~ His Name is to be Praised

Today I received an invitation to join a group whose mission statement was
“Mission: No individual/group/organization should be allowed to blaspheme (use their Names in VAIN), swear at or curse Our Father God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit. Such institutions/groups to be REPORTED
While I in principle agree with the mission statement I also recognize that a group like this has the capacity to become just another “Christian hate group”.
We live in a society that has decided that God is redundant unfortunately and we do little to effectively reverse that view. The groups who take a cause that they see as Biblical and attempt to coerce their position on others do the cause of Christ more damage than good. Polemics like this group that I was invited to along with the anti abortion groups and such like brings out the worst in people: both the campaigners and those who they campaign against.
Jesus during His ministry years was recorded as standing against corrupt religious practices. He spoke to these issues directly and to the perpetrators of them in a way that did not condemn so much as challenge them to change their practices. At the same time He did not rebuke the sinners He dealt with on a daily basis. I believe that He knew their struggles and although He saw the sin, more importantly He saw the sinner as of more intrinsic significance. I feel that this is the best way bring about change.
In the US during the 1920s they placed a blanket ban on alcohol sales. All that this achieved was the development of the prototype of the night club with bouncers at the door and bootleg liquor. Recently in Victoria there was a legal situation where church organization was sued because they did not accept a specific group into their camp on “Morals” grounds.
The bible tells us that a gentle word turns away wrath (anger) and so it is with anti social activities even distasteful attitudes. When we as the People of God climb on high horses, for all the right reasons, we display judgement and a lack of love to those around, even if they are not specifically involved. As an example of how to deal with a person caught up in sin, Jesus talking to the woman of Samaria gives us a great illustration.
He deliberately set Himself up to be there alone at the well when she, an outcast to the Jews, came to draw water He simply lead her almost conversationally into a complete outline of her life, seemingly in such a way that she was unaware of where the conversation was going until suddenly she felt what she had been doing in her life. Not content with the realization of her offences she turned around, went back to the village and brought out the others on the basis that this man had “told her everything she ever did”. The villagers no doubt knew everything she had done but the change had to be significant for them to turn out to see Jesus: and many believed Him.
If we ever needed a means to bring about change in others this is probably one of the preeminent examples. We need to love our enemies, even the blasphemers and the prostitutes the drug addict and as well the white collar embezzler and the rip off artists. They all need God in their lives and to that effect we are the ambassadors of Christ Jesus in the here and now. If we shut out those who offend our sense of worth then we are not offering praise to our Lord on a day to day basis.