Dismay was the emotion I felt, when I read Google chose to honor Cesar Chavez's birthday rather than Easter, by doodling their main page banner with his image. My disappointment did not lie in Google's decision, but in the response of many Christians online. Talk swirled around boycotts of Google, defections to Yahoo and Bing, and barbed attacks on the atheistic stance assumed to be at the heart of Google.
The reaction, in my heart, came from a singular question: Who's responsibility is it to connect people to the Kingdom of Christ?
The trashing of Google centered around the principle, in which, somehow a company which has never proclaimed to know Christ, never performed out of Christians concern, and never espoused to even know the Gospel, should be expected to place it front and center in their company's priorities.
Before you assume a wrongness in my theology. I believe Christianity is the exclusive truth of salvation. Christ being the only way to heaven. I believe every person, whether they work for Google or grow fruit on a farm will give an account to God someday for their choices concerning His Son and their belief in the Easter narrative. What I do not believe is the unchurched are responsible to be the ambassadors of His Kingdom. Ambassadorship is bestowed on Christians alone.
While energy was wasted on Resurrection Sunday deriding Google's decision, I wonder how much energy was given to reaching out to neighbors, engaging in conversations with visitors at church, in showing grace to waitresses over Easter dinners out, and understanding the commission for the believer to go into all the world.
I hope the Church is not waiting for Google to proclaim Christ, instead of doing it herself. I hope Christians will recognize Google never recognizes Easter (with one exception over a decade ago where two Easter eggs replaced the oo's in Google's name). I hope there are tears over a culture which doesn't work from a Christian foundation, which leads Christian hearts to care enough to live and share the Gospel into the lives of people. I hope we are not googling the gospel, by giving it to Google, but by being the Church which loves, shares, and reaches out with grace to people who do not know Christ, boldly holding to the truth which is the very foundation to our faith.
Don't be surprised when the unchurched don't do the work of the Church. Let the real question be, are you doing what Christ has asked you to do. --Gary VanDeWalker
