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Share one or two ways you or someone you know has lovingly responded to an attack on your/their Christian faith.
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I worked in the public school and during my last year there we had a fifth grade girl who wanted to become a boy. Our guidance counselor, who was a Christian herself came to me and told me the family was very adamant that we refer to her as the boy name that she had decided upon and to be careful with the pronouns that we used when speaking to her. I refused to do this, I called her sweetie or honey instead. I taught 700 students so that was not an unusual way of addressing my students. I am unsure how I would be handling a similar situation if I was still in that environment.
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One thing that is so important is to listen without getting personally offended. Even if the person means to offend or agitate, if we can keep our cool and raise real questions, that helps. If however, we get angry and defensive, it just makes Christians look bad.
I also pray for the person because apologetics can answer some questions but we all need the Lord to draw us to Himself. Sometimes I even ask them if I can pray for them. A few people have said yes.
Another thing I do when people are very upset is ask them why they are so angry about it. If they pause and think, and ask themselves why, that is a good place for them to start.
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My pastor created a series devoted to difficult questions about the Christian faith. They did this off campus at a local restaurant and opened it to the community. It created a bunch of healthy but difficult conversations that helped non-believers engage in. My pastor was very gracious, loving, and truthful in his responses and has helped develop meaningful relationships within our community.
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When I was student teaching in a public school, I had a middle school girl come talk to me about baptism at the end of course. She had briefly mentioned it to me before, but this time she was wanting to talk more in depth so I stood and had a conversation with her. After she left, my supervising teacher came up to me and very forcibly told me that I need to “be careful” talking about that in school because that would be immediate grounds to fire me if I were a “real teacher”. I know he did not say this in a loving or protective way, but in a threatening way. I simply ( and politely) responded that I’m sure the administration would understand me answering some questions a student had about her own salvation. I think it surprised him that I was unfazed by the threat of getting into trouble and after that he should be a great deal more respect, which has been lacking previously.
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Personally, my mother attacked and questioned mine and my husband’s faith when we decided to put our children in a private Christian school. We didn’t respond with any malice or anger. We just prayed over the situation, over her, and the decision. We followed the Spirit’s leading and continued to pray. We just didn’t respond to her, and she eventually accepted our decision.
