“How
can I clearly see what’s wrong with someone else, and then look at myself as
though I’m standing in front of a fogged mirror?” ~Jerod Kintz, American author and blogger.
A child-sized
riot had broken out on the kindergarten playground. Everyone had been playing
together happily when Amanda looked away.
Now, a moment later, when she looked back, chaos had descended on the
group. There was crying, yelling, stamping of feet and pointing. Quickly
identifying the source of the conflict, she waded into the epicenter.
Amanda expertly segregated the non-combatants and focused her attention on Alejandro and Beatrice. “So what’s this all about?” she asked calmly. “She called me a name,” Alejandro replied, choking out the words through heaves and sobs.
Amanda turned
to Beatrice. “Did you call Alejandro a name?” she asked. “Yes, I did,” Beatrice
replied, crossing her arms defiantly. “Why did you call Alejandro a name?” she
asked patiently. “Because it’s the TOOTH!”
Amanda brought her hand to her mouth
in an attempt to smother a chuckle at Beatrice’s pronunciation of the word
“TRUTH”. Alejandro couldn’t restrain himself any longer. “She called me a
‘Hairy Tick;’ I’m not a Hairy Tick!” “Yes, you are!” Beatrice yelled back.
“Settle down!”
“Why did you call Alejandro a Hairy Tick?” Amanda asked calmly, though slightly
amused. “I ask Allie if he liked my new ‘Pretty Princess’ backpack. He said he
didn’t think it was pretty. That makes him a Hairy Tick.”
“That’s not an
appropriate thing to say,” Amanda responded firmly. “Our neighbor Mr. Galvin
says it. He told my Mommy she was a ‘Hairy Tick’.” Now Amanda was curious: “Why
would Mr. Galvin say that Beatrice?”
“Mommy said
Mr. Galvin is a Christian, and because we don’t believe what he believes he
calls us ‘Hairy Ticks,’” Alejandro doesn’t believe my backpack is pretty so
he’s a Hairy Tick, too.”
Amanda stared
at Beatrice in disbelief. “Beatrice, the word is heretic. You and your Mom are
not heretics and neither is Alejandro.”
Amanda
negotiated a truce between the two youngsters through a pair of reciprocal
apologies. The children resumed their play and Amanda returned to her
playground observation point, pondering the damage a word can do.
“I have a
couple of words for Mr. Galvin,” she thought to herself.
In a recent survey,
72% of non-believers surveyed said that the church is full of hypocrites. Just
as Christians find the word “hypocrite” offensive, the word “heretic” is
equally offensive. In a society with ever increasing complexity, it is ironic
that there are those who find it expedient to dismiss the entire belief systems
of others with a single word.
One of the
three pillars of stewardship is “Evangelization” (Stewardship: A Disciples
Response 1992). To some, evangelization has come to mean correcting the beliefs
of others by replacing their defective beliefs with the “correct” beliefs; in
other words, by “fixing them.”
Evangelization
is however, more about similarities than it is differences. If we are going to
be successful, it will require that we first find common ground with non-believers.
If evangelism is going to become a
normal part of our lives, it will have to be something we enjoy doing. And there are few things more enjoyable
than making new friends.
The two
greatest commandments can be distilled into four words: “Love God, Love others.”
Evangelization means “loving” people into the Church, not beating them into
theological submission.
Dear God: Help
me to love others into faith.
“One
century's saint is the next century's heretic ... and one century's heretic is
the next century's saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before
affixing either name to any man.” ~Ellis Peters, non de
plume for British author Edith Pargeter (1913-1995)
©2013 James E. Carper. All rights reserved.
