Let Us Reason Together (Are We at a Crossroads in America?)

Loved ones, let us reason together. Are we at a crossroads in America? Did this protest in the church in Minnesota provide an opportunity for reflection and truth?

Around the globe, Jesus-followers suffer daily under governments that are openly hostile towards faith in or free worship of Jesus Christ. 

There are believers in countless countries who are not free to worship without regular invasion, harrassment, inspection, oversight, arrest, kidnapping, imprisonment, or even martyrdom by government officials. Many pastors around the globe keep bags packed for jail.

In some nations, when an individual enters a relationship with Jesus, their first persecution comes from family who attempt to discourage their conversion through dramatic means including homelessness, physical harm, forced marriage, and ejection from the family. They may lose jobs, educational opportunities, social acceptance, and the ability to function in their communities.

And yet, they continue to choose Jesus and often tell others about Him at great ongoing risk to themselves.

It has been my daily habit for several years to **read a short vignette about countless persecuted believers, the conditions of each country, and to offer prayers for them during my morning time of prayer and Bible. I believe these brothers and sisters in Christ have much to teach us in the West about who God is and how He is present for us, sufficient for our times, and worthy of everything we may give for Him. The gospel they share isn’t a gospel of politics or lifestyle choices or self-improvement or trends. They live out their faith no matter what government reigns over them.

Theirs is the gospel of the good news that there is one holy living God who created heaven and earth who is all powerful, all loving, and worthy of all worship. He created humanity but we rebelled and chose sin rather than obey His commands. This sinful state left us in bondage and separated us from relationship with God but He loves us so much, He sent His Son, Jesus, to live with us as a human, to die in our place, and rise again to life eternal. We are reconciled with God through Jesus, set free from sin, and have eternal life when we enter a relationship with Him. More, we receive His Holy Spirit who guides and comforts us until Jesus returns and makes all things new. Until He comes, we have been entrusted with this ministry of reconciliation.

Here in the West, we minister with great freedom. Too often, any oppression we suffer in America is self-inflicted. We silence ourselves out of fear of small reprisals. We let others convince us that it’s unloving, unkind, hurtful, or even illegal to share our faith. Sometimes, we withhold the gospel from those who need it for a lack of faith or a pocket of unbelief we tolerate because we live in a comfortable denial of the stakes for those who do not follow Jesus. Too often, this isn’t a lack of knowledge or training about sharing our faith– it’s a lapse of love for those who are perishing. We self-protect rather than risk discomfort or social censoring despite the risk to others.

We don’t engage with others. We don’t learn how to love, to listen, to be honestly curious, to pray for fertile hearts and opportunities. We don’t study ways to speak up in love.

And too often, others don’t respect our faith because we don’t.

They watch our lives and don’t see anything different than in theirs. We hide our devotion and downplay the freedom and benefits we enjoy. We withhold our faith story for countless reasons — pride, fear, sensitivity to others, insecurity about it, worry that’s it boring or will come across as judgmental, or even a complete inability to articulate it.

We act like worship, the family of God, freedom from sin, and the transformation we undergo as believers is an accessory that doesn’t match every outfit when for many of us, it is the very air we breathe. We should treat our relationship with God with the holy devotion it deserves  so others see the honor of it, the sanctity of it, and the holiness.

When one group of protesters thinks there’s nothing wrong with marching into a worship service to make a point through disruption and disturbance, it should be a turning point. (This does not, by the way, in my humble opinion) constitute persecution but only unlawful intrusion and disruption.) A moment to pause and ask God, how can we reflect you more? Represent you bettter inside and outside these walls?

When people outside the walls determine there is someone inside who shouldn’t be allowed to worship with the others. That is NOT for them to decide. That is God’s house, not theirs. Someone commented on my social media wall that as far as they were concerned the sanctuary become unsanctfied because one of the pastors allegedly works for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. You know what? That’s not their call. And we need to say that respectfully but clearly. God’s sanctuary. Who worships beside us is His business, no one else’s.

