People who have not spent a great deal of time around
serious Christians are often surprised, on the rare occasions when they finally
do, to find that we are not always exactly the way we are frequently portrayed
in popular culture.
Some Christians, notably Cory Copeland, a writer for Relevant, think any disconnect between
the way we are portrayed in the media and the way we actually behave is … kind
of our fault, actually.
“The truth is that there are some so-called Christians who quite closely mirror the Christian characters we watch on television and film. They’re loud and proud and angry in God. They stare down their “opponents” with judgmental eyes and damning language. They protest funerals and vomit epithets at people they’ve deemed sinners.
And on some level, most of us are guilty of some of this type of behavior. Maybe not to those extremes, but we too judge, condemn and feel “better than,” while refusing to admit our own faults. For the more dogmatic Christians and for us, it doesn’t matter that how we behave, how we treat people, how void we are of love and grace is a direct and vicious contradiction of everything the Bible teaches us of God and His ways.”
Okay, so … Fred Phelps. Bit of a straw man, Cory.