Rebuking

At growth group we are going through the course "Six Steps to Encouragement" by Gordon Cheng. Last night we looked at the topic of rebuking.

One of the most interesting conversations to come up was whether we should rebuke non-Christians. Our conclusion was that while non-Christians need to be made aware of the fact that they are in rebellion against God, that message always needs to go hand in hand with the Gospel. We cannot rebuke a non-Christian for their sin against God because it means nothing to them without a) the Holy Spirit's conviction, and b) a belief that they are answerable to a higher power.

Why, then, are evangelicals with any power (thinking of the big US evangelical Christian lobbies) so keen to spread a brand of Christian moralism? One of the examples I used last night was abstinance education in the US. The evangelicals insist that schools need to teach abstinance instead of safe sex practices and the availability of birth control, thereby leading to the US having one of the highest teen pregnancy (and abortion) rates in the world.

And is it really that surprising? Why are these young people going to abstain without any reasons if they don't believe in God in the first place? Why do those people who are doing this lobbying think that they are doing Christ's work, when they could be proclaiming the Gospel instead?

I don't deny that we need to be sensitive of social issues. But surely teaching a brand of moralism does not endear these lobbyists, and now we see the confusion of non-Christians who have been mistakenly lead to believe that a) Christianity is all about trying to be good, and b) Christian try to tell others how to live their lives.

Isn't it much greater to be telling others about Jesus Christ?