I’ve been reading off and on No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke and I read through this chapter a second time around making more sense this second time. I must have had a complete sidetracked mind the first time I read this because it’s pretty deep.
Within the last couple years, I’ve gotten this same question quite a few times. “How do you feel about other religions?” Here’s the problem with that loaded question: Christians are known to give the response, “Well, if people aren’t following Jesus then they’re going to hell so we need to save those sinners.” Zero tolerance for anything else but telling someone where they will end up going WITHOUT Jesus. In this generation, we cannot throw out the fire and brimstone to people and expect them to get it.
The underlying question to “How do you feel about other religions?” is really the question, “Do you think you’re right (as a Christian) and everyone else is wrong?” The true answer is, “I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong. But I have faith that Jesus is my Savior that died for me to unload the weight of condemnation I had shouldered so long.” Answering this difficult question open-ended diffuses people’s resistance to listen and allows them to relate to you and actually want to hear your answer since you didn’t fire back, “Jesus is the only way and you’re gonna burn sucka.” The point isn’t to win the debate or discussion, it’s to relate in the discussion. But you can be tolerant and disagree with someone.
An example here would be this. Let’s say I’m buying a car. I like black cars and you like red. You try to convince me red cars are the right cars for everyone because red is your favorite color and black cars get too hot in the summer. There is no right or wrong color – maybe I like black and don’t mind the heat. It’s a preference among a variety.
But let’s say we’re talking about safe, reliable used cars, and I insist that the best car for the money is the Ford Pinto (which Ford discontinued because they blow up!). But I’m a firm believer in the Pinto because I can get a Pinto for $1,000 with less than 20,000 miles on it. Are you intolerant of my faith in the Pinto if you try to convince me that a Honda is a much better value in reality because it’s more safe and reliable than a Pinto? If you say, “Don’t entrust your wife and kids to a Pinto, they blow up when rear-ended at 20 mph. It may be cheap, but it’s dangerous.” Would you a be mean, intolerant person because you didn’t agree with my view that Pintos were the best value for a used car? No – you would caring about me by sharing what you know to be true. Now, if you attack me or my character or intelligence – then you’re not motivated by love but by your need to be right.
