D
You kindly explain to them that 1+1=2 and you holding to that mathematical truth is not bigotry. VVhen you have the truth it is not narrow mindedness or intolerance to put it forth. Its fact. In the same way, you can share the Gospel with love (I.e, with tolerance and no condemnation/hate speech) and reveal to them the truth.
Now, if your tone in preaching the Gospel is anything like Youtube soapbox street preachers, I cannot blame them for calling you a bigot. They are. They don't extend Christ's love but only express their anger, religious legalism, and condemnation.
Notice Jesus didn't condemn the woman caught in adultery before He told her to sin no more? It is God's goodness that leads men to repentance. It is when we are under grace that sin doesn't dominate us. Yet street preachers would tell people to stop sinning, as if they could. They need Jesus, not condemnation and some type of self-righteous presentation.
Now, if your tone in preaching the Gospel is anything like Youtube soapbox street preachers, I cannot blame them for calling you a bigot. They are. They don't extend Christ's love but only express their anger, religious legalism, and condemnation.
Notice Jesus didn't condemn the woman caught in adultery before He told her to sin no more? It is God's goodness that leads men to repentance. It is when we are under grace that sin doesn't dominate us. Yet street preachers would tell people to stop sinning, as if they could. They need Jesus, not condemnation and some type of self-righteous presentation.
"Hey, Ben, I'm your new neighbor. I just wanted to introduce you to Jesus Christ. He is ...."
Let's stop for a moment. What were you doing right before I rang your doorbell? Did I disrupt your day? Did I try to become a neighbor before I launched into my spiel? Is it not safe to assume the first thing you really want to know when your doorbell rings is "Who is it and what do they want from me?" Do you not judge between what they want at that moment and what you wanted from that moment?
Truthfully, if I'm not going outside that day, I don't even get dressed. I stay in my jammies. BUT when the doorbell rings, I have this impulse to answer it. I don't have a bathrobe around. It's my house. I'm not embarrassed walking around in my holey pajamas in my house. Hubby's seen the holey-pajamas. Hubby laughs at the holey-pajamas but accepts they are comfortable. But when the bell rings I go rushing to put one of my long sweaters on. So here I am an almost-60 year old woman in holey nightgown with white socks (and when was the last time I shaved my legs?) holding on to the front of the sweater, because there are no buttons or belts, answering my door to see who it is. It better be the mailman. At least he/she doesn't expect long conversations. I hope it's not a JW, since that was a wasted hurry-up, but I'm polite and say "no thank you" before I close the door.
But, yo! It's some guy I don't know claiming to be my neighbor. 50 houses on this street alone. (Not exaggeration. I counted. lol) Instant thought, "Is this a new neighbor, or someone who has been here for 20 years and I never noticed? What's the problem? Oh, please Lord, don't have him want to come in or through my house." It's a mess and hubby's not dressed either." (And, neighbors often ask to come through the house, because if we lose our keys, hopefully our back door is unlocked, but there's no way to get to the back door without asking a neighbor to go through their house and through their yard to get to ours. We have an alley, but that's locked too, so requires keys. I don't even have those keys.)
No exaggeration. This is all happening and going through my head when my doorbell rings.
So then the next thing the person does is try to tell me the gospel.
A. I know the gospel, but he/she didn't bother asking that first.
B. Which gospel? Are you another JW? You're talking about God. Which one? The phony one of a dozen other religions or the real one of the Bible?
The real one of the Bible you say? Yeah, well so do the JW's and Mormons and so many other religions.
This starts as an adversarial position, and it snowballs. After all. Here I am, and almost-60 woman, in her holey nightgown clutching onto a buttonless sweater in my socks (do they have holes in them too? Are they clean?) waiting to see why you knocked on my door. I WAS either relaxing in my chair before starting the day or trying to get something done. I was worrying about...
But none of that comes up, because there's the marketing strategy to teach people about Jesus whether they could have used some neighborliness first or not!