Intolerance . . . is it really a bad thing?

This is a reply I wrote to Northern Tribe's post that I liked so much I decided to post it here. I'm not sure it makes sense, but I really enjoyed writing it. Sometimes I work out what I think as I write. So . . . be patient as you read.

I appreciate attempts to defend Christianity, as I am a wholehearted Christian. But your logic just doesn’t work for me.

Sometimes individual Christians are backwards, intolerant, unenlightened and generally ignorant about the faith they profess to hold. When that is the case, people everywhere need to not condemn Christianity but to adopt sort of a “suffer the little children” attitude (even though they are not truly little children, they perhaps haven’t had some of the same advantages some of us have). That’s a matter of individual Christians, though

When it comes to Christianity as a whole being an intolerant religion, well, then the question really comes down to whether Christ is tolerant. Two questions even. Is Christ tolerant, and what is tolerance? We’ve culturally made tolerance a synonym for kindness almost. Christ is kind certainly, and loving. But love and kindness are not tolerance.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth.” But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Christianity lives to proclaim the Word of God. That Word says that some men “walk in darkness” and some “walk in the light.” Light and dark are intolerant of each other. “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore . . . on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” Yet, to continue the metaphor, if, in reaching out to the darkness, the light were to become dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, more and more gray in an attempt to appeal to darkness, then . . . it would lose its appeal. We are called to be salt and light. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Your argument seems to be that Christianity is an excellent religion and therefore cannot be an intolerant religion, that it is tolerant of every kind of sinner and Pharisee and therefore cannot be an intolerant religion.

My argument is this. Every religion that makes a bit of sense is intolerant, that’s why there are so many wars fought in the name of religion. Religions are BY THEIR VERY NATURE intolerant of other religions, otherwise they don’t make any sense. If your God is the VERY GOD OF VERY GODS, then admitting that any other religion could possibly be true and right and valid, any other religion who claims that THEIR GOD is THE VERY GOD OF VERY GODS, well tolerance of another religion is just another word for unbelief in your own religion. That’s partly why tolerance is our cardinal virtue these days, because we children of fighting parents value lack of conflict so much and belief in anything so little. As a result, we have a generation without God searching everywhere but the church for something spiritual.

Cussing

I was just looking through some scriptures on holiness for something that I was thinking about writing when, what do ya know, something jumped out at me. Well, as anyone who reads this blog much knows, I exaggerate a little. Okay, exaggerating is something of a way of life for me. Things are rarely just what they are. That would just be so Boring. They always have to be like something else.

But, anyway.

What jumped out at me were three killer verses on cussing. So, what's the big deal about that, you say? I know people who claim that there's no prohibition in the Bible against cussing. Well, I don't have a terrible foul mouth anymore. Age helps, that and looking like a Sunday School teacher all the time. Here are some thoughts, though.

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." Matt. 12:33 It's not really a good witness, #1. And, #2, this verse seems to indicate that maybe it's evidence of a heart problem. I mean meaningless expletives wouldn't be a problem, but expletives that degrade the body, God's temple, seem destructive.

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45 No explanation required.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:19 Everytime I open my mouth, I'm giving the world a reason to hate me or love me. Jesus tells me to be ye therefore perfect or holy or mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, or holy, or mature. However you interpret Matt. 5:48, I just don't know. When I combine it with John 15:19 and all these others, the maturity or holiness or whatever just doesn't seem consistent with a potty-mouth. Would the Pharisees have been quite as threatened if Jesus had been out preaching on the hillside using filthy, adolescent language?

Close votes OK in important matters?

The big daddy weave (http://www.thebigdaddyweave.com/) referenced Don Byrd report "that the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference voted to remain affiliated with the Baptist Joint Committee. The vote was 234 (46%) to 279 (54%). I commented on big daddy's site, and I'll repeat it here: When a vote is that close, it seems like God has not made his will clear in the matter. I would think that winners and losers should agree to fast and pray with open hearts and Bibles for a month before taking another vote, so that they might better discern God's will in the matter. Then, whatever the decision is, when it is more clearly God at work, only then should action be taken one way or the other. If we have faith that God can make His will known, then maybe He will.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

The sanctity of human life moves our emotions deeply.

The opposite view of human life is behind some of the blackest moments in our history.

Does denying life make you subhuman? All human beings are created in the image of God.

What does sanctity mean? Human life is separated to God. We are not simply useful matter. That philosophy has dark consequences.

It is tragic when people suffer and when people are in pain. God give us boldness to wade into the abortion debate again, though we might rather not.

He says "Let there be . . . Let there be . . . Let there be . . . animals. But, He says let Us make people. This is a trinitarian statement. We are created in the image of God, in His likeness. Both genders, male and female, share in the image of God equally.

The attack on gender is an attack on the sanctity of human life.

Attacks on human beings are attacks on God.

We were given a position of dominion. It was given to us to rule.

Children are a blessing from God. Sacred because we are blessed by God in procreation.

Remember that every encounter is significant, because we are all going to either heaven or hell.