Another Legend Leaves Us

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/02/25/knotts.obit.ap/index.html

There will never be another character even close to Barney Fife...

Tolerance Goes Both Ways

It's been a while. Sorry for the delay. :)

I'm working out my own faith. I came to Christ in September 1999. Not after a long bout with drug abuse or alcoholism or any other horrendous ordeal that brings people to religion. I simply felt an emptiness. A spiritual void. After my mother's death in 1998, I began to question and explore my own mortality, purpose, etc. I investigated Islam and Buddhism but found them...lacking in some way. I grew up in the Catholic Church but ran from it the first chance I got and never really looked back. Yet I still felt an occasional calling to the church...some church, some form of church. I read a lot of books on Christianity and faith and in a small nondenominational church in Columbia, Maryland, I became a Christian. I've since left than church and joined another. It's nondenominational as well but larger and more multicultural and with a dynamic creative arts ministry, just what I need to support my acting habit. I've done okay in the past 6 years of attending and my faith has deepened and my spiritual walk has gotten more interesting. I'm far from perfect, but I try to be a good person.

I say all that because a lot of people feel that Christianity is under attack. I agree, to a point. No one is being persecuted as in other countries or other times in history. But there is a distinct animosity from the secular culture against Christianity. And this bothers me for two reasons.

1. People who disdain religion and people of faith have usually, but not always, had some sort of "bad experience" with it. Some people just don't like it for reasons of their own. But others have been beaten over the head with it in their homes, or accosted by overzealous Christians out to evangelize with fire and brimstone, judgmental messages, or seen the likes of a Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell make some asinine comment or another. They feel that religion is a crutch used by weak minded or uneducated people who can't get through life on their own. People so desperate for something they'll believe in anything. And to a small degree, that's true. There are a lot of people of faith who question nothing. Other people are tired of religious hypocrisy. I understand this. You shouldn't speak out against something you call sinful if you commit that same sin yourself. Perfectly understandable. But what bothers me is that I believe that the mass of Christians are good people who want to do right by God and each other. If you say you're a Christian, though, some people automatically think you're judgmental or a hypocrite or intolerant. Some people find it to be a pack of lies, created millennia ago for nefarious or underhanded reasons, and anyone stupid enough to buy it isn't worth their time. And what's more, they feel the need to TELL YOU that you're full of it or stupid, without getting to know you or listen to what you have to say. Why is that? Why can't a person just believe in Jesus Christ and try to be a good person without a stigma attached to them? If someone becomes a Christian and it makes them a more loving, caring, compassionate person, who is anyone to begrudge them that? It doesn't automatically mean their anti-gay, or antisemitic, or Republican, for that matter. And if evanelism is done properly, it is a dialogue and debate about issues, not finger pointing from both sides. At the very least, if a Christian lives his life as Jesus did, friends and neighbors will see a positive change and want to know more. Sometimes the "Live and Let Live" and "Tolerance! Acceptance!" crowds are at least as hypocritical as the so called Christians they abhor.
2. The other thing that bothers me is that too often, the secular humanists who disdain people of faith have a solid point. The "God Hates Fags" crowd and "Christian Right" groups too often steal the spotlight from Christians who simply love their neighbor, are good and kind to the poor, and compassionate to the downtrodden. The media will bring on a Pat Robertson or James Dobson to rebut some ACLU type or other fringe lefty, neither of whom truly reflect their supposed constituencies. Many of the people in my church are some of the most loving, accepting, compassionate, joyful, and optimistic people you'd ever want to meet. Others that I know are joyless, judgmental hypocrites.

For those of you on the left who think that all Christians are ignorant, intolerant hypocrites, don't be so quick to paint us all with such a broad brush. Many of us just want to be as loving as we possibly can be. For my Christian brothers and sisters, love your neighbor, regardless of their race, religion, political affiliation, sexual preference, or socioeconomic level. Picture everyone as if their were Christ himself and treat them accordingly.