Wade on into the debate: Tolerance of other religions...

Well..I thought I would give my 2 cents worth on the cultural and religious debate going on...


11 Sept is a day rightly remembered with ceremony and sombre memories of what marked the start of the ‘war on terror’. However this year the squeaky clean image of American Christian morality... [cough cough] was tarnished by Pastor Terry Jones’ of a small church in Florida in his plan to burn copies of the Qur’an. This, along with the proposal to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque 2 small blocks from Ground Zero has many people, Westerners and others asking questions about when is tolerance, well, tolerance – and when (if ever) is it ok to say no on religious grounds. It is not just the religious conservatives or fanatics speaking out on the topic – relatives and friends of the 3000 who died have spoken of their difficulty in accepting this...one family member was quoted by Reuters as saying they are building “too close to holy ground”.




I myself have strong (and I believe informed) views on the consequences of Western culture ingratiating itself with a religion (such as Islam) without accepting it or understanding it.


A wiser counsellor and author than I wrote that "feelings are experiences warped or enhanced by the past or a future shaped only by the imagination" (fibreglassfaith). And so I, like all Christians perhaps should endeavour to put any unrecognised personal feelings aside and reflect on the words of Christ, from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5 (vs 42-45): “[Jesus said] You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”


I believe Pastor Terry, like many others, was appealing to the worst in people. As Christ did, I hope I appeal to the best in you, not the worst – and as such, when encountering questions of faith of religiosity in our communities, you too will appeal to the best in others, promoting Christ not as the mainstream philosopher that he is so frequently made out to be, but a man of absolute compassion, absolute forgiveness, absolute charity and absolute grace. And in our willingness to share those qualities with others around us, might we too be inspired to look first for those qualities in the people around us.


I have found this prayer to be worthwhile...one of the good ones from the APBA:


Holy God, source of all love, on the night of your betrayal Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, to love one another as he loved them: write this commandment in our hearts, and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, who gave his life and died for us, yet is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.

The importance of Apologetics

I consider Ravi Zacharias the greatest Christian apologist of our lifetime.  His ability to respond to, explore and explain the realities of the Christian faith are profound in their logic and accessible to those of us without the Christian education that he has.  In an interview on FOX News, he was asked “What if I can’t believe in God because of the harshness of life and because evil and suffering exists in our world?”

This is a common and important question in the life of both individuals and communities.  His answer dealt with life, meaning, morality and destiny, was concise and well worth checking out. Simply type 'Ravi losing-faith FOX NEWS' into your search engine and click on the video response.  It is 5 minutes well spent. Ravi Zacharias explains in 'Has Christianity Failed You?'
 
I have several of his lectures on DVD, as well as some of his books - I highly recommend them, or you can read more at:  http://www.rzim.org/

You can't take it back - once its out of the bag

Opening Prayer:

Loving God, help us to know what to say, and when to say it. Your words are not just noise, they are guidance, assistance, they are compassionate and generous; so too might also be ours. Amen.


Scripture:  Ephesians 4:25-32, Proverbs 11:13

The Message:  Once its out of the bag...

An increasing number of our students have been taking it upon themselves to put their feelings before other students feelings.  Sadly this has been done in an insensitive way, with painful ramifications.  A Christian community is subject to the same laws of human behaviour as any other, but should strive harder than any other to model Christ's love and compassion; and as such should be better at it than others!

To help convey the importance of our words, I had 2 students and 1 staff member have a race - because we race along in our world and in our desire to raise ourselves up, we put others down. 

The race consisted of having 3 squirting type food products:  mayonaise, tomatoe sauce and toothpaste (I lay down 'tracks' of toilet paper to keep it off the floor. Each contestant had to squirt a line of their product along the 'track' and then sign their name at the end (out of the product).  The ensuing mess can look like our unintended or undesirable words.

The punchline is then to have the contestants put the contents back in the container.  This is obviously impossible.  Words can't be taken back, we cannot turn back time and act in a different way then - we can only try and learn and then teach compassion, remembering that we put our signature on the track, and try to clean up any mess we make on the way.

We then sang a song "Feel" by Robbie Williams, and I put some scripture up and images during the prayers that related to Christs compassion and servant-leadership.

We had a time of a greeting of peace, in which I encouraged students to seek out those they may have hurt, and then we all sang along to "One Way Jesus!"

Teaching a new Hymn to unwilling participants...

Lots of energy goes into singing...or none at all - probably 50% of the students are either regretfully attending the service, or are unwilling to show their appreciation because of friends.  When working with young people, the environment and mood set will play an important role in teaching singing.  In the last fortnight I have 'taught' two hmyns/songs of praise:  Abide with me, a sombre military tune sung at Remembrance Day and ANZAC Day (in our school) and "Blessed be the name", an upbeat and exciting number.  On both occasions energy were the key.  For 'abide with me', getting students to put energy into the correct pronounciation of old english was the key.  To do this, we played around with the words a little, let them roll off our tongues somewhat.  I described the occasion that caused this hymn to be written and the subsequent occasions it was sung, and we were sorted.  The girls appreciated the gravity of the ceremony, and they rose to the occasion.  We rehearsed it as year levels the week prior to ANZAC Day, and then on the day, I hummed it around the girls when I could.  I put it in their minds, and they responded.

'Blessed be the name' is an upbeat enjoyable song, I have successfully introduced it to the boarding community (of about 160 students) by having small groups of girls sing different parts to the rest of the group.  Sing a verse to them and have them sing it back.  Its quite simple and fun.  All you need is to have prepped a group early (in my case, the Year 11's will go for anything!) and they throw such gusto into the exercise, that the other groups will usually respond.  On this occasion, it took a little extra effort, that is, introduce a little shuffle, a little hype up to get them shuffling....there was even a knee bend which they incorporated a-la 60 year olds on the beach doing jazzercise classes...It was a hoot!

I will experiment with trying this with a worshipping community of 50-60 year olds in about a month...stay tuned!

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us all"!  (1 Thess 5:16-18)