Let’s Have a Fight
I think it is safe to say that through the centuries religion, more than anything else, has stirred the greatest passions, caused the most fights, inspired the grandest visions, launched the fiercest wars, and resulted in the most deaths. Why? First, I believe it is because religion has always and will always define every person who has ever lived and will live. It is inescapable. For, even if one defines themselves as non-religious, or even as an atheist, religion, through their active ongoing un-religion, is the central, defining theme of their lives.
Second, whoever/whatever we are as individuals, originated in our views of God and what we believe does or does not lie beyond. If we believe there is a great “Something” out there to which we are responsible, our lives will follow quite a different path and have a much different flavor, if you will, than someone who believes there is nothing “out there” to which we are beholden. Which leads to the third reason religion can be so volatile.
It is personal. It is who we are. It is how we define the very core of our soul and the purpose of our being. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible in most cases, to approach differing views on religion openly without making someone feel as if their personal integrity and self-worth are under heavy attack.
The final reason religion is so cantankerous is that it lives deep in the heart and is, therefore, able to transcend time, race, culture and geography. Safe in its sanctuary, religion cannot be rooted out and dispatched with, as so many have vainly attempted through the millennia. It simply never goes away. Therefore, it is destined to forever irritate and offend somebody, somewhere.
So, we fight, we scream, we argue, we shoot, we bomb, we kill.
We have learned since 9/11 that political correctness does not help; neither do tanks, money, food, medicine or compromise. Religion is just too old, too deep and too personal for surface remedies to be effective. The only way to bridge the religion gap and stop the fighting is by first admitting all the above. That is not to say we can stop all the fighting and end all wars.
But we can, as Christians, take personal responsibility for better acquitting ourselves and our faith in the eyes of the world. We know that Christianity has never failed anyone. Yet, we also know that we each fail Christianity every day. Jerusalem and the Holy Land have always been dear to the hearts of Christians. But the life of the Apostle Paul should have been the model for the Crusades of the Middle Ages, as noble as they were intended to be. For without raising an army, throwing a single spear, firing one arrow, or thrusting any swords, his patient battle plan of one heart after another, revolutionized a culture and a continent bringing down the mightiest empire the world had ever seen at that time.
God does not need our fearsomeness to achieve His goals. He requests only that we are faithful in telling those we know and who cross our paths about His Son. That is all Paul did. Think about that too long and the awesomeness of it can be overwhelming. So that raises the obvious question, “How did Paul do what he did?” I am so glad you asked.
More later.
