Dear Editor,
As an interested follower of politics I have watched the recent election coverage with some concern. Apparently Christian candidates have been mistreated. As was pointed out in your article ‘Christians get the treatment’ (July en), evangelicals have often been hounded by inquisitors in the media. This is really nothing surprising, since if we follow Christ we should expect to suffer along with him – a servant is not greater than his master – but it is sad.
However, it did occur to me that we need to be very wise in answering such questions as ‘Is such-and-such a sin?’ This is obviously a trick question to which there can be no ‘right’ answer for the audience: since anything Christians say is or is not a sin is a theological statement to a secular audience. Since many of us might be asked similar questions in our jobs, families and everyday life, we need to call out this question for what it is. It is utter hypocrisy when it is asked by someone from a secular, humanistic viewpoint, since they don’t believe there even is such a thing as ‘sin’! The trap is to leave the question itself unchallenged.
