Gainesville, Florida. We held a sunrise service one Easter, and one of our members who was a photographer for the Gainesville Sun got a great shot of the early morning gathering. It made the front page in the late edition.
A few days later I got a letter that was “hot to the touch” with criticism. It seemed, according to the anonymous writer, we were in violation of at least a dozen rules of the Bible by worshipping outdoors, facing East and putting up a “graven image” of the cross. He was writing to correct me – called me a minister who was probably in danger of going to Hell if I ever did that again!
Now, most of us would shake our heads at that kind of limited view. Those are destructive attitudes, and when that passes for Christianity, we deserve the labels the world throws at us of being intolerant and ignorant.
Rather, we must develop the kind of view of our freedom in Christ that Paul offers…to build-up, not tear-down.