September 19, 2005

• Heather steps up on her soapbox:

  
  

  There are many entries on tolerance that I have come across recently in Xanga, and I thought it might be interesting to look at tolerance from a Christian point of view. From where I sit, tolerance seems to have taken on a bit of a different definition. Below is the dictionary.com definition of tolerence.

  
  

  1.The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

  
  

  Christianity and Judaism have been billed as intolerant because the tennents of Christianity and of Judaism state that we cannot worship any other God but God. That means we cannot accept Allah, Zeus, Isis, the Great Mother, Gaia or any other God but God as our God. To some this seems intolerant, but it is one of the 10 commandments that God gave Moses, and Jesus also gave this commandment as one of the two commandments that we must obey. To claim that other Gods are also God would fly in the face of this commandment.

  
  

  And Christianity also states very clearly Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

  
  

  And in John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

  
  

  For a Christian who believes Jesus, we have to believe what Jesus says, and he clearly without any holds barred says that we must come to God through Jesus. There is no other way.

  
  

  Now tolerance as the world would want us to show tolerance would be to say that the above statement is in error and that people can get to God and be saved from many different paths. For a Christian that would then be disobeying what Jesus said, and we cannot do that.

  
  

  There are many different beliefs about God and who God is, and what one must do to attain salvation in whatever form the religions state salvation for them is. Many are contrary to each other. Muslims say that there is no God but Allah, a Christian or Jewish person cannot believe that without disobeying the commandments we are given. We have to choose what we believe. There really is no way to reconcile the differences in the beliefs of many of the religions, so a person makes a choice as to what they believe. To fully believe the choice they make, they must practice ALL the tenents of their faith, not some, not pick and choose what is the most acceptable to them.

  
  

  Today there seems to be a trend for what I think of as the supermarket religion. I like this statement from this religion, that statement from that religion, and the belief from this religion. I will put it all together, shake it up, and make what seems right to me. Romans 1: 22-25 describes this trend. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen”

  
  

  Frankly, I tried many beliefs out for 40 years before I came to Christ. Beliefs like “Thou are god.” and stating that there are as many paths to God as there are rays of the sun, and creating my own universe through control of my thoughts, etc. But when you think of it, how many of us are really in charge of even our own bodies? Can I with my mind divide a cell, create blood, tell myself to breath in or breath out 24 hours a day? So much of what my body does is automatic, I am not in control of it, much less how the earth spins around the sun, creating oxygen. I cannot control what another person thinks or does, there is no way to pretend I am God. I cannot create new life from dust, and for that matter, I can’t create the dust to begin to create new life. Who am I kidding when I told myself that I was god and in charge of my own universe?

  
  

  I want a God that is bigger than my small imaginings. In the Bible there are many stories of how people tried to put God into a box, figure out how He would act. So often God acted in ways that did not make sense to our senses or ways of thinking. If I try to form my own religion, peg God to what is acceptable to me, am I not limiting God? Am I not fooling myself? If I cannot limit God, force Him into a box of my own limited understanding, perhaps I should then CHOOSE to obey what He says and believe what He says.

  
  

  But the definition of tolerance does not state that we have to BELIEVE and ACCEPT  the beliefs of other systems to be true and accurate,  just that we have to recognize and respect their beliefs.

  
  

  I recognize that there are other beliefs besides Christianity, in fact I used to have other beliefs. I also respect a person’s right to choose beliefs contrary to Christianity, and I respect the fact that the people who choose these beliefs believe them with passion and in many cases with much dedication to their beliefs. But, from the experiences I have had, the religions I have studied and practiced, I have to state that for ME I choose to accept Jesus and his statement that it is through Him that we are saved.

  
  

  We are all given the right to CHOOSE. And I will defend anyone’s right to choose what they will believe, even if I disagree with their choice. But some choices will not be the right ones. And I pray and try to show others what I know from my own experience to be the right choice, but respect their right to disagree with my point of view. 

  
  

  A person may choose not to accept gravity, but if they jump off of a tall building, believing that gravity does not exist, they will soon discover that their belief in the lack of gravity does not make gravity cease working. They will meet with the earth regardless of their belief.

  
  

  Sometimes people say that Jesus’ statement is harsh, that it isn’t right. I kind of figure that the creator of the universe has a right to pick and choose the rules that we operate under. In this case one way is very merciful for it prevents me from making a mistake and picking the wrong way. If a town has one policeman, one police car, one police uniform, one police badge, it is very hard for a fraud to pretend to be a police man. If a town has many, many policemen, cars, uniforms, badges, etc. then a counterfeit can come in claiming to be a policeman and it is much harder to detect the counterfeit. I think sometimes God makes things simple for us because we can get so lost in complexity.

  
  

  Today I was listening to the news and there was commentary on how one sect of the Muslim faith was seeking to bomb the Shiites, and destroy them, for their beliefs are not acceptable to the other sect. In my mind that is a remarkable lack of tolerance. And even here in this country intolerance is evident. Every holiday concert at school I notice that the kids can sing songs from every religion but Christianity. A child at my kids’ school had to have her parents threaten to sue the school because she chose to wear a teeshirt with a Christian theme. The principal wanted her to turn it inside out so it would not offend other students, but she called her parents and had it resolved that she had the freedom to wear the shirt. I still see so much prejudice occuring, even after years of equal rights. If our country could truly practice tolerance, we would be a better country, but the concept of tolerance is being misused today.

  
  

  Christians are martyred more in this day and age and in greater numbers now than ever in the past. I know that men who profess to be Christians have also killed in the name of Christianity. I also know that they will have to answer to God for what they have done. Christians fight among denominations and sects in very vitriolic ways. We are not perfect in our Christian walk, but I shudder to think of what the world would be like if we did not have the basis of Christianity and Judaism, the Ten Commandments and loving one another as the basis of our behavior towards each other. If I am true to my walk in Christianity, my behavior will become more loving and holy. I will make mistakes, I will hurt others, but I have an ideal to strive toward, one that will only serve to make the world a kinder, gentler, and more loving place. I will continue to apologize for mistakes, ask forgiveness, and walk on toward following more in Christ’s footsteps.

  
  

  I know that to learn to walk in the love that Jesus wants us to walk in is a challenge for us all. I fail daily at it, but I also know that I try very hard to walk in love. The me that you know today is way better than what I was, and I am still a work in progress.

  
  

  Heather steps down from her soapbox, and wishes all a great day.

  
  

  In love,

  
  

  Heather

  • 10:57 am
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