For the most part, non-Christians want to think well of Christians. Yes, they want to think well of Christians in a namby-pamby kind of ineffectually good but otherwise unharmful way, but overall, they want to think well of do-gooders and moral people - they want to admire people for their principles. Not just on "marriage, sexuality, and reproduction" but on "the poor, the widow, the displaced, the fatherless".
What they don't want is to see people who claim the moral high ground be complete jackasses when it comes to dealing with matters that require grace and graciousness, charity and compassion, justice and fairness. They especially don't want to see comfortable middle-class Christians lord it over them morally while refusing to lift a collective finger for the unfortunate and dispossessed.
They want to see our collective actions conform with our beliefs. And too often, the actions of our leaders don't conform with our beliefs except in marriage, sexuality, and reproduction. Our graciousness is lacking as we clutch desperately at the remaining shreds of social power that we have, brandishing them while shrilly proclaiming "the truth in love" - truth it may be, but loving? Not in any form that they'd recognise.
(Sometimes I wonder if the "but I'm telling the truth in love" crowd realise that if you correct a child when they're doing wrong but fail to cheer them on when they're doing right because that's just what they should do, then you might be acting in love but the child doesn't recognise it; 'love' doesn't mean forcing truths that are presently unpalateable to them down their throats. It's amazing how many Christians will not understand this.)
In his post about the RZIM revelations, Dr. Russell Moore observed that the world beyond Christianity doesn't reject Christians because of Jesus; they reject Christians because so often it seems that Jesus is no more than a tool in the hands of Christians.
That's a damning observation.
For two thousand years, the Christians who changed the world were tools in the hands of their Saviour.
Today, most people would think of 'the church' and condemn it for using Jesus as one more weapon to be used in the culture wars. They might respect and admire individual Christians, but 'the church'? No. Not for them, thanks.
