A Christian Perspective on "The Front Line"

My good friend Leon and I grew up in Orange, Texas as members of one of the many local Southern Baptist churches that were in the town.  All towns in the American south and southeast have more than one Southern Baptist congregation. That is the way it is. I joke now that you can’t pass a strip center in Texas without seeing some type of church in one of the leased spaces. A common adage proposes that you have to have at least two Baptist churches before a Dairy Queen will open a franchise. It is called the Bible Belt for a reason.

A few years ago I was speaking with Leon about his Baptist church in Ogden, Utah. I was amazed at how dynamic it seemed as he described all that his church did on a routine basis. Leon surmised that his church was more on the “front lines.” A Mormon population that was not as welcoming to differing faiths surrounded his church, and the Baptist church prospered from people dissatisfied with Mormonism. He opined that in the Bible Belt the level of spiritual normalcy (my words) offered a buffered view of projecting Christianity to the community at large. It is fully accepted not only as a religious entity but as a social one as well.

I have attached a link here for you to read about a local church in Iraq.  I routinely pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East, both for their safety and their spiritual well-being.  I doubt that Mormons hate Christians and Christians likewise, should not hate Mormons. It is extremely hard for Christians in the United States to appreciate what Christians go through in a land filled with hatred for them. My own experience has been limited to fellow members being upset with the music, the loudness of the speaker system, the pastor’s sermon, someone sitting in their pew (yes, this actually happens), a supposed affront by another member, or the emphasis or non-emphasis on some event of the Church. According to Baptist statistics, almost 80% of the new membership of Baptist churches occurs when Baptists change churches, hence, the proliferation of strip center churches.  A church is not a building but a body of believers. Jesus asks us to “love one another.” We, and I, need to work on this in the United States while we are not oppressed, because there are those in the world who certainly want to offer oppression, and worse.