I ran across an article by Randy Hain, Managing Partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta and Senior Editor for Integrated Catholic Life eMagazine. He has published two books on living the Catholic faith. In this article he talks about what is essentially lay evangelization. You can read it all at Whom would you rather offend? – By Randy Hain.
Take a look at an excerpt.
There is a secular tidal wave sweeping our country and much of the world. In the name of fairness, equality and political correctness we are being asked (and sometimes forced) to accept things which are absolutely contrary to our faith. Because we often “don’t want to offend others” by speaking out or acting on our convictions, we are living with the consequences. Political correctness is pervasive in business environments today and we have too few leaders willing to stand up for their convictions and do the right things regardless of the consequences.
Merry Christmas has been watered down to the meaningless “Happy Holidays” or offensive “Merry Xmas.”
Because many of us may be shying away from living out our faith in the public square, we run the risk of being “two-thirds” Catholics, who live out our faith at home and at Mass on Sunday but not in public. This split personality is toxic as we can’t possibly separate our spiritual beings from our physical selves.Religious liberties are under siege and it will likely get worse unless we make a stand. Weakness and apathy in the face of an aggressor will only encourage worse behavior from the aggressor. Our silence in public may lead people to assume an implied acceptance on our part of things contrary to the teachings of our Church. Over time, this silence may even lead some of us down the path of defending and promoting the wrong positions on abortion, gay marriage and other issues where Church teaching is crystal clear.
I suggest that the reasons people gravitate to the “I don’t want to offend” position include fear of job loss, fear of being criticized or judged, fear of losing social status, poor understanding of the teachings of our Church or the belief that somebody else will stand up, since we are too busy to get involved. The consequences I have identified are a sliver of the many challenges we face because we don’t want to offend anyone and are a direct result of us not acting on our beliefs.
