Christian Tolerance

[soma]

The following post got be banned from a Christian forum. I guess the post is more true than I could imagine. Thank God for Progressive Christians!!!!

 

Unity is love so emphasis on religious differences, race or intolerance rather than the unity of God is a strange god indeed and can be a challenge for us to overcome so we need to invoke the unity of God in all things. Jesus said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," because it provides an effective answer to the many problems of modern life. This call for love tells us that we are united and that no other person is separate or apart in God\'s spiritual consciousness. Recognizing that we are all one in God\'s consciousness gives us full protection in His unity by integrating our individual life with the world around us and providing a basic harmony and equilibrium in our hearts and minds. This is a kind of insurance from the flood of negativity surrounding us because a relaxed mind and body is positive, priceless and an indestructible way to receive successful ideas and results.

I can see some people's point of view that Christians are intolerant because many are. We all know sincere Christians and they are not the problem, but Crhsitians without love who see Christianity as an ego trip to put others down are giving Christianity a bad name.

[BeachOfEden]

Which Christian forum was this banned from?

[AletheiaRivers]

Ooooohh Soma, seditious stuff!

 

How could anybody be threatened by such a beautiful sentiment? It blows my mind!

 

Aletheia

[des]

What delicious seditious stuff, Soma. :-)

Glad they threw you off so you'd join us.

 

--des

[soma]

It is called Christian Forum. The link is on my other computer I will get it when I can get there. They give you a Christian icon if you are Christian, but they said I was not Christian and said I had to remove the icon. I said I believed in the Niceene Creed and that Jesus was my savior, but they didn't care. I don't think they like me using the term Christ consciousness. I don't see anything wrong with it because it helps me put everything into perspective.

[AletheiaRivers]

LOL!

 

What a horrible forum! Garish. Toon-town.

 

It's like a smiley icon threw-up!

 

Or perhaps the icons "multiplied and filled" the forum when no one was looking?

 

"Click here to bless this participant."

 

"Click here to add to this participants reputation."

 

No wonder it loads so slowly.

 

Aletheia

[BeachOfEden]

"It is called Christian Forum. The link is on my other computer I will get it when I can get there. They give you a Christian icon if you are Christian, but they said I was not Christian and said I had to remove the icon. I said I believed in the Niceene Creed and that Jesus was my savior, but they didn't care."

 

Well, I'd likely last there even shorter then cause I do not even believe in the Niceene Creed.

 

" I don't think they like me using the term Christ consciousness. I don't see anything wrong with it because it helps me put everything into perspective."

 

Evangelicals would think that's New Age and New Age scares them.

[soma]

Sorry it is called Christian forums plural.

AletheiaRivers I think you have been there you described it perfectly with the blessings and reputation stuff.

Thank you for all your support

 

Let us all go on developing methods to understand the universe because with our discoveries we can split apart the physical and spiritual sides of life and gain knowledge because the more we know of the individual things, the more we know of the whole. The relationship between our human nature, the world and the beyond is made understandable, as we perceive that life is a relative and intricate part of an undivided whole. We just have to be careful not to get engulfed by the particular things and lose sight of the total picture. Love you all

[des]

Actually if it is what I am thinking of there is a liberal Christian forum as well. However, whatever software they are using is totally garish! I don't think I could stand the blessing you things, and various points for this and that. There are about 20 different icons under a person's name. Yikes.

 

I don't like animated smilies but the rest of this software is ok.

 

--des

[AletheiaRivers]

Des,

 

It definitely is what you are thinking of.

 

Like I said above, they have icons for "your country", icons for y"our faith", icons for "your gender", icons for "your guestbook", an icon to bless you, an icon to add to your reputation, plus about a half dozen more I think.

 

Technicolor smiley vomit!

 

They do have a gazillion forums, including liberal Christianity, "other" religions and philosophy.

 

But the board is so horrible to look at, I couldn't stand even reading the posts.

 

Aletheia

[Gaston]

Don't feel bad, I lambasted the Christian right on Christianity.com and got banned. I suppose it actually DOES mean that I'm intolerant, though eh?

 

Nah, they just fear us.

 

Gaston

[des]

Funny thing, my Campus Crusade sister says things like "What's so bad about being intolerant". You see the whole thing is they are intolerant about the *right* things.

Yikes.

 

--des

[Ross]

The Christian fundamentalist is in an interesting position. He knows that he is right and the rest of the world is wrong. Why, then, should he be tolerant? Are you tolerant of those who try to promote racial bigotry or sexism? Of course not, because you know that these ideas are wrong. So, again, why should the Christian fundamentalist tolerate other religious ideas?

[AletheiaRivers]

So, again, why should the Christian fundamentalist tolerate other religious ideas?

 

I sat here and thought about that question for a long time. I played both sides of a debate team in my head. LOL.

 

My conclusion? They don't have to be tolerant. No one has to be tolerant about any viewpoint that doesn't agree with theirs.

 

I think my view is better than theirs. I think my beliefs are more right than theirs. But I tolerate their viewpoints because I used to think exactly like they do.

 

5 years ago, I would have absolutely, positively KNOWN that I was right and everyone else was wrong.

 

Now I see that as hubris.

 

IT'S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE.

 

Knowing you are right about God certainly shuts down dialogue quickly.

 

If my soul is at stake, I would think that tolerance on their part would be an important conversion tool. They can still "know" they are right and be tolerant.

 

The thought patterns aren't mutually exclusive.

 

But do they HAVE to be? No they don't.

 

Aletheia

[soma]

I think it boils down to our role model and Savior Jesus Christ. Was he tolerant?

I think yes.

Edited January 20, 2005 by soma

[Cynthia]

Jesus was clearly known for grace, radical compassion (great term from Brennan Manning), and love for people regardless of their persuasion. I don't know about tolerance.... :>

 

The Buddhists have a great saying about KNOWING for sure about anything spiritual: If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. In other words, anything concrete, any expectations will get in the way of your ability to experience Buddha (or perhaps your own Buddhahood).

 

I think that God is ultimately unknowable. We can know our experiences, others experiences, thoughts, etc.... but God is big. He doesn't fit in any box I can conceive.

[Lolly]

Actually, I have some problems with the concept of "religious tolerance". It seems to imply a sort of condescending acceptance, like saying "we know we've got The Truth, but we'll let you play in our sandbox, anyway".

 

I've replaced dialog about intolerance vs. tolerance with dialog about inclusiveness vs. exclusiveness. The model I hold up for myself is that of inclusion... that all are intended to have a place at God's table. It is up to each individual to find their way to that table (or not) and they can get to the table through many different means.

 

Some will fall prey to the voices of bigotry and exclusionism they hear along the way. I don't have to condone this, and I don't. But I can understand that it is just another way that ego asserts itself in its misguided effort to find security, and I can look to myself and see that, in my own ways, I am no better. It may not manifest as bigotry, maybe it's something else, some other fear driven behavior or set of unreasoned beliefs that causes me to act out in ways that harm others... I may not like it, but if I look for it, it's there.

 

This way of seeing things puts us all on the same field, really. It's just that we all have different perspectives, different points of view, based on what we believe is right.

 

But really, I think that when you look at what motivates people, deep inside we all want the same things. We all want to be happy, safe, secure, and we want this same thing for our families. We just have very different ideas about how to go about securing these things that we believe we need.

[Cynthia]

Amen Lolly.