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!
When we moved to Fl.from OHIO I was eight. I remember there were white and colored bathrooms and water fountains. I did'nt understand what that meant.Was one pretty colors and the other not so pretty? My parents explained the meaning of the signs and I was even more confused.It made me sad.I had not been raise to be intolerant of a black person and I thank God for that.Unfortunately I have met many people who profess to love God but who do not love their fellow man because..... he is different. I'm against that and so is the God I love.
ReplyDelete