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A safe topic of conversation
I love a free and open discussion, the exchange of ideas, ideals, opinions and dreams. Even a good, healthy debate is stimulating in the interaction between two thinking people. (Note I said debate, not argument. There is a difference, laid out in the ground rules.)
I know that there are those who live by the rule "never discuss religion or politics" but that maxim is beyond my understanding. To live by such a rule limits conversation to such banal topics as the weather and one's personal regularity.
That kind of restriction is not for me. The weather subject, unless we're in the midst of a terrific storm, is quickly exhausted. "Hot (cold, windy, wet, slick) enough for ya'?" "Yup. You?" Weather's done. Let's not even go into that second one. It's nobody's business, so to speak, but my own.
Unfortunately, neighbors and whom they're dating, neighbors and how much they're drinking, or who's who in bankruptcy court are often the next subject of discussion. I'm sorry. That's just not helpful. Ever.
I am, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, apolitical. I am an unaffiliated voter who, is more often than not, grateful for our secret ballot simply because I don't want to argue the point.
Moving on to the forbidden topic of religion, I can understand why people don't want to discuss it. In the modern definition, arguments about religion are often exercises in futility. Too much folderol about dogma, doctrine and tradition.
"Will I go to hell if I play cards?" "Drink?" "Dance?" "Smoke?" "Cuss?" "Buy a lottery ticket?"
"Should we worship on the first day of the week, or revert back to the traditional Sabbath as stated in the Old Testament?"
"Is it or is it not vital to my salvation that I attend a church where they don't play the piano, guitar or the organ as part of their music service of worship?"
"If I never speak in tongues, or interpret them, does that mean my salvation, my faith, is false?"
These questions and many more just like them are partially responsible for the splitting of congregations, and the plethora of denominations and the seemingly ubiquitous "nondenominational or "interdenominational" gatherings of people of faith.
The danger in getting caught in the minefields of tradition is that we miss the battle for truth, for the absolutes. We "strain out gnats while swallowing camels." (Matthew 23:34) We can even get lost in the discussions about the absolutes. Arguing that grace is a license to sin, or that sin itself was nailed to the cross and there is no longer any sin. We can get lost in the absolutes of black and white, arguing that it has gone to shades of gray. That it's not really lying if there is sufficient justification; it's not really stealing if the one stolen from has more than enough, and I have too little; it isn't lusting in my heart if it's only a picture on a page or a computer screen; or the cry of the modern man - it's not my fault, I was born this way, or my upbringing made me like this; or I can't be held responsible for the damage I have done, I was drunk, or stoned, or my wife/husband doesn't understand me, or fill in the blank. There's enough self-justification to go around.
And then there is the last and greatest debate -- "Surely this God of love you speak of isn't going to let people perish in the fires of hell just because they don't believe what he says?" (It's not a loose leaf edition, folks. The story is told of a young man who disagreed with God's stand on homosexuality, and so made it a point to remove every page of Scripture dealing with that specific sin from the Bibles he found in the night-stand drawer of the hotel rooms he visited in his travels. This, no doubt, should concern more than just the Gideons who placed it there.)
I know that I have likely stepped on one or more toes with these examples. I am sorry. I do not mean to make fun of or to dismiss lightly issues that are of great importance to any one individual. Keep in mind that this is indeed an opinion column, offered by a single individual whose only credentials are my love of my Savior and a careful, independent, daily study of Scripture.
The point of the observation is only to illuminate the minefield that awaits us in a discussion of modern day religion and the warning that this minefield of the peripheral, the traditional and our human tendency toward legalism, may divert us from the core issues of truth and faith. Furthermore, if we get sideswiped or ambushed by allowing that which is true to somehow become false or irrelevant, what happens to our true testimony of the person of Christ, the divine sovereignty of a Holy God who longs to be Father to fallen man, the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the reality of heaven and the reality of hell? What happens to grace? What happens to the personal relationship Jesus spoke about when he said, "I know my sheep and they know me"? (John 10:14
Because that is what I love to discuss. The growth of faith, the daily interaction we can have with a loving Father because of his obedient Son, the confidence that comes when we trust God with a little and he comes through with an abundance.
"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13 (NIV)