This incident was significant. It’s unprecedented in our country. Still, while it doesn’t even measure on the persecution Richter scale it should call Jesus-followers to take stock right here, right now.

• Do our words and lives reflect the full gospel of Jesus Christ?
• Do we live, think, and love as though our hearts are outposts of His kingdom come?
• Is the gospel we present ACTUALLY the gospel or some religious version of politics, a modern twist on legalism, or a manufactured, ineffective “love thy neighborism” once removed from a relationship with Jesus Christ empowered by His Holy Spirit and grounded in God’s Word?
• Do we understand our faith and our freedom enough to defend it as Jesus would?
• Have we cultivated a lazy faith that’s convenient for us or a faith that honors the price Jesus paid, laying down His life for OUR sins?
• Are we talking about and demonstrating the breadth of God’s love, the inherent beauty and rest of a relationship with Him through Jesus, and the joy of community with other believers?
• Are we self-silencing as others tell us what Jesus would do because we’re not familiar enough with Jesus to discern for ourselves?
• Who influences us more? Our political leaders and the media heads whispering in our ears? Those outside the church telling us how they think we should live our faith? Or Jesus and mature brothers and sisters whose lives mirror His?
• Is the life of the church marked by repentance, renewal, and vibrant, compassionate life in Christ? Or complacency, compromise, and cowardice?

The answers are more complicated than choosing to follow the Democrats or Republicans, but all of you know that. You also know that life isn’t found within the confines of a political party, it’s found in Jesus Christ. We treasure the words of the constitution. We believe we have the best form of government humans have created (which is why others flee their homelands to come here) and we would hate to let it slip away. The words of the constitution are awe-inspiring but those are not the words that set us free. God’s Word is where we derive the freedom no one can wrest from our lives.

And we need God’s wisdom daily. Discernment. Ears that hear and hearts that seek truth on weighty matters. Christians are to seek justice for the oppressed, the poor, the outcast, and the stranger. What if the stranger is oppressing our neighbor or the poor in our community? What if the outcast is lobbying to make outcasts of another group? Yes, we are to obey and enforce the laws of our country but HOW we obey and enforce them matters to God and should matter to us. How do we respond in godly ways when government goes awry? How do we love our neighbor when we have both read our Bibles and come to different conclusions?

How do we represent the message of Jesus fully. It’s not our message to muddle. Grace is so amazing because sin is such a destructive contagion. God’s mercy abounds but when we downplay the impact of sin, we devalue God’s grace. It’s time to get over our squeamishness about saying the name of Jesus or discussing the impact of sin. Hypocrisy, self-righteousness, divisiveness, hatred, impatience, lawlessness, moral failure, violence, cowardice, and lovelessness abound. These sins wreak havoc in our society but the remedy is repentance in the church that bursts out of the doors.

It was wrong for protesters to barge in but we cannot be afraid to take our worship to the streets.

As vital as it is to learn to speak hard truth about sin, just as vital is our need to re-engage language about the wonder of God, His magnificence, His power, His beauty, His creativity, His wisdom, His faithfulness, His plan for us, and the eternity that awaits.

We’re so busy being overwhelmed by the clamor we’ve abandoned our call and our privilege to speak (even softly) about the joy of being people God loves. And inviting others into that joy.

I agree with some of the writers I’ve read who say this protest was gift to us. God is inviting us NOW to build our faith, to press into Jesus, to re-engage with God by loving Him withour hearts, souls, minds, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is a moment of opportunity. We can give that opportunity to fear, division, and cowardice or we can give it to Jesus and watch the redemptive work He will continue to do in us, in our churches, communities, country, and the world. Choose today whom you will serve then do so with renewed fervor and zeal.

This moment matters. And so does the way you and I respond.

**You, too, can listen to the voices of the persecuted/martyred through such organizations as Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs. Listening to them and reading about their suffering teaches me about God and deepens my appreciation for the freedom we have here in America.

Thoughts? I respond to every comment and reply to every email.

https://t.co/IuGOr51Nga #Americanchurch #Protests2026

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) January 20, 2026