I am a pastor of a church here in Fayetteville, and recently I have been awakened to an attitude of many churches and Christians that alarms me. This attitude that these people have seems to be one of creating or preserving some kind of Christian utopia, where we stand up for God and keep the sinners out. We petition at homosexual rallies and abortion clinics and tell lies about our God.

Now I'm against homosexuality and abortion, but I am also against lying on God and misrepresenting Him to a world that dearly needs Him. If some of these protesters would read through the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), they would find out that God doesn't hate fags and that He loves the little girl who is considering to abort her baby.

What homosexuals, abortionists and Hooters girls need to see is a church which models the love and acceptance of a heavenly Father. They need to see us reaching out to them to help bring them out of their sin, not keeping them out of our city.

I'm amazed at how far the church has moved away from its mission and purpose for being here on earth. If Jesus Himself were to visit Fayetteville, I am afraid that many so-called religious leaders of our town would not recognize Him and classify Him as a worldly person who likes to hang around places like Hooters. He would be eating with the “publicans” of our day, and allowing Hooters girls to wash his feet with their tears.

Oh, I can see the religious, pharisaic attitudes that would smirk and frown on His love and acceptance of Hooters girls, as He continued to get each one set free from their sin.

The sinners of Jesus' day loved to be around Him because they finally found someone who was godly who would love them, show them acceptance, and at the same time tell them the truth that could free them from their sin.

Not so with the Pharisees or the religious people of Jesus' day. They told the sinners that we will accept you if you become like us and “do” all that we do. If you want to move into our town, you must become as we are, because God only likes people who act like we do.

Not! What a misrepresentation of God Almighty! Attitudes like this have crept in to the church slowly as the church has become less and less evangelical. Have we forgotten our purpose and the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ himself?

If I remember right, we are to go into all “the world” and preach the good news to everyone, not turn the earth into a Christian utopia, or forbid sinners to come around us!

If we had the same heart as God, we would pray for more places like Hooters and use it as a bait for sinners to come to. We wouldn't be picketing to try and stop them from coming, we would be waiting outside Hooters to tell them the good news. Oh, what the heck, don't wait outside, go in and get them.

Wake up, pastors and Christians! What is the purpose behind our actions of preserving our city? Stopping a risquÈ restaurant won't stop sin. Only the preaching of the Gospel can save a sinner from it (Romans 10.13-15).

Shouldn't we be consumed with reaching the lost? Our children see more nudity on a TV beer commercial, or even at our country club swimming pools than they do at Hooters.

Let's not unify around a useless cause of driving the sinners away from our city. Let's drive the pharisaic money changers of our day, who are misrepresenting God, out of the temple, and let's go to the dwelling places of the sinners, befriend them, and deliver them from their sin like Jesus did.

If all the churches in our community would unify around the cause of reaching the lost, places like Hooters would close from a lack of customers. My prayer in the Fayetteville Hooters dilemma is this: “Lord, send my church as many homosexuals, abortionists and Hooters girls as possible. They desperately need an encounter with your love, mercy and forgiveness.”

The Rev. Dayne Massey

Word of Life Family Church

Fayetteville

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