On two separate occasions in the past few weeks I've been confronted with a friend telling me that they don't like discussing their religion with others. Both were Catholic, which I think holds some importance but I'll make no other mention of it. The reasons for their non-discussion policies were "fear of rejection, ridicule, and rebuke", and "avoiding the corruption of man that comes in due time to all communal religions", respectively.
Awesome reasons, both. /sarcasm
The idea of one's faith and beliefs being an individual thing, for just that person to know and ponder, is laughable. It's preposterous. It goes against the very nature of God and how He made us. Need proof?
"Then the L
"And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved." - Acts 2:44-47
"All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles." - Acts 4:32-37
First, Adam was no good by himself. Then (skipping a bit), the first church post-Jesus functioned as a commune. Community. Iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17). In fact, Paul verbally (and biblically) bitch-slapped Peter (okay, he rebuked him) for neglecting the Gentiles to eat with the Jews. (Long story short, Pete was being a racist). Paul had several heated encounters with fellow apostles stemming from translation and application of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus. If Paul did this to Peter (Peter, the "father of the modern-day church"; Peter, who knew Jesus personally; Peter, who was crucified upside down), don't you think it's worth discussing with your friends and family?
If you never discuss your faith, how will you ever know if you're wrong about something? Ah, I know what you're thinking:
"How can we truly know what's wrong and right in the eyes of God? I thought we weren't supposed to judge each other, lest we be judged."
Oh, to be sure, we'll all be judged, whether or not we judge anyone else. But that's not the point. Here's the point: If God is absolute, and His word is absolute, and His word is truth, then there is Absolute Truth in this world, and it is our job to find it. Once we find it, we spread it. God is not a god of relativism. He has standards set, behaviors He encourages, and actions He disdains. If you're wondering what those are, read the Bible. I'm not spelling them out here.
So now that we have acknowledged that there is wrong and right in this world, it's time to man up and not be afraid to be wrong. I have several longstanding debates with friends about certain Gifts of the Spirit that I could be wrong about. If I am, I'll apologize and mend my ways. It's that simple. God should be bigger than your pride. If He's not, you're doing it wrong.
Fun example time: Snake Handlers. Born from a single verse in the New Testament about the effects of the Indwelling of the Spirit. "They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” Mark 16:18 That's the only verse in the New Testament mentioning handling snakes. Would you form an entire denomination around that? Neither would I. But nobody was there during the birth of this sect to tell them differently.
But God is also a God of grace and mercy. He gives you some leeway. I've had my share of wrong beliefs about Him and His ways, and I've paid the price for my stupidity, but He let me carry them until I was ready to learn the truth, to learn more, to dig deeper. And truth be told, I'm still learning.
Don't let anyone keep the truth from you. Read your bible. Find a church that teaches the Word, without compromise. That means that hard truths should hit hard and make you uncomfortable. That means they should encourage you to read, to find out for yourself, to share your knowledge and your journey with others.
Let someone sharpen your iron.
There's nothing I adore more than discussing religion with intelligent people, who have open minds and are willing to discuss and hold conversation and not start fighting. The reason your friends declined conversation was probably exactly that. They were not ready to listen with an open heart and spirit, and set aside all they know to share and learn. I've had that issue with too many people in my time. It's frustrating, sure, but it does make me appreciate those who CAN have a natural and open talk about God and religion. :)
ReplyDeleteFYI, by your own argument ("His word is truth... and our job is to find it" etc.), you shouldn't just be reading YOUR Bible, but you should looking at all of the translations of the Bible to find consistencies that have remained through the different cultural lenses and languages -- that's your nugget of truth. Just to give you an example of how a cultural lens can affect a translation, the Greeks translated the Bible so that Mary was a virgin in order to fit in with their mythologies at the time of virgins being raped by gods; the words used to describe Mary in versions of the Bible before then in no way equate "virgin." So, since you are arguing cultural contexts should be taught, I recommend you study versions of the Bible to see how cultural context actually affected what you are reading today. Don't forget to consider the patriarchal lens that the English used when they created the King James version; that's a big one!
ReplyDeleteSad, but not surprising... I think it's significant that both of your friends were Catholic as well. It seems that at this point Catholicism has come under enough fire that few Catholic people want to discuss their beliefs with other people in general, much less, someone who's religious views will undoubtedly disagree on many levels with their own. Doesn't make it right, but I can wrap my head around the why.
ReplyDeleteTalking about religion these days has become a very interesting thing... I recently had a really interesting experience at work concerning religion. Generally speaking religion doesn't really come up that much, but it just so happened that the mall I work in put up an GINORMOUS Menorah right smack in front of my store, and on the first night of Hanukkah there was a big lighting ceremony and quite a large gathering of Hasidic Jews. As the event was taking places literally right outside of our door, we had no business and the amazement of my co-workers was almost comical. I found myself fielding questions such as, "Hanukkah is an Amish thing, right?", "How do you know if you're a Jew?", "Wasn't Jesus a Jew?", and "Did Jesus have to wear one of those funny little hats?" and that's besides the general explaining of what Hanukkah is and why they light the Menorah (which, consequently, led to my favorite question of all, "And how long have you been Jewish?").
Granted, not everyone is going to know a fair amount about religions outside their own, but Judaism intersects enough with Christianity that without making extra effort, I have a basic understanding of what they believe, simply through my understanding of what I believe, and more than half of my co-workers would call themselves Christians.
I just start to wonder, what's more true at this point, that people don't want to talk about religion, or that people _don't know how_ to talk about it, even their own?
Interesting. I'm probably going to use some of this in D&D. I'm playing an Inquisitor.
ReplyDelete~Sean
Nothing scares me more than someone who believes something without knowing why they believe it. Faith is a good thing, but I don't think it should ever be unfounded. Preachers have been known to preach some weird stuff, and no one should ever blindly believe anything they hear. You are right that we need to read the Bible for ourselves. :) Thanks for manning-up and posting this.
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