Perhaps the central theme of Inappropriate Conversations in recent years has been this: we can do better and we must do better.
The meme I’m sharing solely to support this commentary says, “Here is 10,000 M&M’s…10 of them are poisoned. Who wants to eat a handful? Now do you see the problem?”False assumption 2: contamination is permanent and neither time nor elements of packaging and preparation have any hope of mitigation.
False
assumption 3: toxins are all-powerful and immune systems are either
non-existent or pathetically weak.
Note that I’m addressing this from an Inappropriate Conversations perspective.
I am not, in other words, telling people that it is OK to eat tainted food or
handle poisonous snakes. No.
Politically, I am a radical moderate. I reject the two major political parties for their
corruption, which is both shared and competing.
Religiously, I am a Protestant Christian. I used to be part of a denomination that
was a reform of a reform of Catholicism that itself could only barely be
aligned with the Protestant Reformation. I now attend a church that sees even
less reason to play any of those “church doctrine” games.
Socially, I strive (and fail from time to time) to view and treat people with
something I’ve heard called unconditional positive regard. I cover that concept
in more detail in Walk The Earth 32, recently released.
Above all,
though, I consider myself a Christ Follower. I still would if there were no
available religious or political affiliations. I reject “group think” because
my faith is mine. It’s built upon the command of Jesus to love God with all of
my mind, not merely my heart and soul.
Disclaimers aside, the message is two-sided. Don’t play with poison. Don’t
assume everything you don’t fully comprehend is poison.
Rely to assumption 1: we know that a high majority of radicalization within the U.S. happens after people live here for a significant amount of time, not before. This may say something about a screening process that is already in place, clearly effective, and in no need of either abandonment or fortification. Our goal needs to be treating people with sufficient dignity and respect so they don’t develop a strong desire to retaliate. Second-class citizens tend to behave with less regard for the welfare of first-class citizens. We solve this by doing all we can to eliminate discrimination, segregation, and pungent forms of majority-rule privilege that hold our society back by coddling a small group of people with a “my country” rather than an “our country” perspective.
Reply to assumption 2: Jesus. I’m tempted to stop right there. If you don’t see the problem behind this assumption, then you don’t know Jesus. The good news is that this isn’t a permanent problem. The Gospel is meant to be shared. I strongly believe that it should be understood by all, including people who have and will continue to reject its claims. I also think we should strive to understand a variety of other things for similar reasons, including Islam, socialism, human sexuality, physics, etc.
Reply to
assumption 3: OK, I’ll use this reply to cover more of both 2 & 3 for any who
are slow to understand. Not everyone who reads or listens to Inappropriate Conversations and Walk The Earth posts are Christians. Fair enough, because not
all Christians understand what Jesus is said to have taught in the Bible
either.
Jesus does not teach that some of us are inherently so good that we are close
to perfect – delicious, if I may, to tie in with the M&M analogy. He also doesn’t
teach that some of us are so bad we are beyond saving. I understand that some
Calvinists tight-rope across a fine line here, but I would ask them to lean
away from apostasy.
Instead, a Biblical theology teaches that none of us are as sweet as
candy-coated chocolate. We all fall short of a standard called “holiness”
in Christian jargon. Edibility, as a concept, doesn’t come from the raw
ingredients. It doesn’t matter if those ingredients are grown locally or
imported from Syria. Throughout theism, in fact, it is clearly taught that God
is the chef.
This isn’t some small side issue. As Christians, our trust in the Lord can have a devastating impact on how we treat others. More, how we treat others can either bring them closer to God or push them further away. Some of the people we push away, if only because we treat them as hopeless outcasts unworthy of our thoughts much less our help, can become terrible enemies rather than wonderful brothers and sisters.
I use that
phrase intentionally, as a Gentile who knows that I have brothers and sisters
in Christ because I’m one with them in Christ. Paul committed his life’s work
to ensuring that we would all know this. There is no Jew or Gentile at the foot
of the cross. If we believe what we say and sing, that every knee will bow,
then there is no "formerly Muslim" or "always been Christian" at the foot of the cross
either.
Let’s talk about Paul for a moment. If this M&M analogy is anything more
than borderline blasphemy from a New Testament perspective, then we would
insist that Saul the Christian Hunter could never ever become Paul the
Evangelist to the world. Never. Once a tainted candy, always a tainted candy.
The problem is far worse than that. Many politically-active Christians aren’t
merely suggesting that Jesus would never intervene in the life of a man like
that on the road to Damascus; more, we shouldn’t trust the words of people who
suggest that our Lord might just work in mysterious ways.
