Answering The Wrong Questions

A Guest Post by Evan Curry

I’ve had my fair share of
encounters with Christians over the years. I have found that Christians
are in the business of asking the wrong questions and giving
poor answers to wrong questions. 

How many of us have heard this
– Is global warming true or a hoax? Now, Al Gore and company would
say that global warming is, indeed, true, and Rush Limbaugh and company
would state that global climate change is nothing but a liberal hoax.  

Christians have often joined
in and asked the same question – Is global warming true or a hoax?
Mainline Christians often align with the “Al Gorian” camp, and evangelicals
have aligned themselves with the “Rush Limbaughian” camp. Both camps
will debate one another, spit fire, and demean each other’s character,
but nothing is ever resolved. Why?  

Because we are asking the
wrong question. 

Asking, “Is global warming
true or a hoax?,” is the wrong question. The right question is, “What
are we doing to preserve God’s good earth presently and for those
in the future after we are long gone?” If the question is asked this
way, Christians are no longer facing and debating Al Gore or Rush Limbaugh,
but they must face, debate, and wrestle with the Creator God [who
really wants to do that?]. 

The same is true with the question,
“Are homosexuals born gay, or do they choose to be gay?”
Again, the Christian extremes are one side will say they are born gay/lesbian,
and the other says, “You’re not born-a-gay. You’re born-again”
(yes, that’s from Saved). The correct question is, “What
are you doing to share the love of Jesus with people in general—gay,
straight, bi, whatever?” This way you have to wrestle with
Jesus, not Ellen, not Elton John, but Jesus. 

What’s worse is we
give poor answers to these wrong questions. We say (by actions more
than words), “Well, the earth is for people, and we can use it however
we want.” Or “Well, we take care of the earth just because it’s
the ‘right thing’ to do.”  

Not only do we ask the wrong
questions, but we follow them up with poor
answers. 

Thus, we answer the wrong questions.
Instead, we should push back on people to ask the right question.
The right question focuses on the Christian wrestling with the love,
grace, and peace of Jesus and giving such to the inquirer so he or she
must wrestle with it as well. 

So, what questions do you ask?
Are you asking the right question or the wrong one? And, when someone
asks you the wrong question, are you pushing back on him or her to ask
the right one? Are we pushing each other to wrestle with the love of
Christ?