Frequent advice to released prisoners is not to return to their old environment and their old circle of friends, but to make new friends living the law-abiding lifestyle. This will help deliver them from a recurring life of crime. I can certainly understand the general tenor of this advice and would endorse it. The difficulty the above question raises for a Christian resides in the fact that we are called to be a witness, and this involves winning the trust and friendship of unbelievers on a basis of mutual respect and equality. The freedom to exercise this otherwise cautionary activity is possible because of complete commitment to the Way of Christ and complete assurance from the heavenly father that he will undergird and confirm us in the faith. An essential ingredient to the believer/unbeliever relationship is that choice regarding fundamentals is respected on both sides. This does not eliminate from the relationship a wide expanse of negotiable issues of less than fundamental importance--Where will we meet for lunch? Where will we go on an outing? Honestly sharing tastes in a multiplicity of areas. The nonnegotiable nature of a Christian's faith frees him to embrace the friendship of unbelievers and to honestly share deeply held fundamentals of belief however divergent they may be.
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