Recently I got complimented on my acceptance of other faiths. I'm a Southern Baptist, but my best friend is a Mormon. I've dated and are good friends with several Catholics. I also number some friends who are various other faiths, including one who worships the Goddess and a handful of Buddhists. They're all good people, they treat me and others well, they're all spiritually minded. I don't agree with a couple of them (For instance, every time I hear about dancing nude around trees, I first want to laugh and then I wonder about mosquitoes and chiggers) but they're all trying to be better people and they're all trying to bring the infinite into their life. I just have to believe that God honors their efforts and is leading them and me to truth. None of us have a lock on it. But I've been thinking about that compliment and what it implied.
     The speaker's subtext to that compliment was that most Christians are not tolerant, that I was somehow a freak among them. I don't think that to be the case. Yes, I know you can't turn the news on without Pat or Jerry condemning someone somewhere for not believing as they do. But the news is misleading. They carry reports about what they think is going to interest the public, however terrible or twisted or slanted that might be. Pat and Jerry make news, but I don't know anyone who has become a Christian from hearing them. (I'm not saying that such people don't exist, but it's odd in my life that I've never met anyone who said either man led them to become Christians through their preaching.)
     However, I know many Christians who practice their faith quietly, who love their fellow man and woman, who work in soup kitchens, who give money to orphanages, who volunteer in hospitals, who give their time and hearts to hospices, who go overseas to work with AIDS victims, who generally live their lives in a truly Christ-like manner.
     Sadly enough I have met so many people who casually dismiss Christianity, who have equaled mean-spiritedness and hypocrisy with the church and who have "moved on" without ever filling that void in their hearts. It's hard to blame them as you hear their stories of pastors who let them down or churches who turned their backs to real needs or church leaders who behaved inappropriately. Many of my Catholic friends have been rocked by the sex abuse scandals that their church continues to deal with. It's difficult to distinguish God from His fallen servants. I understand where they're coming from when they reject Christianity or worse, never even give it a chance.
     So this is my attempt to let you know that God didn't want any of those things done. The worse and greatest thing about God is that He chose to work through people. And people fail. They fail miserably. Sometimes they don't even try. Sometimes they do such horrible things that you get angry that God doesn't stretch out a huge hand and grind them into dirt. I do all the time. But this is why God is God and I'm not. Oh, the world would be a better place in some ways if I were God. There wouldn't be starvation, there would be no disease, and peace wouldn't be a choice, it would be required. However, I doubt my subjects would grow or learn or discover their true potential. Dictatorships are like that: They stifle growth, they strangle love, and they swallow freedom.
     Instead we have this imperfect world. This strange, sad, wonderful, depressing, joyous, bizarre, hurting, healing place filled with all these incredible people who make us crazy, who give us love and pain, who help and hinder. We have a place where we can grow and where we can make a difference. A place that needs us to volunteer and give to charities and help our friends and neighbors and share who and what we are so that we can make this journey a better one for everyone.

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