I'm against that!

During the winter of 2007 I had the honor of leading a team of seven on a mission trip to India. The mission was simple in its premise … verify the work of God being done under the banner of New Wine Ministries and further train some 30 pastors who were or had established churches in their respective areas.

            Countless times we were whisked away from preaching engagements for no apparent reason – our host would simply interrupt and say, “We must go now.” After nearly 3 weeks, while baptizing those assembled in the Bay of Bengal, I began to understand the real danger of the crowd behind the crowd.

            The “againtists”, as our host explained, refers to those who rise up against all things contrary to the official religion of India --- especially Christianity --- he went on to say that the againtists have the full support of the Indian Government and can burn entire villages without consequence if they feel their religion is not being observed in the proper manner. 

            My mind was teleported back to India today as I overheard a man (who knew nothing about which he spoke) say, “I'm against that.” It seems to me that there is a fine line between being convinced your course of action is a correct one and blindly (without knowledge) being “against” everything else. Knowledge and wisdom are good teachers while intolerance is, well, simply intolerance.

            The funny thing is, I do not recall a single recorded event in the life of Jesus Christ in which he would not listen to what his opponent had to say – never a time in which he was too scared or too hardhearted to listen and then respond.

            Now I'm thinking that those who profess to be Christians, as well as those who profess to be something entirely different, could make the world just a little better place if we would listen before displaying (in word or action) our intolerance. I believe I can go on record as saying, I’M AGAINST THAT!