David Platt – Follow Me – Trailer

Another one is here.

February 6, 2013 in Culture, Personal, Practical Ministry, Theology | 2 Comments

2 Responses to “David Platt – Follow Me – Trailer”

Denise February 7, 2013 at 9:25 pm #

Dr. Chediak,

I’m not sure if you reply to these comments, but just in case you do I wanted to leave you some of my thoughts. First of all, thank you so much for writing “Thriving at College,” and “Sex, Dating & Marriage to the glory of God” with your wife; they have both been a huge blessing in my life.

I’m a Senior Psychology student at a very liberal public university in NJ. Some of the topics that come up in my classes are abortion, gay marriage & evolution amongst other ones. My professors never specifically ask “Do you agree with “x”? But practically everyone voices their opinion, and as you may guess they all favor abortion, gay marriage, etc. and get very passionate about it. Even my professors get “in the heat” when these topics arise! I am very quiet to begin with, and was extremely timid before knowing Christ. I guess you can say my social skills aren’t exactly the best, but God has been faithful to continue molding me.

However, do you think that silence in the midst of this equals agreeing with them? If I don’t voice my opinion am I silently denying Christ? I feel like I need to stand up for God’s truth & defend my Savior, but I know I will just get into a horrible argument with the students/professor. This has been on my mind a lot, and I know Jesus said we will be persecuted, but I’m just not sure what to do.

Praying for wisdom & grace,
Denise

Reply
- Alex Chediak February 9, 2013 at 12:05 pm #
  
  Hi Denise,
  
  Thank you for your kind words and for your question. The short answer is that no, I don’t think silence in that situation necessarily equals agreement.
  
  A classroom discussion is only as fair as the moderator (the professor) allows it to be. As you’ve probably seen, some professors are highly biased, and are not interested in a fair discussion. Even Jesus walked away from some conversations (see Luke 20:1-8).
  
  If you’re in a hostile environment, you might consider The Columbo Tactic.
  
  http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6879
  
  There’s power in simply asking good questions, and it often disarms another person’s hostility because you’re really trying to understand why they take a certain position. It needs to be done with sincerity and humility, and not with haughtiness (see 2 Tim. 2:24-26).
  
  If you’re naturally quiet, a writing assignment might be a good opportunity to share your viewpoint. You could pick a topic that interests you (say, abortion), research the view you oppose, then write a paper which does two things: (1) Respectfully presents their perspective in a fair way, demonstrating that you’ve truly sought to understand them, and (2) critique their perspective, while presenting a positive alternative. In short, be respectful, gracious, reasonable, and winsome. If they still hate you, so be it.
  
  Once you’ve written such a paper, you might even be more comfortable saying a few words about it in class, or you can engage your friends on it one-on-one.
  
  In short, we should stand by our convictions, but there’s more than one way to do it, and we should do so in a way that makes sense given the particulars of the situation.
  
  Answer not a fool according to his folly,
  lest you be like him yourself.
  Answer a fool according to his folly,
  lest he be wise in his own eyes.
  (Proverbs 26:4-5 ESV)
  
  Hope that helps a bit.
  
  Blessings,
  Alex Chediak
  
  Reply