Some thoughts I had, after being told for the dozenth time: “You should stop talking about that because it’s not a gospel issue.”
“Gospel Issues”
The more I talk about what’s happening in the world and how we as Christians should think about it, the more I get told “That’s not a gospel issue.”
I think these people are serious.
So in the interest of taking them seriously, I have a piece of advice I would like to give them:
If you don’t think the thing I’m talking about is a gospel issue, fine. But where in the Bible does it say to go around telling people to stop talking about things that you don’t deem to be “a gospel issue”?
Where did this crusade come from?
And why do you consider this terrible problem — of Christians talking about things going on in the world — to be such an important thing that you (you who are concerned only with the gospel) must tell me that this is not “of the gospel”?
Do you indeed think that part of your “gospel mission” is to tell people to be silent about anything that is not part of that “gospel mission”?
If I disagree with you, then is that *disagreement* a gospel issue?
What is it about the gospel that compels you to tell me I need to stop talking about a given topic?
Some Advice
Might I suggest that the “issue” you have with my viewpoint is not that it isn’t tied closely enough to the gospel.
Instead, your issue is that (in your own personal judgment) my viewpoint about society is not fully true — or simply not important.
Which leads to an important conclusion:
Be careful that you do not confuse the importance of the gospel with your own judgment about which topics “are” and “are not” important for Christians to talk about.
Stop trying to use the gospel as tool for telling people to be silent about much needed truths that you neither understand, nor believe, nor defend.