As I write you today, we just elected a new president. It was a historic event for a lot of reasons, and not all of them good I’m afraid. It amazes me sometimes how much hatred, intolerance and judgment those of us who call ourselves Christians can display. I won’t get into the details, rehash any of the negative things that were being said or give any more space to it here than absolutely necessary. Let me state a just a couple of things though, that should be obvious to most of us by now.
1. There is only one God. He is the only one with the power to decide anyone’s destination after they die.
2. I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about Him, His ways or how He thinks (some people claim to). But I think I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that if I go to hell it won’t be because of who I voted for or didn’t vote for.
3. No matter how creative you get with scripture, God has not given anyone the power to condemn anyone to hell. You can use all the “fruit inspector” references you want to in order to justify judging people harshly, but the word of God is clear.
4. God kinda expects most of the hatred, bigotry and negativity happening in the world to come from other people, not His followers.
One of the saddest truths about Christianity is that pretty-much all of the hatred and disdain people feel towards it all over the world is largely due to the actions of Christians.
It’s important for us all to remember at all times that we are representatives of Christ. People get their opinion of Christianity from watching Christians. It’s important we remember that in our day to day actions and conversations. Let’s extend the harmony we put into our music to our fellow man. Let’s try to be more tolerant. More respectful of differences. Whether it be appearance, religion or how someone voted.
Image courtesy of Stuart MilesFreeDigitalPhotos.net
13 Responses to Harmony beyond the music; the importance of tolerance