Vitriol in the name of Jesus.

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When dealing with politics in this nation of ours, I am a firm believer that we've lost an ability to discuss issues about which passionately disagree.  We read our liberal or conservative news.  We blog with like-minded folk.  We turn opposing positions into caricatures and oversimplify with sound-bites.  And what we get is...well...we get what we normally see on TV.  It's news as entertainment, all of it preaching to their respective political choirs.

The problem is, we do this in in the church as well.  But here, we're dealing with eternal ramifications.  Those with whom we disagree don't just become "lousy people" but persons who are "non-Christian"-- often meaning "damned to hell."  It could be that church down the road.  It could be the religious group that's taken up a cause with which we disagree (e.g.  against abortion, for gay rights, anti-war, etc).  Even though, though a reading of Scripture and an understanding of how that Scripture is applied to life-situations, we've deemed them to be less than Christian.  We spout out our vitriol in the name of Jesus.

So, it is with some interest that I found this post over at ThinkChristian.net.   It's "Quick Thought:  In All Things Charity" by Todd Hertz:

Last week, I casually mentioned a well-respected Christian ministry to a fellow Christian. With vitriol and definitiveness, he blurted out, “They’re not Christians.”

Unfortunately, I’ve seen enough in our Christian culture—even in the last week—to know this is not some rare ugly example of how Christians can treat fellow believers with whom they don’t agree. Arguments are fine, but why do we seem so quick to turn to hatred, discrediting and exclusivity when we come upon a brother or sister who we deem too conservative, too liberal, too fundamentalist, etc?

I don't want to say that God's truth is a lie.  And I really don't want to say that all truth is relative.  However, I do want to say that we "see in a mirror dimly" at this point and our perspective, out of the nature of our humanity, is limited.  A fair amount of humility is necessary for our Christian interactions  We don't want to claim that we have no understanding of the will of God or the mind of God...but we need to be clear that we don't know "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."  We may be children of God, but we're human children of God and we need to admit that there are persons who passionately love God and with whom we passionately disagree...and that that can be OK.  We need to get a little perspective here.

And yet we are left with the question, "When disagreeing with someone, how do we know when we are disagreeing because we are fearful or disagreeing because we're standing by the truth of the Bible?"