In one of my favorite sermons since I started the Walk The Earth process that
is documented in one of the two podcasts on this feed, the pastor referred to
The Paul Problem. Can we trust Jesus?
Should we believe what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit (John 14-17)? Is it
possible that truly evil people can be transformed by Christ? Really?
I mentioned the answers to these questions early in this article with concepts
like redemption, forgiveness, atonement and faith. To deny the conversion of Saul to Paul (Acts 8-9)
is to deny Christ.
You know, I’ve
seen other memes recently that quote Jesus saying he will deny he knows us
before his Heavenly Father if we deny him in our earthly walks. That isn’t
about what I might call Christian branding, flying our denominational (or U.S.)
flags, singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers” or anything like that. We deny
Christ before others when we say that a poisoned M&M will always be a poisoned
M&M and will always pose a threat that no almighty God or human love could
ever overcome. We deny Christ, proclaiming that we might say his name like some
magic words but have no regard for what he taught, when we call concepts like
redemption into question.
In that sermon more than a year ago, the pastor described the Paul Problem as
the legitimate fear of early Christians about whether they could trust the
conversion rumor they were hearing. Was it just a trick? This was, after all,
the executioner. In Acts 9, the Paul Problem has an Ananias Answer.
This isn’t easy. Ananias was frightened. He had every reason to be frightened.
But he didn’t let his fear overcome his faith, and neither should we.
Christians must not tell the world, wittingly or unwittingly, that our Paul
Problem is bigger than our Ananias Answer. That is where we are right now. American
Christianity is, today, telling the world that the Holy Spirit either does not
exist or cannot intervene. So many of us, too many of us, simply don’t believe
that Jesus can turn tainted M&Ms into something we’d mix into our own candy
bowls.
I’ve said
before in past Inappropriate Conversations podcasts, including some long and detailed episodes, that I am conservative when it comes to scripture. That isn’t
a political statement, and it certainly isn’t any form of alignment with denominational
tradition. It means that I take scriptures seriously.
People look
for shortcuts. It’s human nature. Most of what memes like this one get wrong
are based on the desire to be brief, incisive. (Brief and incisive, clearly,
are not my strength.) It’s just so easy to call a bad thing bad and make it go
away. It’s just as easy, though, to pretend that nothing matters.
Let me
repeat myself. I’m not suggesting that Americans drop their guard. We shouldn’t
act as if the world isn’t a dangerous place. We just need to careful to avoid
the other extreme. If we stop being the things that have made this country
great, and more than just a bit unique at its inception, then what is it worth?
Security, as a word, is all about securing and preserving. That’s the opposite
of giving up the heart of this nation by scratching the words off the Statue Of
Liberty or scrawling “Don’t” as graffiti over the line “send these” in that
poem.
As a Christian, I’m also not making the mistake of saying that just because
Jesus has the power to forgive any sin, that he therefore must forgive any sin.
No, Jesus himself said there was one sin that would not be forgiven. From a
Biblical perspective, it is just one.
“Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is
guilty of an eternal sin,” Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 3:28).
Who is
questioning God’s power in this current situation? Who is denying that there is
a Holy Spirit or implying that there are some things we can’t trust our Lord to
do? Who is denying Christ by refusing to swallow when he says, “Take, eat”?
Mistakes will be made here. Don’t doubt that. Some lives may be lost. Some destruction seems inevitable. We are fallible humans, and we are going to miss something.
All of that can be forgiven. What can’t be forgiven is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I would suggest that denying the redemptive power of Jesus crosses this line.
I’ll
paraphrase something I’ve heard ascribed in the past to David Winter: those who
experience your love today will be much more interested in your faith tomorrow.
What about those who experience our hate today? What will happen with those who
are told that they have to at least pretend to adopt our faith today (even
against their will, in a life or death decision point) before we will extend
even minimally decent courtesy, let alone love?
There are foul tasting M&Ms in our current candy bowl, probably from our
own attempt to save a few bucks and knock-off the recipe. Let’s not pretend
that our biggest problem, as Christians in this nation, will come from external
threats. Some of us are betraying Christ. Compared to that, nothing else
matters.
235: Transactional Friendship
Talkback: Walk The Earth 49
Tomorrow's Edition
Make Up
Sounds Like a Serious Offense
A Belated Happy Birthday
Tithe
Unrequited Love
Third Person
A Simple Yes Or No
Some Assembly Required
Laws Of Motion
A Handful of Hair
Christmas from Crimes Against Food
Where 16 = Forever
Chapter And Verse
Words Per Minute
Authorial Intent
Part Time (March 13, 1986)
Stop The Bleeding
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL