So, tonight on Fb I was invited to take a
survey for a friend of mine as part of his year 12 research assignment. He was
asking some questions about western society and Christianity. It really made me
think and so I decided I’d write a post on my thoughts about it here.
I am half expecting to get slammed by this
but please, please understand; these
are musings and thoughts that haven’t quite reached a conclusion. Or maybe they
have.
Ill begin by letting you know that I have
studied a number of courses in the community service field – Cert 3 in
Community Work, Cert 4 in Family Support Work, and part way through a Social
Work degree (which I really MUST finish). Apart from all of that, I have had
years upon years of therapy, attending various groups for people with
Borderline Personality Disorder, Child Sexual Abuse, and on and on.
What do you think was the one main thing
that all of these places promoted
above all else?
Inclusion! Tolerance! Acceptance! No Judgement!
It sounds great doesn’t it? It really does,
but it created massive problems for me and a warring debate inside my head that
has never truly found a happy medium.
I became a Christian at 5 years old. I was
baptised a year later at my begging and ever since, my greatest love has been
my Holy Father, his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
So, tolerance, acceptance, God – they go
together, right? In some respects, yes they do. But in other ways, they
definitely do NOT.
The one thing that I have really really struggled with is that I am
someone who by nature is very open. I’ll talk to anyone unless I can discern
something spiritually that says the person is really not good for me. I am
someone who doesn’t like to let things get in the way of friendships. I’m happy
to be friends with anyone of different religions; different races; different
orientations, different football teams (except Port Power…. Nah, jokes). It’s
not something that enters my head when I make friends. I don’t have a ‘type’ of
friend the way some have a ‘type’ of romantic partner. I believe in accepting
people as they are. I believe that we can learn so much from other people who
look different, who believe differently to me, who live differently.
Thus, I guess I’ve always had a lot of friends.
You can almost guarantee that I will know someone
no matter where I go. It’s cool like that.
But…!
How does this view of tolerance, acceptance
and inclusion work when you believe with your whole heart that God is The Way?
The God who died upon the cross and rose again for each and every one of us?
God clearly states in HIS text book aka The
Holy Bible, that certain things are just not right. We should NOT accept
homosexuality. We should NOT accept other religions; we should NOT tolerate
things like porn, domestic violence, child abuse, war, paedophilia etc.
He clearly states that these behaviours and
actions are against Him. There is no
question.
And yet, everywhere we go we are taught to
tolerate all of the above. Not only tolerate, but embrace the differences. In
terms of crime, we are taught to be tolerant of the criminal who has had
rehabilitation. To give them a chance to show they have changed. Actually, anyone who has had any type of rehab
should be tolerated and accepted back into the community with open arms
regardless of anything.
It’s so confusing. Especially when I see so
many Christians embrace the latest Christian ‘fad’ (in my opinion) of Social
Justice.
Social Justice in itself is great. Having a
social conscience and trying to right the wrongs in this world, I’m all for it.
I was passionate about it before it became the
latest big ‘thing’. I guess, always being in a minority (foster care,
aboriginal, disability) I have always had a heart for others. I remember as a
kid, our pastor used to bring refugees to our church as he worked with them.
Again, this was before the whole refugee thing was well known. So suddenly,
when the plight of refugees was plastered all over the news and all the Gen Y’ers
were ranting and raving about it, my thought was: “And? It’s been going on for years;
this is NOT as new issue.”
Gen Y seems to think that they are the
first to ever have a bleeding heart for the marginalised. A LOT of the Gen Y
people I know, seem to act like they were the first to ever want to make a
difference… but why do you think I even have this blog? Yes, it’s an outlet for
me to get my thoughts out, but mostly, I use it as a voice for raising
awareness of metal health issues and other social justice issues that affect me…
but mainly mental health.
The thing is though, and I have seen this in
numerous churches – their form of social justice involves going on mission
trips to third world countries. They might be going for a few days or weeks.
They might do some service in the communities they visit. They will come home
wide eyed and changed in themselves. It’s been a brilliant experience for them.
But what about the people left behind?
There is a couple from my church atm who
are doing an indefinite stay in Bali.
I really admire that. THAT is social justice in action. My current church also
sends groups over there to work in the community every single year, creating a
relationship with the people of Bali and working with them not for them in making their community a better place to
be. It’s more than just going there, causing a stir and coming home feeling
accomplished.
I know quite a number of Gen Y’ers who
study international studies and then what do they even do with that?
And another thing: why do people always
have to go overseas to be involved in social justice? Yes, there are a lot of
third world countries that need the help and support, but while everyone is
going there, the people in our own first world countries are suffering third
world conditions and no one pays them any mind bc after all, they live in a
first world country. Do people forget that even here in first world Australia,
we have third world living conditions for the indigenous remote communities? I
have been to communities where people are still living in humpies on the dirt.
I have done my own mission trips with churches to remote areas. I have also
lived on an island in Arnhem Land and been part of a remote community.
And what about the homeless people in our
parks and streets? One thing I love about my church is that they don’t expect
the homeless, the hungry, and the tired, to come to the suburban church. No, ‘we’
(and I say that collectively becasue I did go numerous times) go to where the
homeless are and feed them there. What an honour that is. Unfortunately, it’s
not an activity I could sustain due to weather conditions and my health. But I am
so proud of that ministry.
So, I’ve talked about church groups etc.
doing mission and outreach (mission from my understanding, is going out of your
community to reach others for God, outreach is doing the same thing in your own
community).
I know there are hundreds of organisations
and agencies who are not based in Christianity who do the same.
But Christian and non-Christian, they all ‘preach’
the same level of tolerance and acceptance.
I beg you,
every Christian person who reads this, answer this question in the comments
section please….
How
do u juggle society’s mission of inclusion for all, with God’s decrees of the
biblical way to live?
Because the two do not always go hand in
hand.
My answer is somewhat like this, although
I’m still figuring it all out:
I’ll use homosexuality as the issue. I have
a number of gay friends, they aren’t in my immediate circle of close friends,
but they are in my life. I love them; I learn from them, they are just friends
like all my ‘straight’ friends are.
However, I do not believe in homosexual
relationships. As a good Christian girl, I believe it is something that is
completely against what God created sex etc for.
I don’t judge those friends of mine – you might
wonder how given I don’t believe in it. I guess it’s something I don’t want to
hear about. I think that every person has free choice, free will and they can
choose the actions and behaviours they take. I just don’t like it shoved in my
face. Im not gonna diss the friends of mine who might be gay. They don’t need
that crap in their face! But I don’t want
to know the details about the romantic relationship if there is one.
The thing is, if I had gay friends who were
getting married, while I don’t agree with it, I would go and attend the
ceremony, not because I condone the idea of gay marriage, but because I love the
person/people getting married and I would be truly happy for them.
I’m against gay marriage tho because it is
completely against what God created man and wife to be. I would be utterly sad
if it is approved in our country because I believe it is yet another step away
from God’s Word and his laws for human kind.
So I suppose when it all boils down, I would
support the person but not the action – whatever that action may be. So, maybe
Im being inclusive and accepting of the people, but being Godly
in my judgement of the behaviours????
And on that note, my medication has kicked
in and I must be off to bed. I really hope this post makes sense. It’s hard
when it’s still a bit of a jumble inside my head.
L xo
