of interpreting the Bible (no hermeneutic) but isolated individual texts out of context, which they said supported their view (proof-texts).

Yes, drunkenness by individuals in certain situations was criticized (Leviticus 10:9; Ephesians 5:18 as examples), but Jesus accepted low-octane alcohol as part of life and never spoke against it. As we know, Jesus created wine from water at the Cana wedding (John 2:1–12).

The group of grape juice drinkers said, “We would never believe Jesus Christ would drink alcohol.”

They were unwilling to let the Bible be their guide. However, Jesus made wine and drank it daily as the people of his time did. We know he drank it at the Last Supper because that is what Jews traditionally drank at their Passover Seder meal. He received sour wine from the soldiers to numb his pain moments before he died on the cross (John 19:30).

Are these statements made to be either for or against drinking alcohol? No. It is simply one example of why Christians must engage their God-given powers of thought before getting involved in futile arguments (Titus 3:9). We must all have a consistent Bible hermeneutic, and jettison our personal bias.

Jesus provides the antidote to arguments and applies equally to our contacts with Christian brothers and sisters and non-Christians. Jesus said if people do not hear what we teach, we should reject pointless debates, shake the dust from our feet, and move on (Matthew 10:14). When we have the truth, there is nothing controversial to debate.

Righteousness in Christ is a settled matter. There is no need to debate that. An atom is composed of a proton, neutron, and electron, so why argue about it? It is not a matter of being closed-minded about the matter, just accepting the fact and moving on.

Christians who need always to be right are confused about their faith. They forget the battle is already won (1 John 4:4), and there is no reason for a fleshly vindictive triumph in skirmishes with others.

Fancy Controversy

Today, we have some high-minded Christians who love to argue, and they call themselves “Apologists.” The term has a biblical basis, but modern Apologetics is frequently misused. To the average person, an “apology” means saying you’re sorry. Non-believers assume apologists are sorry for being Christians.

Those who like being called apologists are always quick to say, “No, an apologist is someone who defends the faith.” They mistakenly think they are engaged in a teaching moment. But the damage is already done, isn’t it? Whoever claims to be an “Apologist” automatically marks themself as the wimpy person in the room.

The big question is whether we need an Apologist (or a Polemicist). Jesus was always on the offensive (Matthew 28:19–20), and only his followers, who seemed to enjoy a fight, became defensive (Matthew 26:51–54). As noted, Jesus spoke the truth in love and told his followers to move on without debate if people did not choose that Way of Faith.

You don’t need to squander the truth in debates when you have the truth. In addition, people are not asking questions anymore that seem to excite only Apologists. Except when they want to bait Christians. I am a mature, well-trained Christian who has done outreach worldwide, and I have never heard anyone say, “If you just prove there was a global flood, I’ll put my faith in Christ.”

Most Apologists or Polemicists wrongly think that if they can win arguments, they will convert a person intellectually, and their work is done. However, conversion is a spiritual and emotional transaction, not primarily intellectual. Once the Holy Spirit transforms a person, the intellect follows.

After all these years, I remain a Christian because of my faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, I have lingering intellectual doubts (all thoughtful Christians have them). But I’m with the Apostle Paul, who said, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Debates are the apparatus of those who demand vindictive triumphs over unbelievers or those believers they view as heretics. We do not need such people if we follow Jesus’ pattern for dealing with controversial issues.

A Better Way of Dealing with Controversy

How can we better deal with controversy in our daily lives? Here are some suggestions.

Know What is at Stake

Non-believers are evaluating our behavior, not our words. Theodore Roosevelt correctly said, “People don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care.”

When others see you behave in a Godly way (attitudes and actions), then they will stop and think about their own lives. Direct self-righteous challenges only alienate people. Remember that Christians are engaged in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12), not an intellectual battle, including debates about ever-changing contemporary social trends and politics.

Act, Don’t React

If something outrages you, simply find a constructive way to right the wrong. Be like Jesus and act; never react. Don’t pull out your Bible and start firing away like a pseudo-spiritual gunslinger.

You are not going to persuade anyone to follow Christ by your clever arguments; you are far more likely to convince them that Jesus is Lord by your genuinely Christlike manner of life.

Antagonistic people will insist that Christians can’t be loving unless they accept the purveyed ideas of the antagonist or the group to which they belong. No Christians should fall for that logical fallacy. Christianity teaches we should “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” It’s okay to reject putrid ideology and still feed the hungry person who embraces it.

Yes, of course, there are times when we must speak up. We cannot avoid conflict in this world. The point is how we handle it. Do our attitudes, speech, and actions emulate Christ? Argumentative people like to point to the example of Christ cleansing the Temple (Matthew 21:12–17) as justification for their everyday attitudes and behaviors. But that was an exception to Jesus’ usual way of engaging with people. Remember also that he so aroused Jewish authorities that he was hanging on the cross less than a week after that incident.

A Path Forward

Don’t be quarrelsome either in your speech or in your writing. That applies whether you are writing for Christians or non-Christians. Ask the Lord to remove the cancer of constant debate from your mind. Even when conflict arises, you can be the one with a peaceable spirit. Disarm others with your kindness.

Giving an answer to a person (Colossians 4:6) is about offering instruction, not arguing or selling. Paul said, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19). That is the best guidance for dealing with controversial issues.